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laurelkrugerr · 5 years ago

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Be Intentional About Diversity

Assess your business network and ask: Are my circles as wide-ranging as they could be?

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August 10, 2020 7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

This article was co-written with Ivan Misner, Founder of BNI.

With everything going on in the world today, we thought it would be a good time to take a step back and talk about diversity, and more specifically, about diversifying your business network. Developing a truly diverse network is not only the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do. Because let’s be honest, different people bring different things to the table in terms of who they know and how they might be able to refer or otherwise assist your business.

As we said in our book, Networking Like a Pro, networks are, by nature, clumpy. Human beings have a tendency to congregate and surround ourselves with people who are similar to us, whether by race, gender, religion or professional status. Unfortunately, this approach to networking has an unintended consequence — namely, that we tend to form clusters. This is why it is so incredibly important to be intentional about the way we develop our personal network. A diverse personal network enables you to increase the possibility of including connectors. These are people who cross over in some way between two or more groups of people. The best way to increase the number of possible connections in your network is to intentionally develop a diverse, heterogeneous network that has connections to other clusters of people.

Related: Oprah Sending 500 Copies of Isabel Wilkerson’s Book ‘Caste’ to Hundreds of CEOs and Leaders

If you go with the premise that relationships are the currency of today’s modern business person, then it stands to reason that having an ethnically diverse business network comprised of people who look different than you actually is the next logical step when it comes to building a thriving referral-based business.

But for a lot of people, especially those in the majority, the question becomes: How, as a white businessman (or woman), can I diversify my network and get to know more business people in the African American, Asian or even Latino communities?

That’s a great question and one that, at first glance, can seem daunting to say the least. But as with most seemingly complicated questions, the answer is quite simple: Be more intentional about it.

In other words, as a member of any ethnic group, the tendency is to spend time around more people like yourself. So whatever ethnicity I am, I’m more likely to have friends and business contacts of that ethnicity. And while that’s understandable, we feel that entrepreneurs who diversify their networks — based on ethnicity, gender and a host of other factors — are actually better positioned to be more successful.

As a matter of fact, McKinsey & Company did a report in 2015 (“Diversity Matters”), which determined that companies having a high racial and ethnic diversity are actually 35 percent more likely to perform above their industry’s national median return.

So the question becomes: What can we do to branch out and overcome the gravitational pull we all feel towards spending time around people who look like us? How can we, instead, become more intentional in our actions when it comes to actually meeting and engaging others in different communities?

Another great question, and we have some thoughts….

Recognize that diversity is a process, not a program. In other words, diversifying your network has to be something you want to do and commit to doing on a daily basis. It needs to become part of your core beliefs that you’re going to be intentional about meeting and engaging people who don’t look like you. Anything less than that is almost guaranteed to eventually fail.

Look at your phone and business contacts on social media. Do they all “look” the same in terms of ethnicity, age, education and gender? If so, then keep reading because you might have some work to do. As we said above, diversity is a process, not just a program. This has to be an ongoing process.

Consider volunteering for certain organizations that put you into contact with people who are different than you. This could be as simple as volunteering as a coach for a local sports team, scheduling some time to visit an inner city school during career day or sitting on a local community service board. Just take it upon yourself to broaden the scope of contacts you have with various ethnicities.

Make it a point to talk to people who don’t look like you. This is one that I (Brian) personally started doing two years ago, and I love it! So as a black man in his 40s who grew up in the North but lives in the South, I take it upon myself to talk to ANY white person who may or may not have the same education as me, or who may or may not be in the same physical shape as me, or who may or may not be originally from the North like me. And it’s not a question of patronizing people; I just make it a point while passing them at the grocery store, walking to my car in the parking lot, picking up some Chinese food to say, “Hey, how’s it going?” And depending on the situation, sometimes that leads to more conversation, sometimes it doesn’t. But it gets everyone out of their comfort zone for a bit engaging new folks.

Invite different people of different ethnicities to your networking group. If you’re in a local Chamber of Commerce or a BNI Chapter, this is a perfect opportunity for you to engage others and invite them to your group. For example, maybe you’re out networking and you see a person of color and you decide to implement the previous suggeston. Then during that conversation, you let them know about your group and see if they’d like to attend. And that’s it. Super easy to do, and it is very intentional.

Make this a top-down initiative wherever you are in the organization. For those of you who have employees in your business, this point is crucial. If you want to have diversity in your organization and be more successful as a business because of it, then you absolutely must take the lead and make diversity a “thing.” Which means it is something that people value, something that people do and something that you, as the leader, set as an example on a regular basis for them to emulate.

Hard-code diversity into the fabric of your business. Similar to the previous leadership point, if you’re going to be serious about diversity in your business, we recommend you seriously consider making it one of the core values of your company. Put it in your public material, address it when talking to your team/employees and make it a part of the DNA of the organizational culture so people are crystal clear how you feel about it and how it plays out in your company.

Related: Inclusivity Is More Than Just a Buzzword; It Is the Future of a Healthy Global Economy

It is important to note that there is a subtle but crucial difference between inclusivity and diversity. You may have an organization where the members feel like it is very inclusive, but when you look at it from the outside, does it truly look diverse? If not, you need to be more intentional about being inclusive to create diversity. Diversity is a fact; inclusiveness is a choice. Intentionally acting in an inclusive manner is what creates diversity.

Don’t beat yourself up if you’re not there yet. Maybe you haven’t done these things as well as you could have. But today is the day to start. It’s never too late to do the right thing.

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source http://www.scpie.org/be-intentional-about-diversity/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/08/be-intentional-about-diversity.html

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marymosley · 5 years ago

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RestauRant: Why Dining Out Is No Longer Worth It To Me.

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

It’s taken over fifty years, but I’ve come to the conclusion that the punishment/reward scales have tipped and I am losing my appetite for dining in restaurants. Mostly this is due to what the industry has needed to stay competitive, so I am not here to bash business owners for trying to make a living, it is simply that it is no longer in the interest of my health, budget, and growing intolerance of settling for less.

I wish the industry could do better, but I do not see this ending well.

Having had recently to travel out of town on extended business and family related maters over the past few months put me into restaurants daily. Surely much of it was convenience but then again it isn’t exactly easy to prepare something of any quality without the means to do so. The problem being is that I do not like processed foods that one can buy at a grocery store and simply heat up in a microwave oven. So if I make something, it is always from scratch. At home I only eat organic food, most of which is grown at a CSA I buy shares in. The food is better tasting, it is of healthier quality, and it COSTS LESS! The problem though is I have, for lack of better words, detoxified myself over the past five years from the sterile soil grown commercial farm GMO food that is bathed in chemicals several times a year. Maybe I am a snob when it comes to the food I prefer to eat but it’s my body so I can choose what I put into it.

Yet when being out and dining out, it is a setup for at least one disappointment. I will say that it is not always the case. There are a few family owned restaurants that actually try to be better but the industry suffers some serious flaws:

Price

One spillover cost of politicians giving the highest minimum wage benefit in the United States in the vicinity of where I reside is that the cost of eating out is ridiculously high at nearly all markets, save maybe the dollar menu at chain fastfood joints (A cardiologist’s dream). If two of us dine at any run-of-the-mill restaurant it costs forty bucks for one dinner.

A few restaurants around here are becoming insidious in crafting novel methods to extract money out of their customers. The most underhanded I saw was one place where in the smallest font presented on the menu, in a corner of the menu that most customers did not bother to read, they indicated that on top of the price of the food, there was a mandatory 20% surcharge proffered to cover employee health and 401k benefits. Of course there was no offer to reduce the socially obligatory tip of 18% to offset this surprise. And, thesurcharge is subject to a 9% sales tax. A relative of mine actually confronted one of the employees at this establishment and asked them about the 401k. The waitress stated they do have a 401k, but the company pays no matching contributions of those made by the employee. In other words, the restaurant extracts money from customers to pay for this 401k but is so cheap it grants nothing on behalf of the employees.

My average home meal expense calculated and averaged over the past twelve months is $3.86 per person. Yes, that is a low cost, but when you do not eat Hot Pockets and microwavable frozen lasagna you can eat frugally. And I’ll let you in on a little secret. Humanity made its own food for tens of thousands of years before the creation of a radio frequency, molecule exciting means of heating food. And it was all organic.

Salt

It is nearly impossible to find a menu item having more than three ingredients that is not laden with unnecessary amounts of salt. It is a cheap, bang for the buck ingredient that not only covers adequately for otherwise flavor lacking food but it makes the customer order drinks just to address the ensuing dry mouth. But then again most consumers like salted foods. I unfortunately am not one of them. For me it ruins my sleep and I rapidly gain weight just from one over-salted meal and after a week of this during travels I come home physically exhausted. Excessive salt is more consequently unhealthy.

It does require some creativity and care to craft menu items that have no added salt. I think with most people who formerly consumed high amounts of sodium in their diets, if they abstained completely from it in time their ability to taste food would return and they would discover a preference for salt free dining and have a better ability to taste what is there.

Mediocrity

While there are certainly outliers abound, overall the quality of restaurant food has declined over the years. There is a significant trend toward precooked and processed food that gives restaurants the advantage of lower labor costs and quicker order turnaround. And for the most part it works well for a customer that wants to be served in two minutes as cheaply as possible. The trade off for that is quality and healthiness.

A few years ago a major “Italian” chain restaurant finally admitted that most of its menu items were made outside of the local restaurant. In other words it was made in a factory, delivered to the restaurant, and then boiled or otherwise heated. The pasta was boiled and mixed in with the sauce that was basically out of a bag. They attempted to minimize this embarrassing yet true fact by showing an employee in the kitchen dumping a large bag of pasta into a boiling cauldron of water, claiming it was still inspired by great chefs of Tuscany, or was it Tucson–who knows these days.

A good way to measure the quality of a particular restaurant is to try the underlying meat or fish without the smathering of sauces and cheeses. If it is bland you are being cheated. In all probability you are getting either low quality or you are being fed a T.V. dinner on a plate with a garnish, and charged accordingly. I also saw a Canadian news expose where investigators took DNA samples of what was proffered to be chicken in the chicken breast sandwich of a major chain sandwich shop. A significant portion of this was not chicken but instead soy. Fowl deceivers!

Back in 1997 or thereabouts a friend of mine and I traveled to Turkey. We ate in restaurants where everything they made was from scratch–it was during the spice harvest–and it was astoundingly cheap. Nearly every dinner we had was delicious, bountiful in flavors of which you could often discern nearly each spice individually. Upon our return, he called me about a week later and asked me “Have you noticed the food (in the US) seemed bland after we came home?” I noticed the same disappointment. The food here DID seem bland after three weeks in Turkey and Greece. And then I realized why this happened.

Over the course of our lifetimes the quality of food here declined. While we had different spices and nuances than they Turks did with their cuisine it was apparent that slowly the taste of food diminished. He and I went from our parents having our own gardens to moving toward more industrial farms where the soil became depleted through monocrops and over-reliance of fertilizer and pesticides. It wasn’t until I started eating better quality food that the flavor of my youth began to resurrect itself in my memory of taste. I was lucky to extricate myself from the bland, but it seems, unfortunately, that restaurants did not.

Cheesiness

No, I’m not talking about the cheddar. It’s the over-the-top cross promotion and advertising manifest in chains.

youtube

Does it come with green eggs and ham?

I do not plan to dine with buffoonery such as The Grinch who IHOP managed to finagle into a menu item, or the Addams Family with purple milkshakes or a Registered Trade Mark after a third of the item names at others. I just want a say steamed salmon and mixed vegetables, not a Deadliest Catch(R) King-Kong(R) Krab Salad with Jack Daniels(TM) inspired BBQ Shrimp Munchies (TM).

I might recommend going to an antiques store or if not readily available finding on e-Bay a copy of a restaurant menu from the 1930s. Look at what people ate: Eggs, Pancakes, Tuna Sandwich, Coffee, etc. It was simply normal, ordinary food without the pretentiousness, hype or advertising. Plus, it probably was a menu from small home-town restaurant owned by a guy named Tom and his wife Gwen who “looked the part”. Not some gaudy throwback to a 50’s style diner that was more 1950s than it was in the 1950s and is owned by a Japanese hedge fund.

Aggregation Aggravation

The sum of all these irritants, I finally had enough. As I said in a previous article, perhaps it is more honest of a living to make one’s own meals like a regular guy. It’s better in all respects to pay less for better living and in this case eating at home (which is tax free) as opposed to paying 9.1% tax on 20% service fees to benefit government bureaucracies. I still enjoy though a good cup of coffee, so I might indulge myself with that and an occasional croissant that was accidentally labeled as a quiche lorraine.

By Darren Smith

The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.

RestauRant: Why Dining Out Is No Longer Worth It To Me. published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

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ourceliumnetwork · 8 years ago

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I’m having a hard time concentrating on work so i’m going to blog for a bit.

the sky is very very blue today. and with no clouds either. that’s surprisingly common for where i work. also i’ve been able to wear a tank top for three days straight with very little issue. Are we sure it’s February?

My homework from my therapist this week was to discuss my needs when it comes to conflict resolution, and work on individual tactics with those i come into conflict with the most - read: my sister.

considering I barely talk to her anymore, I’m kind of avoiding the interaction which is my main problem when it comes to conflict.

It would be hella weird to bring it up out of the blue without letting her know she’s been part of the discussion with my therapist which...i feel like would make her uncomfortable.

and slightly more likely to engage in an argument with me which is what we’re trying to avoid.

plus i highly doubt she’ll even try to come up with a solution that works for the both of us, let alone actually follow through with it. which makes me all the more unwilling to actually discuss this with her. why bother when it won’t amount to anything?

OTOH it will work well for when I’m conflicting with other people in my life, or in the case of having an issue with future friendships etc. but that’s not something i need to contact people about out of nowhere.

and mostly i’m just not in the mood to interact with my sister. i never am. she exhausts me and irritates me and honestly i’m just over dealing with her. she and i do not mesh at all. we can barely communicate at family events without getting snippy at one another, and frankly i don’t know that we’ll ever move past that point. but also the only times we see one another now is when we’re at family events. so there’s at least some barrier usually. I just need to not engage with her when there’s not been food for a while, and avoid chatting with her if at all possible because she brings out the worst in me and I literally cannot deal with her.

She is too focused on her status and I’m too focused on not being in an argument for us to get along. I’m done with it and i have zero desire to continue anything more than a distant but congenial relationship with one another. Her boyfriend is fine but I’m worried about him because frankly I think she’s using him. Can’t say anything about it though because it’s not my place.

I just hope he ends up okay whichever way this takes him. At the very least he’s a good guy.

I’m so...I’m so...

Wow my anger levels spiked really high. I also just went to facebook to try and get up the gumption to say hello to her and I just went from frustrated to furious in about 10 seconds flat just from looking at her.

I think I’ll pass on a conversation for today. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Why am I like this? Why is my reaction anger when I look at her or deal with her?

(I know why, I just...I want to be better than that).

The reason is because she was the favorite child of our mom for a really long time. You can’t quite convince me it’s not still the case. She’s definitely the more convenient child.

My parents barely speak to me unless it’s somehow related to work. Or they need something from me. And that’s when I ask them for shit in return because that’s how shit works. You only want goods and services from me? You want to assuage your guilt? Fucking pay me for it bitches.

My mom’s the worst of the two. Which is understandable. My dad’s a disagreeable asshole who’s moderately racist and homophobic. He’s a douchebag and a lame excuse for a father but he was an alright older brother option while growing up. We were close because Mom’s time and attention were focused on my younger sister. Dad and I got along. He’s where I learned all my swears and sex jokes. I tried really hard to be the son he didn’t get. I’m about halfway there but it’s not the same.

He at least asks me how I’m doing. He makes sure my boyfriend and I are keeping our heads above water. He’s trying.

Mom...she gave up a long time ago I think.

She attempts trying every now and then. She feels bad and guilty more often than she actually feels like talking to me. It’s what usually spurs our conversations. But I know for a fact she talks to my sister on a semi-regular basis, whereas I get to talk to her whenever her guilt gets the better of her and she feels like she has the time.

and I’m just not willing to try.

my homework last week was to figure out what I want out of my relationship from my parents. Right now, I want people I can turn to for adultier advice. I want people who will occasionally help me out financially while my boyfriend and I are hoping for him to get a job and we’re existing on my relatively meagre income to pay for our new house. I want people who pretend to care when I’m nearby and who will answer questions I have. I want people who are pretty good coworkers and who don’t mind asking about the rest of my life outside of a work setting.

This is the relationship i currently have with my parents. I don’t actually have parents and I never did. I have distant older siblings who raised me and my sister. I have a friendly couple I feel like I met at a church service years ago and even though I’ve only come back to that church to visit occasionally they’re still friendly towards me.

I have people who call themselves my parents but are really just contributors to my DNA.

They’re just friendly about it is all.

idk.

I don’t hate them and I don’t want to upset our current status quo because frankly I don’t think I can get better from them, and I don’t want to have less than this. I don’t think my heart could take that...

I want to believe we’ll have a normal parent/adult child relationship one day. I just don’t know how far into the future that day will be.

but...honestly I am tired of playing second fiddle to my younger sister and her attention needs. I’m tired of feeling like i’m not worth the time or effort it takes to check in on me and let me know i’m loved and cared for.

i’m tired of feeling like i don’t matter to them until they need something from me.

like...

but how do you tell your parents that when things are otherwise okay between you?

how do you tell anyone that without sounding like an asshole?

so i’ll continue to avoid that conversation, tread lightly near all my familial relations and hope for the best.

apparently this was bothering me more than i thought.

i don’t think it’d be worth the time to bring this up with my therapist at my next visit. we’ve already gone through this sort of thing. it boils down to me wanting feedback on my actions and to know my status in my village.

and frankly they do not serve that purpose for me anymore. because i don’t interact with them. i have my boyfriend and my friends. i have his family and friends. i have the cats. I know my place. I know where I belong and how I’m doing. I don’t need my parents to give me that. I just feel like I do because i’ve been missing it my whole life.

ugh.

yeah this was definitely bothering me more than i thought. i’m working my way through it though. the tools my therapist has given me are helping immensely. I think my next appointment is thursday. might be wednesday tho.

It’s in my calendar. they’ll call me to remind me too.

I’m just..

it’s been kinda a weird weekend brain-wise. i’m working on it.

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untitledcreativeproject · 8 years ago

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Day 4. [3048]

The admin running the RP site gave me a writing discount with the agreement that I would be willing to be a battle mod when necessary. It was much appreciated. Took my 4250 word requirement down to a 3000 word one.

"No, no, you have to scream while you do it," Captain Ginyu coached. "The point of the pose is not simply to pose, but to show off your excellent physique. When you scream, you call attention to yourself and force your opponent to gaze upon you in your full glory." Gatas sighed. This newest technique that the Ginyu Squad was trying to show her seemed utterly pointless, but each member had struck a different pose before insisting that she choose at least one to learn for her own benefit. Of the five, this one looked the least ridiculous. Now they were expecting her to scream while doing it? She shook out her arms to limber up before striking the pose again, this time voicing her irritation in the form of a primal bellow. "Yes, just like that!" Ginyu roared with approval as the rest of his squad cheered and applauded. "Again!" A few more practice runs of the move and the older Shikirian was sufficiently satisfied that Gatas could execute it properly. Each time brought another round of applause from the other four warriors, but on the final rep Gatas heard another slower clap continue after the Ginyu Squad had ceased in their celebration. She turned to see that a tall and imposing green humanoid now stood in between Burter and Recoome, a steady smirk on his face. "Well done," he said. "I haven't seen you around here before, so I'll assume you fell into league with this motley crew because you're new and you didn't know any better." Gatas raised an eyebrow but said nothing. The Ginyu Squad may have been an eccentric and rowdy bunch, but they had been nothing but respectful and helpful to her since their meeting. "Oh, how rude of me," the green man laughed. "I forgot that the newcomers usually haven't heard of me, since I came and went before their time. I'm Perfect Cell." "Oi, back off mate. She doesn't wanna talk to you." "And she hasn't yet," Cell said. "Come on now, you old dogs are running out of tricks to teach her anyway. Don't think I wasn't watching. Aside from Ginyu's body swap maneuver and Guldo's fancy time stop trick, what do you really have to offer her besides the one pose she just chose to learn out of the five you were offering?" "Er..." "Thought so!" Cell looked to Gatas. "Come now. I see you're interested to learn more powerful techniques for your own sake, and I'm probably more qualified to teach you than anyone else down here." "What makes you say that?" Guldo interjected. "Because, my dear Bas-jin, my genetic makeup includes DNA and information from all the greatest heroes of our time. That means the same people and the same attacks that killed all of you," Cell paused, gesturing vaguely in Ginyu's direction, "well, most of you, are inside of me. And my fathers, who art mostly in heaven, had all the best moves." "Mostly? What about the rest?" Jeice couldn't help but ask. "Well, don't act too surprised when I tell you this, but someone you know was also a major contributor to the magnificence that is me. His dad, too." Cell smiled, his gaze passing over the five members of the Ginyu Squad in turn. "You don't see the resemblance? I may not be as pale or as purple as them, but you could say I'm a little... King Cold-blooded?" Recoome snorted. "Hehe, I get it." "Anyway, enough of that. You're more than welcome to join me, if you're interested in picking up a few new tricks. Even on the off chance that you are interested in what I have to teach, I could point you in the direction of other potential trainers." Cell began to walk away from Gatas and the Ginyu Squad, looking back over his shoulder once he was several paces away. "I'll be making my rounds shortly. The decision is yours." Gatas looked around at the quintet, nodding at the Captain and Jeice before she left to follow the slowly retreating form of Perfect Cell. Catching up quickly, she fell into step, walking slightly behind and to the right of the bio-android. "No, no, with me," Cell said, slowing his pace until the Shikirian woman was walking beside him. "I can't keep talking to you if you're way back there, and I don't think I can expect to have you carry the conversation." They continued at a leisurely stroll through the various parts of Hell, slowing down or stopping entirely any time the powerful bio-android found someone of import to comment on. By that notion, Gatas was quick to observe, Hell was full of important people. "Not much to see around these parts," Cell commented. "The majority of the rabble that frequent this area are some of Frieza's men. Most of their names aren't worth remembering, but-- oh, wait a moment. That one over there, with the green hair? That's Zarbon. He almost killed Vegeta once. I know Vegeta is probably one of several Saiyans with the same name, being named after their home planet and all, but I'm talking about the Vegeta. One of my main sources of DNA. His power never quite lived up to Goku's, except maybe in moments of extreme rage, but I do appreciate having some of his genetic code. Glad I didn't get his hair, though. That widow's peak would have clashed horribly with the rest of my face. "I'm surprised Dodoria isn't hanging around today if Zarbon's around. Dodoria's not very bright, but he likes to use his head. In a much more literal sense, I mean. The spikes aren't just there for decoration. I'm sure you understand that. If I had horns, I'd certainly use them. It would be like an homage to Frieza's encounter with Krillin," Cell chuckled. The two continued their walk. Hell was by no means empty, but it managed not to be crowded even with all its inhabitants. Still, hardly a minute passed without Gatas and Cell seeing another damned soul. Gatas spotted a few Shikirians that she recognized from their race's big brawl earlier and waited for Cell's commentary, if any was to come. "Ah yes, your race. Fascinating, really, that trick Ginyu has up his sleeve. It kept him alive much longer than the rest of his squad, though I'd hardly call it living if you're stuck in the body of a Namekian frog for almost the whole time. I hope you put the move to better use than that, if you have the opportunity. But then again, I don't know what your plans are. Did you want to go back to the world of the living eventually, or is this it for you? Just gonna spend the rest of eternity in the afterlife?" Gatas's brow furrowed. She hadn't considered the possibility of there being a way to come back to life; she merely accepted that she had died in battle, as was the ideal for her race. Now Cell was telling her that she could go back to life as a soldier? Gatas had heard of the legendary warrior Goku and how he and his allies managed to come back from death time and time again, but she had no allies she believed would be willing to wish her back to life. Another rumor she had heard involved a Tuffle of some renown on planet Namek, who had supposedly died in battle and then reached back from the dead to claim his enemy's life. She had more battles left in her, that much was certain. Did she want to go back and pick up where she left off? She could claim more victories, and more victims. The war couldn't possibly have ended in the brief time that she'd been gone, and her victory against Lute meant that if she returned, she was guaranteed intel on other high-profile targets. On the other hand, it seemed that she still had much to learn in Hell. "Oh, that's hilarious," Cell said, interrupting Gatas's bout of introspection. She followed his gaze and saw what had caught his eye. A tall, broad-shouldered figure in the distance was hard at work plowing a massive field in the shade of an equally enormous tree. "A Shin-jin in Hell, and taking up farming by the looks of it. I wonder what old Yema had to say about him when he came through the checkpoint for judgment." Filing Cell's comment about returning to life away for later, Gatas climbed up a hill after Cell to get a better view of the tree. A Saiyan sat at the base of its trunk, picking his teeth with a bored expression on his face. The bio-android's eyes lit up. "Turles! Now, he wouldn't be anything special if not for that tree he's guarding, but he's been snacking on those fruits for a while now. They've got a lot of juice, I hear." Cell snorted at his own pun. "Too bad he has nothing to offer in the way of innovative techniques. Let's move on. We may have eternity, but I'm not going to waste any of it watching plants grow if I can help it." The pair descended from the hill the same way they came, then took a left to continue into new territory. "It is a shame, you know," Cell commented. "So many new souls condemned here day in and day out, and of the minority that are strong enough to even retain a physical form, even fewer still have any worthwhile techniques for me to observe. I hear there's a war going on back on Earth. Where are all the warriors?" Further travel was quiet for a while. Gatas wasn't sure whether it was a real lack of any notable fighters passing or if Cell had suddenly lost his enthusiasm for being her unofficial tour guide. She glanced his way and saw that he was silently counting on his fingers over and over. Occasionally he would mouth something, frown, then start counting again. Their pace continued to slow as Cell completely stopped paying attention to their surroundings, eventually stopping entirely in the middle of a clearing. Gatas looked around and then back at him, unsure of how to proceed. Minutes passed. "You know what we need?" Cell announced suddenly as Gatas was just about to give up on him and wander off. "We need an Afterlife Cell Games." "What?" Gatas said, a bit louder than she intended. Cell's intensity in breaking the silence between them had startled her. "Well, I wasn't always the perfect being I am today," Cell began, his voice taking on a narrative tone. Gatas got the distinct feeling that she would soon regret giving him the chance to monologue. "I came into existence in an alternate timeline from this one. Unfortunately for me, my original timeline made it impossible for me to achieve this form, so I had to hijack my way into a timeline where it was possible. Once I'd managed that, it was just a matter of absorbing my android siblings into myself and becoming whole. And let me tell you, that was quite the fiasco thanks to Son Goku and his little friends. "Anyway, it was after I achieved my perfect form that I realized there had to be some way I could truly test my abilities to the fullest. And what better way to do that than to hold a tournament to lure out the world's strongest fighters? Thus the original Cell Games came to be. Of course, it was me versus the world back then; this time around I think a standard elimination-style tournament will suffice. We'll just have to see how many people want in." Cell tapped a finger on his chin, his elbow resting in his opposite hand. "I'm sure Frieza will want to participate, and maybe his father. I'll go ahead and invite Turles too; we can see how much stronger the Tree of Might's fruits have really made him. Oh, and Raditz will show up whether I ask him to or not, I know that." Cell scoffed. "He's like our Yamcha." Cell pushed off and took to the air. "I suppose we can worry about the guest list later. Our first order of business should be finding a suitable spot to build the venue." A pause. "You can fly, can't you?" Gatas responded to Cell's question by jumping up to hover beside him. "Ah, good. You know, I've watched people try to learn how to fly from that meathead Recoome before; I can tell you haven't learned it from him. Anyway, we're looking for two things. One is a big field, which won't be too hard to come across. The second will be harder to come by, and that's a big plateau that I can use to make the arena." They passed up several large tracts of land, each rejected by Cell for not being scenic enough. After he began to grow irritated by his lack of viable options, he settled for one of the spots he'd previously rejected, leveling some nearby hills to expand the space to his satisfaction. A similar compromise had to be made for the arena's building material; finding no single rock big enough, Cell settled for razing part of a nearby forested area to construct the arena out of wood. At each corner Cell positioned a large spike taken off one of the steep and unforgiving mountains to give the main stage the dramatic flair he wanted. Calling everyone together was just a matter of Cell amplifying his voice to announce the tournament. The competitors came in droves, amassing around the arena. Gatas stood next to Cell in the arena as more and more fighters joined the crowds. She tried to pick out some fighters that she thought would do well in the tournament, but as the assembled populace grew, she instead began to wonder how Cell intended to organize such a tremendous turnout. She wasn't left to wonder for long. Clearly marking his own time, Cell waited for a while before calling everyone to attention once more. "Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone outside or in between! Welcome to the second ever Cell Games. We have quite the crowd out here, and I'm sure you're all itching for a good fight, so I'll keep it brief. This tournament will have two main components, and we're about to begin the preliminaries." Cell fell quiet for a moment, appearing to focus his concentration. The tip of his tail, still retracted near the middle of his back, widened significantly, and with some effort produced five smaller and bluer versions of the bio-android. There came a mixed reaction from the parts of the crowd that could see what had just occured, though it was mostly shocked outcry or cheering. The five Cell Juniors turned to their sire for direction. "Hello, my perfect children," Cell greeted them. "You all know the Multi-Form technique as well as I do, isn't that right?" The Juniors nodded. "Well, look around you, my sons. All these people have come to meet us, but there are just so many of them. If you all split up, I'm sure you can manage to say hello to everyone. Do you understand?" The Cell Juniors nodded emphatically and suddenly the five of them became twenty. Cell addressed the masses once more. "Congratulations. You've all been officially entered into the preliminaries. Anyone left standing once my precious children have all been defeated will qualify for the actual tournament. The preliminaries begin...." Cell drew out the pause to its greatest effect, waiting until the tension in the air was at its peak. A thought occurred to him and he looked over her shoulder at Gatas. "Wait, were you planning on participating or just spectating?" Gatas considered for a moment, then shrugged. "I'll watch." "Fair enough." To the crowd once more. "...Now." At his word, the multiple Cell Juniors leapt out of the arena and into the assembled masses. Chaos ensued. The sound of hundreds of combatants clashing together permeated the vicinity, and Gatas smiled. It was a comforting sound. Cell floated up to get a better vantage point of the slaughter, and the Shikirian woman followed him. "I wasn't sure if I wanted to participate or just sit back and watch for something good," Cell commented. His tone was purely conversational, as if he had just given Gatas the weather forecast for the day. It was a stark contrast to the mayhem below. "So I gave myself the best of both worlds. I automatically get a bye in the first round, so when the real tournament starts I get to scope out every one of my potential opponents. Not that I need the advantage, really, but if any of them have techniques worth learning I may get to observe them sooner rather than later. I imagine that's what you're still here for, after all." Gatas nodded. "Hey, do you mind grabbing me a drink from one of the vendors?" Cell asked. He pointed towards the outskirts of the battlefield where a line of food trucks had set up shop. Gatas's brow creased. She hadn't noticed them until now. How quickly had they set up shop? "I'm in charge, so it's on the house. You can grab yourself something too. This may take a while." All in all, there were still nearly a hundred survivors once the last Cell Jr. was taken down. Cell appeared undaunted by that outcome, quickly drawing up a massive tournament bracket and getting the first round of fights under way. Several hours and trips back and forth to the vendors for snacks later, there had still been no techniques used that were impressive enough for Cell to take notice. Gatas yawned. While she was curious to see who would eventually emerge victorious, she was starting to feel antsy. She didn't know how well she would have fared against some of the fighters she'd already seen, but she felt a pang of regret at turning down more chances to fight. Suddenly Cell sat up from the lawn chair he'd been lounging in, almost spilling his fruity drink in the process. "There! That's the move we've been waiting to see!"

[Running Total: 5,930 words]

#Untitled writing project #year 2 #rp stuff #creative writing

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douglassmiith · 5 years ago

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5 Things You Need to Know About Acquiring a Business

You can’t become a market leader through organic growth alone. Here’s how to think about acquisitions strategically.

April 8, 2020 7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When it comes to looking for advice on how to get acquired, there’s a lot out there — 405 million Google entries, to be exact. When it comes to advice on how to acquire, however, the results are fewer and are predominantly process-based, not strategy based.

You can’t become a market leader through organic growth alone. Google has made more than 200 acquisitions in its 21 years, the first being just three years after it was incorporated. Those doing the math can see that that’s about 10 acquisitions a year. To get the speed and breadth needed for scale, even 200 percent year-on-year organic growth won’t cut it. The knowledge and capabilities that come with acquisitions dwarfs anything that can be done on your own.

Related: When Acquiring a Company, Don’t Forget About the People

In my company’s 10-year history, we have undergone seven M&As and are continually looking for new opportunities that fit our business goals. How we’ve made this work isn’t because of the usual tactics of due diligence and negotiating on price (though of course someone here was responsible for that). The decisions on who and when to acquire are based on much more personal and personable reasons. Here are my tips.

Get M&As into the DNA of your company

Before you start looking at and judging external companies, it’s time for some self-reflection. To get M&As right, it comes down to the DNA of not only the company you’re acquiring but also your own. If your DNA doesn’t support acquisitions, then any deal is likely to fail. My company made our first acquisition with a staff of seven. The company we acquired had 30 employees. To others, that may seem like a risky move and an easy way to lose control, but making your DNA support M&As is like training a muscle — the earlier you start, the stronger it becomes. Early M&As signal to your team that even great companies can’t do everything alone. If you build the muscle too late, your team won’t be as ready to accept others into your company.

Go after a good business, not a good deal

It might seem like semantics, but the difference between the two words is important. A good deal refers to the acquisition price, but when we talk about a good business, what we mean are the people and the culture. You can get what’s considered a good deal on paper, but in reality the culture of the acquired company does not fit your own and the likelihood of future success is zero to none. A successful acquisition goes beyond the Excel sheets and the revenue charts. Buying a company that’s a good deal isn’t wrong all the time (and is a step that my company has taken), but it’s important to be honest and upfront with yourself. Post-acquisition, you’re going to face challenges integrating the two companies into a single collaborative working unit.

Related: How to Make a Successful Acquisition to Grow Your Company

Do due diligence with the people

Doing your financial due diligence is an obvious step in the acquisition process, but the most important and often overlooked step is to do due diligence with people. Spend time not only with the CEO but also with the wider team. Understand the company’s culture and learn how decisions are made. What’s the group intelligence of the business you’re acquiring? Find out how they dealt with and recovered from past failures. Did they learn from them or repeat them further down the line? Does it evolve, is it steady or declining? Talk to the people. Being personally interested and inquisitive about the people in the company. Spending time with the team, observing them and noting how they interact with one another will tell you more about the character of the business you’re acquiring than any additional meeting with the CEO will.

Get out of your comfort zone

Making yourself feel vulnerable is a hard step to take, but it’s a critical one. Meet people in their office as opposed to your own. Yes, you won’t have the home court advantage, but when you’re out of your comfort zone, you can better analyze how you feel about your potential new partners. If spending time with the target company doesn’t make you feel good, it’s a telltale sign that this is not a good business for you. I’ve personally walked away from good deals when spending time at the other company didn’t feel right to me. But it’s not just about spending time with the people. Taking the conversation away from the boardroom is critical. Spend leisure time with them, meet their families and see how they interact away from the office.

Be willing to pay up front

If you’ve done your due diligence, spent quality time with the target company and are still happy to move forward with the acquisition, the level of conviction should be so high at this point that you’re ready to give up on normal protection mechanisms like down payments and earn-outs. This is my company’s policy, and I feel strongly about paying everything up front on day one.

Of course this policy doesn’t work for every company, but I believe in true partnerships. You can’t build one while holding a gun to someone’s head and telling them to reach certain goals. Is it nontraditional? Yes. Could I get burned? Maybe. It is risky? No. By paying up front you’ve given your new partners the option to walk away, which means that if they’ve chosen to stay it’s for the right reasons. The first day after an acquisition is now like day one of a startup, working with people who are in it together.

Related: 10 Factors To Consider When Making An Acquisition

Will this work in 100 percent of acquisitions? Probably not. Statistically you’re likely to make a mistake, just as you could make a mistake if you did enforce protection methods. Given that, I believe that the upside of the successful acquisitions with this approach far outweighs any upsides of going down the traditional route.

When you’re buying another company — unless the acquisition is for a unique technology — what you’re really buying is the brains behind the operation. These are the people who love and believe in what they do and have made the company the success that it is today. It’s personal because it’s about your gut reaction. It’s personal because you all have to get along. If you wouldn’t sit in a coffee shop chatting about a new startup idea with these people, then the deal, no matter how good it sounds, is not for you.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

Via http://www.scpie.org/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-acquiring-a-business/

source https://scpie.weebly.com/blog/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-acquiring-a-business

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riichardwilson · 5 years ago

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5 Things You Need to Know About Acquiring a Business

You can’t become a market leader through organic growth alone. Here’s how to think about acquisitions strategically.

April 8, 2020 7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Related: When Acquiring a Company, Don’t Forget About the People

Get M&As into the DNA of your company

Go after a good business, not a good deal

Related: How to Make a Successful Acquisition to Grow Your Company

Do due diligence with the people

Get out of your comfort zone

Be willing to pay up front

Related: 10 Factors To Consider When Making An Acquisition

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-acquiring-a-business/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/614858304888487936

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scpie · 5 years ago

Text

5 Things You Need to Know About Acquiring a Business

You can’t become a market leader through organic growth alone. Here’s how to think about acquisitions strategically.

April 8, 2020 7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Related: When Acquiring a Company, Don’t Forget About the People

Get M&As into the DNA of your company

Go after a good business, not a good deal

Related: How to Make a Successful Acquisition to Grow Your Company

Do due diligence with the people

Get out of your comfort zone

Be willing to pay up front

Related: 10 Factors To Consider When Making An Acquisition

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-acquiring-a-business/

0 notes

markoprljic · 5 years ago

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Mentoring at Diffusion Hackathon

On the 19th and 20th October at Factory Berlin some of the world’s most important Web 3 protocols and leaders in blockchain, from across The Convergence Stack came together for a 2-day in-person dev con made up of hacks, exclusive product launches, and live demos.

About the hackathon

Diffusion Hackathon is a two-day event with the focus on the practical application of open-source distributed ledger technology, smart contracts, machine learning, and programmable tokens, to create a new data layer. It brought together leading decentralized projects and their tribes, developers, economists, system engineers, enterprise and technical academia to define the next major web cycle.

Hacking is based on The Convergence Stack which is Web 3 protocols in blockchain, AI, IoT, and Big Data.

Leading practitioners from cryptography, machine learning, smart contract dev, IoT, systems engineers, and crypto-economics were exploring the implications of deploying new technologies and distributed systems in complex and challenging fields such as smart cities, Industry 4.0, and Mobility.

How can you leverage the Convergence Stack to do Good, with a capital G? How do we create an infrastructure for collaborative knowledge networks? How do we create Crypto-economic systems that will allow us to establish new rules and economic incentives for blockchain ecosystems? What can you achieve with machine learning with the ever-growing open datasets that decentralized systems themselves produce? How do we enable access control in decentralized systems? How do we share data over a trusted network, without losing time, reducing trust and ownership? How do we make every interaction that a user has with a smart contract understandable and safe? How do we onboard the 99% of developers and organizations who are not into Web 3 yet?

These are just some of the questions that Diffusion hackers were seeking answers to at selected hackathon tracks:

A Stack for Good: your moonshot for a better world (this one had some really great projects)

ETHBerlin and the DoD: community improvement bounties

Web 2.5: onboarding the rest of the world to decentralized technology

The Odyssey Serendipity Network: growing a network of ecosystems

Token Engineering: (re-)invent economic mechanisms by using simulations

Machine Learning in the Decentralised World: opening the AI silos

Shaking Up the Model: data and compute in different places

Sharing in Consortia Networks: permissioned, tokenized data sharing with T-Labs

The Usable Stack: new and better ways to use Web 3

Identity and beyond with Hyperledger: credentials for digital trust

Mentoring and Hacking, why not do both?

The moment I heard about Diffusion got me really excited and I knew I wanted to be there, either as a hacker or a mentor. Since I mentored at ETH Berlin Zwei two months earlier I figured it would be best to continue in the same direction, so I applied ... and got accepted!

I was mentoring about User experience (UX) - for projects that build a product that will be used directly by people, e.g. a DApp or a service. My initial track of choice was The Usable Stack (new and better ways to use Web 3). A word about the track from the organizers:

It’s been ten years since the inception of blockchain, and using crypto and DApps is still hard. Too hard for the widespread adoption it deserves. Things are getting better: there are many great initiatives to make accessing DApps easier for new users, such as Metamask, Portis, and Torus, but to an extent, these are only scratching the surface of great Web 3 user experience. How do we not only lower the barrier of entry but make every interaction that a user has with a smart contract understandable and safe? As we extend the usage of distributed ledgers from simple value transactions to elaborate smart contracts and realize an open data economy, how do we provide ways for users to interact with it, without creating new centralized gatekeepers?

Web 2.5 (onboarding the rest of the world to decentralized technology) which I call The Liminal Web has been my second choice because it tackles the problems on how to assist people in transition from current Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 looking at current problems and future scenarios from user perspective, how we communicate the value, find the best product-user fit and offer the tools needed to make that transition.

Our Hack-along crew was also participating and since I’m close to them on a daily basis I was also considering hacking along.

My mentoring duties have been priority and I scheduled my calendar to listen to some interesting talks which I outline below.

Into the talks ...

Enterprise interest in blockchain

Customer need: Uncertainty and complexity prohibit adoption of DLTS We have a lot of people who are not familiar with BC and can easily deploy their node.

Stax:

dApp

Connectivity

Payment

Data verification

Storage

Identity

Security

Our aim is to create a network of devices and don’t need to enable your data every time, just once.

Odyssey: ecosystems for good

Rutger van Zuidam gave a talk about the Odyssey hackathon, the bigger picture, vision, mission and explained the process and approach in building new ecosystems for mass collaboration.

Notes from the talk...

Odyssey hackathon is used as a time-traveling device. Portal of the future opens and co-create with your future clients future solution and take it back. What can you do with it after the hackathon?

We’re building the infrastructure for ecosystems for mass collaboration.

Complex challenges:

Multitude of stakeholders

Borderless + Interconnected

No one can hold all the information

Not:

Linear, top-down leadership

Money

Who thinks that the Amazon rainforest is your responsibility? What can you do about it? What is the best tool to use it and how do we scale it? How do we incubate all the ecosystems in solving together all these problems? Complex challenges like these need all stakeholders. The ecosystem awareness that can allow people to act on the whole. Group A is not building something for Group B, Group A is building for Group A, we’re all part of a greater whole.

The emergence of the collaborative layer of the internet. An operating system for our global society. Ecosystem + Token = New market. The ecosystem grows, the cost of collaboration drops and creates new business opportunities.

How can you validate green energy going into the grid but without installing IoT devices? Vattenfall brought their competition on board, everyone from the ecosystem, all stakeholders. They all go and do the hackathon and program through a transformation. Then you encounter a new world together. If the team come to the hackathon to build what they planned to build then why did they come to the hackathon?

From hyper-competition IQ to hyper-collaboration EQ (emotional) and SQ (spiritual).

More and more emphasis is put on the human processes which make the difference and sets the DNA and culture of the Ecosystem. It allows people to understand each other, that’s what we’re looking for.

We need board members to understand the complexities of the 21st century and find a bridge to get onboard.

Fission talk: licensing open-source software

Open-source licensing evolution.

What does OS mean? Lcinscing, community, voting, democracy, mob rule?

Definition of OS:

Legal innovation of licenses

Way of working together in code, collaboratively, asynchronously, remotely (large corps did this)

Ideology of code re-use & sharing (gentle versions of)

Commons-based peer production: Lot’s of people work on it, everybody benefits from it and people can build on it even in revenue-generating fashion.

Open source is not a business model.

Why do you choose a license? Is it because of distribution, free labor from contributors, lock it open?

We forgot about a lot of stuff we fought 15years ago. Devs and biz people don’t spend much time which licensed they pick and why?

The copyleft (against copyright). GPL (don’t need to share your changes in code, keep it closed) and AGPL (mus share changes back).

Apple is moving from Bash to Zsh because of licensing, it’s GPL v2 and the new version uses v3. This is to think about licensing in business context.

Licensing innovation is in fact one of the definitions of OS. Cloud providers are making record profits from OS contributors.

Should we licenses who restrict others to do business even call licenses? It’s really weird when your biggest competitor is running your software (Amazon)

License Zero

Licensing as a business model, pay attention to this. Parity and Prosperity are two new licenses. Sell licenses over command line to individuals and companies. Automatically get licenses if you sponsor on Patreon or Github sponsorship.

Do you think current open software licenses are the best we’ll ever have? NO!

Cross License Collaboratives: “Maintain your projects and create shared moneymaking opportunity without any company, foundation or dictator.”

If we can get China and India into open-source collaboration. Just number wise it would be huge!

Anti 996 License - releasing software to companies to comply with local labor regulations.

Data Ethics We start seeing people saying “Maybe I don’t want FB and Google have all my data with them?” Blockstack - Can’t be evil as opposed to Google’s “Don’t be evel”, but it’s not just about the technology. It’s about principles like Fair data scotiey, Local First Software and licences like Cryptographic Autonomy Licences, Icepick.

If we start tunning our own IPFS local servers we’re saving server resources, which saves us a lot of money. - Constellation provider

Step 1 from going into production should from your laptop! Give developers tools to keep date user-controlled.

Why are we not making smart contracts that are deployed once, audited once and we can all contribute to them, in an open-source collaborative fashion? Where we have a global shared rich environment that we should make us of.

Into the hacks...

Here are a couple of projects that caught my attention. You can browse all teams and projects here.

Fission Live

Host your app from your laptop.

Fission is building a backend-as-a-service that will include hosting, database, identity & more. Their service lets you instantly update files, directories and obviously websites directly to IPFS and serve them anywhere.

At Diffusion, they’re launching the first piece, FissionLive. FissionLive allows you to host your app, whether it’s a static website or a Single Page App, directly from your laptop.

Here you can follow the steps and try it yourself (I’m installing it as I write this). Having not much technical background it was super easy for me to set it up. Thanks to Boris Mann and Brooklyn Zelenka who worked hard on this to ship it before the hackathon started. Go, try it out!

Spekboom

I met Denham Preen outside at the courtyard and he explained to me the idea behind the project they’re hacking. They figured there’s a plant called Spekboom in the Karoo of South Africa that provides one of the most cost-effective carbon offset solutions. It grows on the eroded ground and you basically can’t do anything with that plant or the soil on which the plant lives. So why not make use of it?

Spekboom (aka Portulacaria afra) is a succulent that helps fight air pollution. It has the ability to 'sequester' or capture four to ten tons of carbon per hectare! Essentially, it acts as a carbon sponge, absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and turning it into plant matter.

They built a system that connects plantations and farmers (landowners) to everyone allowing to buy carbon credits

Plantations are always for sale as NFTs. Holding an NFT continuously generates verifiable carbon credits (ERC20 tokens). Corporations can burn carbon credits to transparently showcase they are carbon neutral. The Harberger tax received from the entities holding the always for sale NFTs, flows directly to the farmers for income and the upkeep of the spekboom plantations.

They used Ocean protocol to implement functionality where Carbon generation and Carbon use data gathered from our use-case. This is our step toward kick-starting a Data Economy!

To show where the spekboom plantations are they used FOAM to enable a crowdsourced map and decentralized location services.

CarbonCreditsClub (name of the team) won several awards at the hackathon and very well deserved. Kudos to the team: Denham, Jason, and Jonjon.

https://devpost.com/software/assetnomics https://carboncredits.club/

Hack-along

Mentors were allowed to participate in the hackathon, so I took advantage of that although I did not contribute that much as I wished. I was part of the Hack-along team (Liminal Village) together with Josh, Thomas, Pavle, Vlad, with a partial presence from Jakub (a very smart guy from Prague).

The system being designed intends to co-opt short term extractive behavior into long term resilience for people and planet via a triple bottom line of people, planet and profit. We want to outcompete (hyper)capitalism.

We split the pie (funds/resources) on the streams via a monthly proposal process that deploys a splitter. Personal streams are transferred directly to your personal wallet. Local streams go to a community DAO that uses liquid pledging to allocate funds into internal projects (like co-budget). The global stream is for when personal and local streams reach their cap when this happens excess overflows into ecosystem partner DAOs.

What's next for Hack-along? Harmonization phase back at the Village to tidy up and integrate various parts that have been contributed from a pluralistic whole.

We’re already forming new teams and doing preparation work for the Odyssey 2020 Hackathon.

Closing words

This hackathon was good, quality content, very knowledgeable people, very good tech being showcased and used, great talks (mostly technical) and great organization all around. Kudos to Jamie, Charlotte, Aron, Matt, Scott and everyone from the Diffusion team. I’m looking forward to the next hack!

#diffusion2019 #hackathon #blockchain #iot #berlin #ux #convergence #stack

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webart-studio · 6 years ago

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What I Realized After I Misplaced 180 Lbs. — However Went $1 Million Into Debt

I received management of my physique weight, however in the meantime my enterprise was struggling.

December 13, 2018 6 min learn

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their very own.

On the age of 17, I weighed 365 lbs.

Inside 18 months I shed half my physique mass, dropping to simply 180 lbs. Throughout these 18 months, I ate like a bodybuilder and labored out every day. I pushed my physique to new limits, and as I look again practically a decade later, I am pleased with what I achieved.

Associated: What Being Embezzled Out of $5 Million Taught Me About Forgiveness and Transferring on

As a result of I used to be sad. I had constructed a number of profitable companies at a time most individuals had been ending highschool, however I did not respect what I had (and I wasn’t pleased with who I used to be). I needed to grow to be a brand new model of myself so badly that I dedicated to shedding all that weight. Every day I wakened with imaginative and prescient and drive, dedicated to working towards my aim (it doesn’t matter what).

This era taught me quite a bit about myself: what I am able to, how I might spent most my life self-sabotaging myself, the consequences self enchancment has in your thoughts and physique. I felt like a brand new individual, however life was removed from excellent.

I misplaced 180 lbs. however gained practically $1 million of debt.

As the load dropped off, my success in enterprise appeared to go together with it. I slipped into practically $1 million of debt, and needed to actually rebuild my life from the underside up. It was a troublesome interval for me, mentally, bodily and emotionally.

I felt like an enormous failure, however my weight-loss appeared to anchor me.

I knew I had made many errors, however I may additionally see what I used to be able to. I noticed how highly effective (and essential) it’s to have persistence, perseverance, motivation, drive and a imaginative and prescient.

My bodily transformation gave me the idea that I may rework my enterprise. It helped me construct the psychological toughness I wanted to beat the debt and begin yet again. It confirmed me that it doesn’t matter what, you have got the to energy change your fortunes, as long as you deal with these three crucial components.

Associated: How This Entrepreneur Bounced Again After Shedding a Partnership, Laying Off Her Workforce and Coping with $100 Million at Stake

Life is not an obligation. It is a chance.

Life’s a curler coaster, and entrepreneurship makes your complete experience an entire lot crazier. It is intense, filled with ups and downs … and I’ve spent my total life using it.

By way of the great and the unhealthy, there are three key components to self-improvement that you might want to have in abundance always: dedication, endurance and dedication.

In the event you lose sight of those three issues, it is easy to lose sight of what you are doing. You may wander astray and slip into debt, placed on weight, flip to the bottle or no matter your model of self-sabotage is. You start to play the sufferer and have a look at life as an obligation.

However, it is not — life is a chance.

No matter your state of affairs is correct now, you have got a chance to develop and study. Slipping into debt is a chance to rise from the ashes and construct one thing higher. Being 365 lbs. is a chance to remodel your physique and educate your self what you are able to.

As I look again, I notice that is what I did once I misplaced all that weight. I had tried beforehand and failed, as a result of I did not have the dedication, endurance or dedication.

However, this time it was totally different! I ended self-pitying and taking part in the sufferer, and determined to take motion. I needed to grow to be somebody higher, and all of it started by pushing out my consolation zone.

Associated: She Needed to Hearth 35 Folks on Her Second Day on the Job. This is How She Dealt with It — and Her Recommendation for Rebuilding Belief.

Your consolation zone is the place self enchancment goes to die.

As a species, we crave consolation. It is in our DNA: to keep away from harmful conditions and really feel secure at any time when doable. In order individuals, as soon as we discover consolation, we cling to it. We all know we now have an issue, however consuming makes us really feel higher. So, we proceed to eat as a result of it is comfy.

Every day our mind convinces us to remain inside our consolation zone, as a result of every part outdoors is frightening and harmful. So, we create tales in our head that every part is okay. We complain, play the sufferer, blame different individuals, say we’re unfortunate, get indignant and pissed off, and switch to issues that make us really feel higher, and customarily stroll via life blind. As a result of being blind to our drawback is less complicated (and safer) than going through it.

However, that is no approach to reside your life. And it’s no approach to construct a enterprise.

As an entrepreneur, your consolation zone is your greatest enemy. You can not reside inside it, and you will need to break away from it each single day. So lengthy as you have got these three key components to self enchancment — dedication, endurance and dedication — you have got all you want to take action.

It is to not say it is easy, however with these three components you have got the facility to do something.

Associated: 5 Massive Lies That Block Your Progress — and How one can Conquer Them

Self enchancment as an entrepreneur is essential.

Your life is sort of a story, and you’re the one writing it. As you do, your story will ebb and circulate. Generally the phrases come simple, and different occasions they do not. Some chapters want main modifying, and a few will stay a piece in progress.

That is superb. Always you have got the facility to show a clean web page right into a phrase of artwork.

It took me shedding half my physique mass to understand this, and to understand what I am able to. It confirmed me how harmful “consolation” is. It gave me the abilities to construct the companies I’ve right now. It ignited my development mindset and helped me develop as an individual. It taught me how essential self enchancment is, not solely to grow to be the very best man I can, however to push and problem myself as an entrepreneur so I can fulfill my goal and imaginative and prescient.

Slipping into practically $1 million of debt wasn’t enjoyable, nor was shedding 180-plus lbs. However, it is made me who I’m, and it is all a part of my journey.

What occurs to you is a part of yours, so by no means let go of your dedication, endurance and dedication. It is all you might want to evolve to the following degree.

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laurelkrugerr · 5 years ago

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5 Things You Need to Know About Acquiring a Business

You can’t become a market leader through organic growth alone. Here’s how to think about acquisitions strategically.

April 8, 2020 7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Related: When Acquiring a Company, Don’t Forget About the People

Get M&As into the DNA of your company

Go after a good business, not a good deal

Related: How to Make a Successful Acquisition to Grow Your Company

Do due diligence with the people

Get out of your comfort zone

Be willing to pay up front

Related: 10 Factors To Consider When Making An Acquisition

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source http://www.scpie.org/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-acquiring-a-business/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/04/5-things-you-need-to-know-about.html

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ronaldmorton · 8 years ago

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Problems and Solutions with Cocker Spaniel Eyes

Eyes of melted chocolate: This is the way many describe the Cocker Spaniel eye. Those gorgeous eyes also come with their fair share of difficulties. Here is your guide to problems and solutions with Cocker Spaniel eyes. (note: Most of this information applies to all breeds of dogs and mixed pooches, so read on):

The Basic Anatomy of Cocker Spaniel Eyes

Eyelids and Eyelashes: This is the outermost portion of the dog’s eye anatomy. The eyelids and eyelashes keep debris and dust out and they also help with the cotnrol of light rays entering the eyes.

Conjunctiva: A thin membrane called the conjunctiva covers the sclera. Sometimes when there is an eye injury or respiratory issue, the conjunctiva becomes inflamed. The conjunctiva is thin and located near the front of the eye.

Sclera: The whites of the eyes, and this is something we as humans have in common with dogs: We both have whites of our eyes.

Iris: This area is responsible for the amount of light that enters the dog’s eye. Looking at the dog’s eye as above, the dark center is the pupil, the colored ring is the iris and outside of that the white sclera is located.

Pupil: The darkened black part of the eye that dilates or constricts to either allow more or less light to enter the eye. In the dark, the pupil dilates whereas it constricts in a lighter environment.

Common Cocker Spaniel Eyes Problems

Glaucoma

Glaucoma deals with the fluid in a dog’s eye. Unfortunately, Cocker Spaniels are among the breeds most affected by glaucoma. All eyes have a certain level of pressure to maintain, called intraocular pressure. Glaucoma causes an increase in the intraocular pressure. As the disease takes hold, pressures build and most often, there are no outward symptoms until there is extensive eye damage.

There are four levels of glaucoma based on the stage of the disease: Class IV is very early glaucoma and Class I means the eye is enlarged and the eye is blind.

A stable intraocular pressure in a normal eye is 15-25 mmHg. There are both primary and secondary types of glaucoma, which a qualified ophthalmologist can discern.

Diagnosing glaucoma includes:

Measuring the intraocular pressure

Visually examining the drainage angle via gonioscopy (Note: gonioscopy is the only test available to diagnose closed-angle glaucoma or hereditary narrow glaucoma).

Symptoms of glaucoma:

Excessive tearing

Yellow or green eye discharge

Red eye

Pupil enlarged and does not move with light shone on it

Frightened pet or pet who is irritable (due to pain) – they may even snap or bite

Keep reading because we will share what you as the pet parent can do and how to stay one step ahead of this eye disease and others to keep your pet’s vision as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

CLICK THIS: Here is an image of acute glaucoma in an American Cocker Spaniel, with an intraocular pressure of 55 mmHg in the Merck Veterinary Manual.

Cataracts

Do you see a cloudy haze forming on your Cocker Spaniel’s eyes? It might be cataracts. Simply stated, cataracts cloud your dog’s lens. Sadly, Cocker Spaniels are one of the breeds with a higher than usual propensity to develop cataracts.

Inherited cataracts generally appear between the ages of one and four years. The spot on the eye with the cataract is an area the dog cannot see through. Cataracts may stay as a mild form and not enlarge while other times they can grow slowly or even cause blindness or lead to other eye problems.

Unless the lens of the eye is surgically removed, there is no universal cure.

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Diagnosing cataracts includes:

A complete ophthalmologic examination, which will assess if the dog has vision loss and if there is any other eye issue(s) or nuclear sclerosis occurring.

Symptoms of glaucoma:

Cloudiness on the eye, which may appear whitish, blue, or grey

Bumping into things, seemingly not aware something was there; walking with nose to ground in some dogs

Diabetes mellitus may cause cataracts, and if this is the case, increased water consumption (polydipsia) with increased urination (polyuria) may result.

Do not let a cataract go without being managed, assessed, and treated by the dog’s veterinarian, or even better, a veterinary ophthalmologist you see at least yearly.

Cataracts that are untreated can slip (luxate), flat around the eye, block fluid from draining, and even lead to glaucoma and blindness. Cataracts that are untreated and begin to dissolve can cause terrible pain and/or eye inflammation. Read more about older dogs and cataracts.

Knowing what a normal eye looks like in your dog will help in potentially seeing an issue in the eye.

Optigen and Cataracts

So prevalent are cataracts in Cocker Spaniels that a molecular genetic study of inherited cataracts in the Cocker Spaniel has been underway.

Cocker Spaniel parents simply take their dog to have their eyes examined and submit a blood sample to help find a DNA marker to eliminate cataracts in Cockers. This, in turn, helps humans who are affected by cataracts.

Interested Cocker parents can call OptiGen at 607-257-0301 or email at [email protected] for questions about sample submission. Also, visit the Optigen website for complete details.

According to long-time Cocker mom and pro, Debi Lampert Rudman, “There is NO SUCH THING as PERMANENTLY CLEAR cockers. Yes – you read that right.”

She says that the term “permanently clear” with regards to the eyes of a Cocker Spaniel was “made up by cocker breeders many years ago as something to say when their 8 year old cocker had a good clear eye exam.” However, Rudman says it is not a medical term.

When Rudman recently attended an eye clinic for Cockers, Dr. Gustavo Aguirre at the University of Pennsylvania, told her that no other breeds use that term. In fact, he says the term “permanently clear” has been a major contributor to the current eye problems in the Cocker Spaniel breed overall.

The Merck Vet Manual says that in dogs, cataracts that are secondary related to diabetes mellitus are increasingly common.

So why say it at all? Rudman shares that when Cocker eyes are not tested beyond 2 to 4 years of age, those dogs are being bred with the potential for hereditary cataracts. The older dogs are perfect candidates and carry a great wealth of knowledge to the DNA cataract marker research.

Have your older Cocker Spaniels tested for sure and send results with the form to Optigen.

Don’t use the term “permanently clear” she says.

CLICK THIS: Images of cataracts in a dog from the Merck Veterinary Manual.

Cherry Eye

We have way too much experience with this anomaly of the Cocker Spaniel eye: Our first Cocker Spaniel had this condition in both eyes.

All dogs have a third eyelid and this is completely normal. That third eyelid is called the nictating membrane, or sometimes the “haw.” The pigmentation of the haw varies in dogs, but one thing is for sure: There seems to be a higher than normal rate of Cocker Spaniels affected with cherry eye, dubbed so for the cherry looking nature of the gland when it protrudes.

It can be painful if left untreated because this gland is exposed and can get irritated or inflamed. It may also itch the dog, and as dogs do, he will rub his face on something to try and stop the itch. The gland is also responsible for tear production, so the dog is at risk for issues with that if not addressed.

Diagnosis and symptoms can be made by a qualified veterinarian. Back in the 1990s when our first Cocker had cherry eye bilaterally (both eyes), the treatment then was drops. Drops did not work and so the vet actually removed both glands under anesthesia. This procedure is no longer the norm, and it can cause a flurry of other issues: Namely dry eye and the problems that arise from it.

CLICK THIS: A complete slide show of dogs (including a Cocker) with cherry eye can be found at this veterinary website.

Our dog’s littermate, McGee, had cherry eye in his first 2 years of life, which was corrected by tacking (suturing) the gland back into place.

Every now and then, my dog’s third eyelid pops out and I have learned a technique to pop it back into place. It is rare that this happens, so I do not recommend you poke around your dog’s eyes and put your fingers near him unless you are certain what you are doing and why.

This is the video I discovered years ago that helped me massage the gland back into place. Keep reading, there are products to help, too!

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Eyelashes: Distichiasis

Those beautiful Cocker Spaniel eyelashes can also be the source of problems if the dog is affected with distichiasis. Dye to the direction the eyelashes grow, they may touch the eyeball surface. Due to this and how harsh the contact is, dogs can suffer from any number of conditions including ulcers, abrasions, inflammation, and eye tissue infection.

Diagnosis is by examination, sometimes with magnification, fluorescein staining if the cornea, and tear duct assessment to survey for damage. One study in our research reports that English Cocker Spaniels may have a genetic link, although there is no permanent conclusion.

Conservative management includes keeping the eye lubricated or even removal of the portion of the eyelid that is causing the most issue (seek a veterinary ophthalmologist for this). Electoepilation to destroy the follicles causing the issue can also help. Our first Cocker had this condition and we treated it with special lubricant with success. Each dog is different. You may not be able to even see the offending lashes.

Cocker Spaniel eyes are oh so expressive.

Eyelid Abnormalities: Entropion and Ectropion

Outward drooping or rolling of the lower eyelid describes ectropion while entropion is when all or part of the upper or lower eyelid turns itself inward. (my mnemonic device is “en” for inside).

Both conditions may have a hereditary factor, and most experts agree that breeding of these dogs should be discouraged.

Veterinary diagnosis and treatment is essential.

Of the two conditions, ectropion is the more mild one and may be managed and treated with eye drops, unless surgery is needed for ongoing issues.

Entropion may be treated with surgery, ointments, and drops. A qualified veterinary ophthalmologist should perform delicate surgeries of this nature since a risk is removing too much tissue and causing ectropion to develop.

If you made it this far, there are three other common eye issues that affect Cocker Spaniels, though there are more. These are the ones we have experienced and seen in our lifelong Cocker Spaniel passion and ownership.

Dry Eye

Painful and itchy, Cocker Spaniels affected with dry eye need veterinary help. Dry eye is what it sounds like: a drying of the tears that are needed to lubricate the eye, keep infection away, and provide the oxygen and nutrients of the eye. Without tears, the eye is compromised.

The medical term for dry eye is Keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS).Dogs may get KCS from other infections of diseases, as a secondary problem, or from a condition of the tear glands. Even injury can cause dry eye.

One of my favorite resources, The Cocker Spaniel Owners’ Medical Manual, notes that some Cockers get dry eye while on sulfa drugs or atropine eye drops.

Diagnosis of dry eye is with the Schirmer tear test, a normal result which merits 15 mm and 25 mm per minute. Any dog that is under 5 mm per minute is a dog with dry eye.

Here is a Golden Retriever undergoing the Schirmer tear test:

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Redness and inflammation are generally present in a dry eye and the eye is itchy. Medications like prednisolone acetate and Atopica may be used until tear function is restored. In the meantime, artificial tears as recommended by your Cocker’s veterinarian or veterinary ophthalmologist are likely to be used.

Progressive Renal Atrophy

One more eye disease that has a higher rate in the Cocker Spaniel breed is PRA (progressive renal atrophy). Night blindness and an increase in reflectivity of the retina are two signs of PRA. There is another type of renal atrophy that occurs, called central renal atrophy, but for this article we are showcasing PRA.

Early on, dogs may bump into things. Cataracts can occur in dogs with PRA, so Dr. Brown recommends an electroretinogram be done before cataract surgery in Cocker who may be blinded by PRA.

In her book, The Cocker Spaniel Handbook , Caroline Coile, Ph.D., writes, “This condition is progressive and affects both eyes. Nothing can be done to prevent or slow it. It is not painful.”

PRA progresses into day blindness and the dog will eventually go blind.

Conjunctivitis

When the mucous membranes of the eyes are inflamed, conjunctivitis occurs. Whenever the suffix -itis appears on a word, it indicates inflammation. Any number of things can cause inflammation of the conjunctivae of the eyes.

Things like dust, pollen, airborne irritants, distemper, and even other viral diseases can cause conjunctivitis. An antibiotic ointment is generally prescribed. If antibiotics do not help, the concern is a Staph infection. Overall prognosis is very good in this condition.

Cocker Eye Emergencies

Some conditions of the eye are more serious than others, just as they are in people. These are the eye emergencies Dr. Brown says require “immediate treatment by a competent veterinarian.”

Acute anterior uveitis

Acute corneal ulcer

Acute blindness

Anterior lens luxation

Blood in the eye

Bulging eye

Chemical keratitis

Corneal laceration

Descemetocele

Eye foreign body

Glaucoma

Optic neuritis

Traumatic proptosis

It is your job as a diligent dog parent to monitor your dog’s reactions, outward appearance, and behaviors. If you know what is normal, or baseline, you will be prepared when things are outside the norm.

Maintenance Products for Dog Eyes

Have a rinse/flush on hand and in first aid kit:

For maintenance and flushing a dog’s eye in general, I always have an eye rinse on hand like this one from Only Natural Pet:

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For dry eyes, you need something to lubricate the dog’s eyes, so this is a product we have used on our Cockers under veterinary care:

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Many dog eyes, including Cocker Spaniel eyes, get tear stains. These wipes can help:

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Vetericyn Ophthalmic Gel: Love this stuff for the eyes of my Cocker Spaniel as needed:

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Terramycin: Treats conjunctivitis and secondary bacterial inflammatory conditions of the eye – check with your vet:

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I love sunglasses to protect my eyes from the sun, and these can even help your dog out in the same situation thanks to Doggles!

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Eye Heal: Treats and Prevents Eye Infections in dogs

Puralube: Used to prevent eye dryness and to soothe irritation

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Cocker Spaniel Eyes Maintenance

Having your dog’s eyes examined with a baseline by your regular veterinarian is a start. For dogs like Cockers who have a history of known eye issues as a breed, seeing a veterinary ophthalmologist for a baseline examination can be helpful.

In addition to the Optigen test listed above, what was once called CERF (certified eye registry foundation) has evolved into the OFA Eye Evaluation. OFA is Orthopedic Foundation for Animals. The OFA eye exams take place in special clinics, sometimes at a dog show, or even in veterinary offices or with a veterinary ophthalmologist.

Our dog, Dexter, went to an eye clinic several years ago (2011) as a baseline. It was held at a local firehouse and a team came through with a board certified veterinary ophthalmologist. With a few droplets of a solution in each eye, a veterinarian will assess if your dog is affected with a number of eye diseases. For breeders, this is important, as it is for dogs in the show ring. For pet parents, it is a convenient way to get a baseline on your dog’s eyes.

The OFA eye certification exam does not provide complete ocular health assessment, but it does provide a good eye screening exam. The exam is done about a half hour after pupil dilation drops are placed in the eyes.

These are the actual results from our CERF eye clinic testing.

Can Foods and Supplements Help?

There are foods that your dog can consume for overall good health, and that includes for the eyes.

Here are 7 foods that will naturally support your dog’s vision

The folks over at Natural Awakenings have some good ideas on how to include foods that are good for canine eye health.

Over at Whole Dog Journal, they write that cod liver oil has dramatically lowered intraocular pressure in rabbits, humans, and other animals, and oils rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as flax seed oil, also help lower pressure.

What about carrots? Carrots are rich in valuable vitamins and minerals. Low calorie, nutritious, and dog parents love them as an alternative to higher calorie dog treats. Of course, if you have an anti-vegite for a Cocker as I do, consider the Veg-to-Bowl food mix from Dr. Harvey’s. We have been using it for years as regular part of our dog’s diet. (it includes carrots)

Be cognizant of the size of the carrot or the piece of carrot you give your dog so that he or she does not choke on it.

Helpful Links

OPHTHALMOLOGY-RELATED WEB SITES:

Do some more reading. We spent hours and hours researching some of our favorite Cocker Spaniel eyes and dog eyes websites, and here are a few we like and use:

American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists : These are public resources and helpful links

The Blue Book (all 1,003 pages of it): A book that encompasses ocular disorders presumed to be inherited in purebred dogs

Canine Health Information Center

Eye Evaluation Criteria from the Orthopedic Foundation of Animals, as discussed above (OFA)

Eye Registration Resources from ACVO:

Geriatric Eye Changes: Normal or problem?

Not all eye changes are due to age. Sometimes puppies or young adults can get eye issues. This is why diligent dog parents need to have a baseline screening of their dog’s eyes as least yearly. If there is a breed like the Cocker Spaniel in question, it is helpful to seek the services of a veterinary ophthalmologist for a baseline screening and beyond.

The ACVO published a very helpful guide about some of the common age-related eye changes to watch for in your dog.

CLICK THIS: Your Dog Needs Bifocals Guide: Dog Geriatric Eye Changes

Conclusion

I could write an entire book on the Cocker eye, but suffice it to say that eye issues are a concern in the breed. As much as we’d like to know if our Cocker Spaniels’ vision is blurry or his eyes feel itchy, dogs just can’t tell us.

Since eye problems may or may not present themselves in a front and center fashion, we’ve outlined some preventative measures and things to ‘look out’ for in your favorite pooch/pooches:

Are your dog’s eyes frequently bloodshot, bulging, or appear swollen? Don’t use over-the-counter human eye medications. Have those baby blues (or greens or browns) examined asap by the vet.

Although tempting, it’s not in your dog’s best interest to let his head hang out the window while riding in a car. Fragments, dirt, and debris flying into Rover’s eyes while traveling even at a low rate of speed can cause serious damage or injury.

Does the eyelid appear to be turned inward or outward? Never attempt to fix these problems, as more damage can be done. Call the vet.

Fido face first. Since dogs tend to sniff the ground and tackle their immediate path face first, the cornea can easily be scratched. Redness, watering, and pawing at the eye may ensue.

A cloudy and/or bluing of the eyes may indicate glaucoma, so a vet visit is in order.

Any sort of growth or formation, especially if causing an inability to close the eye, requires urgent attention.

Discharge or excessive tearing may be signs of infection or a blocked tear duct or may cause irritation to underlying skin. Refer to the vet.

Disturbances in vision and/or early signs of blindness may include bumping into things and your pooch may seem confused. The earlier this is checked out , of course, the better.

Be the best dog parent you can be, and make regular eye screening and maintenance a part of your Cocker Spaniel’s regular routine.

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