A True Inspiration: Dream your dream and it turn's into a reality

Any time anyone tells you that a dream is impossible, any time you’re discouraged by impossible challenges, just mutter this mantra: Tererai Trent.

Of all the people earning university degrees this year, perhaps the most remarkable story belongs to Tererai (pronounced TEH-reh-rye), a middle-aged woman who is one of my heroes. She is celebrating a personal triumph, but she’s also a monument to the aid organizations and individuals who helped her. When you hear that foreign-aid groups just squander money or build dependency, remember that by all odds Tererai should be an illiterate, battered cattle-herd in Zimbabwe and instead — ah, but I’m getting ahead of my story.

Tererai was born in a village in rural Zimbabwe, probably sometime in 1965, and attended elementary school for less than one year. Her father married her off when she was about 11 to a man who beat her regularly. She seemed destined to be one more squandered African asset.

A dozen years passed. Jo Luck, the head of an aid group called Heifer International, passed through the village and told the women there that they should stand up, nurture dreams, change their lives. Inspired, Tererai scribbled down four absurd goals based on accomplishments she had vaguely heard of among famous Africans. She wrote that she wanted to study abroad, and to earn a B.A., a master’s and a doctorate.

Tererai began to work for Heifer and several Christian organizations as a community organizer. She used the income to take correspondence courses, while saving every penny she could. In 1998 she was accepted to Oklahoma State University, but she insisted on taking all five of her children with her rather than leave them with her husband. “I couldn’t abandon my kids,” she recalled. “I knew that they might end up getting married off.”

Tererai’s husband eventually agreed that she could take the children to America — as long as he went too. Heifer helped with the plane tickets, Tererai’s mother sold a cow, and neighbors sold goats to help raise money. With $4,000 in cash wrapped in a stocking and tied around her waist, Tererai set off for Oklahoma.

An impossible dream had come true, but it soon looked like a nightmare. Tererai and her family had little money and lived in a ramshackle trailer, shivering and hungry. Her husband refused to do any housework — he was a man! — and coped by beating her.

“There was very little food,” she said. “The kids would come home from school, and they would be hungry.” Tererai found herself eating from trash cans, and she thought about quitting — but felt that doing so would let down other African women. “I knew that I was getting an opportunity that other women were dying to get,” she recalled. So she struggled on, holding several jobs, taking every class she could, washing and scrubbing, enduring beatings, barely sleeping.

At one point the university tried to expel Tererai for falling behind on tuition payments. A university official, Ron Beer, intervened on her behalf and rallied the faculty and community behind her with donations and support. “I saw that she had enormous talent,” Dr. Beer said. His church helped with food, Habitat for Humanity provided housing, and a friend at Wal-Mart carefully put expired fruits and vegetables in boxes beside the Dumpster and tipped her off.

Soon afterward, Tererai had her husband deported back to Zimbabwe for beating her, and she earned her B.A. — and started on her M.A. Then her husband returned, now frail and sick with a disease that turned out to be AIDS. Tererai tested negative for H.I.V., and then — feeling sorry for her husband — she took in her former tormentor and nursed him as he grew sicker and eventually died.

Through all this blur of pressures, Tererai excelled at school, pursuing a Ph.D at Western Michigan University and writing a dissertation on AIDS prevention in Africa even as she began working for Heifer as a program evaluator. On top of all that, she was remarried, to Mark Trent, a plant pathologist she had met at Oklahoma State.

Tererai is a reminder of the adage that talent is universal, while opportunity is not. There are still 75 million children who are not attending primary school around the world. We could educate them all for far less than the cost of the proposed military “surge” in Afghanistan.

Each time Tererai accomplished one of those goals that she had written long ago, she checked it off on that old, worn paper. Last month, she ticked off the very last goal, after successfully defending her dissertation. She’ll receive her Ph.D next month, and so a one-time impoverished cattle-herd from Zimbabwe with less than a year of elementary school education will don academic robes and become Dr. Tererai Trent.

300 Mistakes and Counting..............

I Recently read Chetan Bhagat’s “The 3 mistakes of my life” a story about three down the street, regular out of college struggling young boys with different passions but similar motive, the motive to help a young boy succeed. In the story the characters have to deal with religious politics, earthquake, riots, unacceptable love and their own mistakes and the mistakes of others. The book has some real life events and the main premise revolve around those events. It is a good and engaging read right from the very beginning but in the end it becomes a little vague and feels like as if one is reading a movie script. I STRONGLY recommend “The Three Mistakes of my life”. It’s heartening and feel-good. Do give it a try if you’re down with a bad mood and I’m sure it’ll lift your spirits.

After reading the book, I kind of felt that it pointed out some mistakes within our theoretically diversified, yet single minded society, our complex system and us as individuals. This book made the youth wary of some things which we take for granted. I also felt that it made some points the country is, or was going through at the time the book was written:

1. Smaller town people Vs Big city miscreants
2. Conservative mentality of people
3. Extremism in politics and Religion
4. Prejudice towards agnostics and atheists
5. Poverty amongst the brighter lower-middle class
6. Money is power and power is success
7.Unprotected sex without worrying about the consequences
8.Offbeat ideas receive suppression
9. Lack of sports education/infra-structure in schools and colleges
10. Completely study oriented schools
11. Businesses are extremely risky
12. Swanky malls with poor construction designs
13. Drift between religions, castes and age groups
14. Conservative and Stereotyped mentality of parents
15. Hypocrisy among public, politicians, and everyone alike
16. Lack of awareness, foresight and ideas due to lack of quality education
17. Smaller schools lack funds and money in everything
18. Heavy mugger-friendly curriculum
19. People just want to earn, and passion for anything is dead
20.Prodigies and talented folks are mostly unrecognized and all that dies away as unharnessed potential
21. Male dominated society
22. Selfishness and greed
23. Blind love causing drifts
24. Giving too much importance to cricket trhan other sports
25. Blaming others for your failures
26. Harming innocent people for your self-interests
27. Moral wrongdoings

28.

29.

30.

Well, these were some 30 mistakes I could think of the 3 mistakes of my life had pointed out, there are plenty and I can go on; maybe write another book following this one but I personally believe that mistakes can be the most powerful teachers you will ever have. Success can be more gratifying, but it is often the mistakes that show you the need for new values and behaviors that will make the greatest difference in your life. Mistakes help you learn what works and what doesn’t work. The day you realize that you have committed a mistake that day is your first step of the process to success. For example Children will keep falling and getting up until they finally learn to walk. They are not afraid of falling, because their mistakes are part of the process. Make room in your life for mistakes and you will know the value of success and enjoy it when it comes to you.

I myself have committed mistakes all the time in all shapes and sizes of different shades and my count just not stops at 3, it’s probably 300 and counting………….

It's the 8th

Time has flown, it seemed like just yesterday I packed up and said goodbye to family and friends in India and hopped aboard united airlines, the last united flight from India, to make a new life in Amreeca. Well that was 9/11/2001. It’s been incredible eight years. I have grown since then, I have gained so much experience, made many friends and lost few. I have gained lot of knowledge both good and bad. I have learned a lot and have become wiser. It has been truly great so far but I will never forget 9/11.

To wind back 8 years ago on this day, US had been forever changed by a senseless act of terrorism. 8 years ago, the world around us changed in dramatic and unprecedented fashion and in ways we are still discovering. While our collective pain has become less, individual pain remains sharp and our collective consciousness remembers. Let us never forget the way it felt that day. We will be touched by September 11, 2001 for the rest of our lives in ways I cannot begin to fathom. I remember saying that everything had changed and everything looked different. Hardly a sublime statement, but true. I still remember that day when everything came to a standstill and can feel the pain of the people who lost their loved ones as those incidences I saw through my own eyes sickened me for quite a long time.

I want to remember and pay homage to the victims who died on this day. I want to salute the people who sacrificed their lives to protect US, such as the heroes of United 93 and the firefighters, NYPD and enumerable volunteers.Today, I want to pay respect to those who had put down their lives while rescuing a stranger without selfishly thinking about themselves or their families. I want to remember all those who have given their lives since then, protecting us!. All These people teach us the lesson to believe in unity and integrity and above all God.

Lets hope for a united World and lets pray for those serving our country, lets remember those who perished that day and their families. And lets hope that God bless us, who remember that day.

It's been 8 long years and the Journey continues as I go remembering, discovering and progressing myself along with the memories of 9/11.

The Real Truth

This story is in continuation with “A true incident”, please read that before going on to this….

All my doubts were still on the dishwasher maintenance guy and I kept on convincing the landlord but due to lack of concrete evidences I couldn’t really prove it. I also called Dell and told them about the incident and as the product was registered with them they agreed to inform me if they notice any activities on my account. At first I had little hope of getting my belongings back but with time and as months passed the unpleasant incident started fading off my mind. I was also upset because there was a lot of personal data on my laptop and losing that meant losing all my previous years’ works. I lived in that studio for few months before moving out of the city due to professional reasons.

It had almost been nine months since the burglary incident happened. Now, I was working someplace else away from family and friends but I had made some new friends and got adjusted to the new place. My sister lived in another city and I visited her often. One time when I visited her she handed me a small package from Dell. I thought it was a laptop battery as one of those battery replacements Schemes by Dell were going on at that time; I was surprised because I never ordered one myself. I un-wrapped the package and found a laptop hard drive. It wasn’t of any use for me as I didn't want to replace my hard drive as my current hard drive was working just fine and moreover I had a lot of data stored on it, which I didn’t want to switch. I thought of selling it on EBay.

At home, as I was going through the package I noticed something very strange, I saw an unfamiliar name and phone no., below my name and address on the packaging slip. At first I thought it must be a glitch but the phone no. appeared to be the area code of the place I previously stayed, I was stunned. I immediately started linking all the pieces and figured out that this could be the person who has my laptop. I also noticed the asset tag number which is unique for each laptop and this one matched with my old laptop no.

I was thrilled that this could be the person who stole my laptop and might have ordered the hard drive and since Dell had the laptop registered under my name they sent it to my address instead. I was also angry at dell as I had reported the theft to them still they were communicating without verifying any details with me, the real owner. At first, I thought of calling the person but was a little scared, after making a decision to report this to the police and let them investigate, I called the local police station and provided them with all the details, to my surprise they claimed that they can’t take any actions or help me in this matter even though I have all the evidences. I was dumbstruck as if lightening has crossed over me, I thought police was here to protect you and help you out. I then called the detective agency but according to them the report had been archived and my case was closed as this was just a small theft. I was helpless, a little ray of hope I had of getting my precious laptop back was being darkened by the eclipses of immoral and unjust behaviors of the law authorities.

This is when I decided to take matters into my own hands even if it meant going against the law. Although I was a scared and didn’t know how to proceed, I decided to call the phone no. on the packaging slip. As the phone was ringing my mind was clouded with numerous negative thoughts, I thought that I might be dealing with a gang or mafia or a criminal as I had never ever communicated with any such people before. A boy answered my call. I asked him if I can talk to the person whose name was listed on the package. The boy told me that it was his mom and that she was at work at that moment. I then asked him if they own a dell laptop and whether they had ordered a hard drive replacement from dell. He thought that I was someone inquiring from Dell and answered all my questions. As soon as I got confirmed that they have my laptop, I told him that I am the original owner of the laptop they had stolen from my apartment. I threatened him that I will report this to the police if they didn’t return it back to me. The boy got scared and told me that he is just a high school kid and don’t do such things and his mom didn’t steal it, she bought the laptop from someone, he sounded very innocent but I was on fire and had no mercy for the kid or for his mother. I then told him that I will call up later to speak to his mom.

I called up later that night, this time the lady herself picked up the phone. I got her aware of the whole situation and told her that she has my laptop and if they don’t return it, they would go to jail, even though i knew that the police already refused to help me in this matter. She appealed that she didn’t steal the laptop instead she bought it for $250 from someone on the street. I told her to return my laptop as early as possible; otherwise she would be behind bars. She started pleading, for mercy, explaining that she has a family and a respectable job and that I should not report her to the police. She said that she will mail the laptop back to me in a package. First I agreed to it but then I thought she might break it and send it to me and blame the postal service for the damage. I immediately analyzed the situation and instructed her to deliver the laptop in-person. She herself got terrified by this and started insisting repeatedly to not to inform the police or get any cops along with me. We decided to meet at a crowded public place in the city. The time was fixed at around nine in the morning. I couldn't sleep the night before, may be because of the anticipation to get my laptop or fear or agony she might cause to me.

At 7 am I got a call from that lady, I was still in bed. I thought she might be cancelling the plans or maybe refusing to give back my laptop. Instead she had called to confirm the place and asked me again to not to get any cops I assured her that if she returned my laptop I will not take any actions. I got ready and went on to get my prized possession, almost nine months after it was taken away from me. I myself couldn’t believe that this was happening. Lot of mixed thoughts were going on in my mind I was scared, excited, angry and delighted all at the same time.

She called me again sharp at nine to let me know that she has reached the designated place. By now it was confirmed that she was more scared then me and she wanted to get done with this burden too. There was a lot of traffic and an hour fifteen minutes journey took me almost two hours, on my way i had a fear that she might have left the place as I was late by an hour. Finally I reached the spot, the only identification she gave me was that she will be standing near the subway gate and wearing a green outfit. I didn’t provide her with any identifications of mine and she didn’t ask for any.

As I was walking I saw an African American lady with green scrubs holding a small bag on her thin shoulders, she looked short and timid. She was nothing like the image of a person a thief would have. Well I approached her cautiously and pronounced her name very politely; I was not scared anymore and sounded confident. She hesitated a bit and responded shyly handing me the laptop, I grabbed it quickly without even looking if it was the right one or opening to see if it still works. I again asked how she got the laptop. She told me that she bought the laptop from someone on the street and that she paid for it in cash. I was surprised to hear that and thought she was making up stories to cover up for the thief maybe a gang, she didn’t seem like a affluent person carrying $200 in cash and paying for it on the road without even finding out if the laptop ever worked. She was wearing a scrub, so inquisitively I asked her where she worked she said that she is an assistant nurse in a hospital. We then parted our own ways. I just ran off from the scene to the nearest shop.

I immediately went to a café to check if it was working, everything was intact accept all my old data had been deleted, well I was content that at least I had my laptop on me. I came home all happy and triumphed as if I had won a long lost battle.

I have been fortunate throughout in a lot of situations where I have lost possessions and have got them back as twice I got my lost cell phone back, once I lost my wallet full of credit cards and cash and I got it after almost three weeks, with everything intact but that’s another story.

The person who stole my laptop is still a mystery, maybe the burglar was known to her and she was trying to cover up for him. She had no idea about my microwave oven. I still wonder why police refused bluntly to help me. I had already filed a report for my stolen laptop with Dell, they actually encourage you to call if you loose any items as with asset tags its easy to locate the laptops but she was communicating with Dell constantly. When the detective had the hand prints and the name and telephone no. he could have easily done a investigation and catch the real culprit, but I guess they were lazy. This is the best Law and order department and the most reputed brand of the world. I still can't figure these out.

The chances of getting back my laptop were almost one in a million, and I still think this was an impossible situation, rather a miracle. I will call it destiny or luck or may be a desire of hope. This incident made me realize that one should never give up and always keep trying. This also taught me to deal with a tough situation. It has been three years since this incident took place but being my real true story, it is still fresh in my THOUGHTS and whenever I think of this incident I always believe that “When you really want something the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it”

A true Incident

In this long and tough journey called life, several interesting good or bad incidents happen some of which you will always cherish and remember others you would just like to forget like a bad dream. There are also some incidences which makes you believe in hope, optimism and destiny. A very interesting but unbelievable event happened with me where there was loss, grief, belief, hope, poise, quick thinking, prowess, joy and triumph.

Since the time I had known that it exists, I had always admired its sleekness, the usability, the convenience it provided and always wanted to posses one, but somehow never had a chance to own it, until my graduation. I was very happy to get it; it was a graduation gift from my parents and was a very prized possession for me. It was my first laptop I had ever owned. I could do anything with it anywhere. I felt free; it had made my life easier. I was obsessed with my laptop so much that I took it everywhere I went. Suddenly everything seemed to be working in my favor and I got my first job, out of college and since I started earning I moved to my own rented studio apartment.

It had just been ten days since I moved into my new place and I was still trying to unpack and settle-in. Life was going easy but busy. I was in a regular nine to five job. I always left early and came back tired as I was new and getting used to the workplace.

It was like any other bright morning and I left early to get to work. It was a Friday, I was exhausted with a whole week of grilling activities and just wanted to get over, go back home to relax and spend some time with friends over the weekend. As I finished my work my tired body hurried straight to my apartment. As I reached my apartment building I rushed through the door into my studio. I went in and changed from my office gear, relaxed a bit and ate a left over meal from previous night. I was happy to be back home. I was so tired that as soon as I lied on my bed I drifted off to sleep. Suddenly, I woke up with a thud sound, it was my neighbors playing their heavy metal, I cursed them and tried to get back to sleep but couldn’t so I decided to do something else.

I thought of checking my emails and looked around for my laptop. I realized my laptop wasn’t at the place I last left it. I looked around patiently, but couldn't find it anywhere. I had no clue how my laptop just disappeared. I thought my friend who I had left a spare key to my apartment, might have taken it. As I was calling him I noticed another thing, the microwave oven over my kitchen counter was missing too. Now I got worried and looked around for other things, everything else my clothes, shoes even my new vacuum cleaner were untouched and intact at the right place. I checked each and every window and door if there was a break-in through any of those, but to my surprise there wasn’t even a scratch I couldn’t figure out how someone could get into the apartment and take all that heavy stuff without breaking into those doors or windows. Even, some haunted stories started churning into my confused mind.

I decided to call the police immediately and file a report of stolen goods. The funny thing was since I had moved in ten days back and my renters insurance was supposed to start two days later, I couldn’t even claim anything for insurance. The cop arrived, did some routine checks, asked me few questions and made a report and as he was examining my apartment I noticed some hand impressions of grease on my kitchen counter table. I started assuming that this could be some maintenance guy, as being a rented apartment I had requested my landlord to repair the dysfunctional dishwasher. It was almost midnight and I wanted to sleep but couldn't, it was such a dreadful night.

Next morning first thing I called the landlord, they didn’t care much and it felt like that burglary is a routine word to them and it happens regularly in that place. Well, nobody had still figured out how the burglar got in without breaking anything, as I was at my apartment front door I saw a small slit between the door panel and the door frame, if you put a thin knife or object between that and push it hard against the lock you could easily open the door. Now I figured how it all must have happened, the burglar opened the door got in, took the stuff out, pushed the door lock back in place and closed the door behind him all this in the middle of the day on a very busy street. I immediately called a locksmith to fix my door and change locks.

Gradualy,things started to settle down and there were no more break-ins or burglaries. Meanwhile I bought a new laptop and a microwave. I moved on with a normal life as days, weeks and months passed and this dreadful true incident started fading of my THOUGHTS, but sometimes I used to remember that laptop as it was one of my most prized possessions, I had owned......to be continued

Well, this story isn’t over yet there is more interesting truth to it, I will publish the rest of it next weekend until then I will let you the reader guess, of what happened next.

Whether the landlord claimed responsibility?

Was it the maintenance guy?

What happened to the police report and did the detective find something?

Was it someone I knew, who knew about all my stuff and location?

Did I get the laptop and my microwave back?

Or just nothing happened and I moved on….

Believe me the story gets more interesting from here

I am just not Lucky Enough

“I didn’t get a job, because I am not lucky”

“I am not lucky enough to earn a raise”

“I am not lucky to win this game”

“I am not lucky to win a lottery”-may be true

We often say these words and blame our luck for every situation, but we never realize the real facts that has lead us to that unpleasent situation. We blame our luck if something adverse happens with us. I myself blame destiny and bad luck, sometimes. Blaming others, somehow gives us a kind of consolation to cover up our actions and wrongdoings which lead to that undesirable happening and then instead of blaming ourselves we just say “it’s my bad luck” and then instead of taking any actions to counteract and improve upon it we just sit back and wait for the luck to get better. This is how we become victims of destiny and life.

On the contrary, when Good things happen, it’s just only about us, our skills that lead to success, we like to praise us, self-reinforcing our own pride and arrogance. It’s rarely ever, "am I lucky” and it’s never "thank God". It’s only "thank God" when a disaster is avoided, not when un-instigated good things happen.

It’s always good to think of reasons, but rather than blaming our luck we must take the responsibility of everything that happens to us and if we do this we will feel immense power which will turn us from a helpless victim to a sure shot winner. Although, It takes a lot of efforts and courage to take the blame on us and taking the responsibility but once we do it the rest of the task to accomplish something gets easy. We have the complete control on how we react to things ( in this case our luck) and we must use it to our advantage.

Taking the responsibility makes us action oriented. We know it’s us who has to do something about it instead of waiting for situation or luck to change and once we take that action we will see our mind working toward the solution and finally towards making us a winner. There is no such thing as a foreseeable future however; we can set ourselves up to make sound decisions.

Remember, no one can be blamed for luck, good or bad. So next time if something bad happens to you, just don’t blame your luck and be called a victim of destiny, rather gather your positive THOUGHTS and put those Thoughts into good actions, it’s in your hands to change your luck the way you want it as “Luck favors the prepared, not the beaten”.

A Joke with a message

A concerned husband went to a doctor to talk about his wife. "Doctor, I think my wife is deaf because she never hears me the first time and always asks me to repeat things."

"Well," the doctor replied, "go home and tonight and stand about 15 feet from her and say something to her. If she doesn't reply move about 5 feet closer and say it again. Keep doing this so that we'll get an idea about the severity of her deafness."

Sure enough, the husband goes home and does exactly as instructed. He starts off about 15 feet from his wife in the kitchen as she is chopping some vegetables and says, "Honey, what's for dinner?" He hears no response. He moves about 5 feet closer and asks again, No reply. He moves 5 feet closer, Still no reply. He gets fed up and moves right behind her, about an inch away, and asks again, "Honey, what's for dinner?"

She replies, "For the fourth time, vegetable stew!" you deaf bugger and if you ask me again, maybe i'll change my mind and you ain't getting any.

It happens a lot of times when we feel that the problem is with others and we blame them on self interpretations rather than finding out the cause and effects of a problem, but in actuality the problem could lie with us.We often think that we are near perfect and that we are doing the right thing and put all our energy and thoughts in finding faults with others rather than thinking of solutions to correct ourselves, we also often do it to cover up our wrongdoings in front of other.

We must learn to accept failure and be ready to identify faults within us before pointing a finger on others. We must learn to identify our problems before someone backfires at us as it will be too late to go back and correct ourselves and too late to repair burnt bridges with people around us. So learn to accept faults within you and don’t blame others, and if you still haven’t learned you might become a joke like the one above.

I am You and I am Me

I am the loneliness of the crowd…

I am the silence of the talk…

I am the dryness of the rain…

I am the oneness of the many…

I am the softness of the hard…

I am the wetness of the dry…

I am the happiness of the sad…

I am the oneness of the many…

I am the solitude of the open…

I am the darkness of the light…

I am the shallowness of the depth…

I am the oneness of many…

Coz’ I have been the one among many and many within…the one

Co-Lyricist: Shweta Moonat

An Incident which made me think

There are a few incidents in your life which seem like normal and you let them pass on with your everyday busy life, but if you give them a thought they leave a lasting impression and could change the way you perceive things.

Something like that happened with me a few days back. It was a hot summer busy day I was going to volunteer at a community hospital to help poor patients. I was infuriated because of the heat, so I thought of getting myself some energy drink, I looked around and saw a Jamba Juice shop a few feet away. I licked my lips and swamped over the NYC crowd to get to the other side of the road. I was acting as if I just came from a desert.

Just as I was about to order, a middle aged man came to me begging for some money. This was the last thing I wanted and I looked over to the other side completely ignoring his scruffy appearance and torn clothes. I was least interested in this person at this time and moved forward to order my sunshine delight.

What I saw next completely took me by surprise. There was this young teenager who gave his drink to that man without the beggar even asking that young teen for any help. I felt ashamed of myself and thought, what’s the use of me going to volunteer and help a few hundred people when I can’t help this one person. It was too late now and I drank over my guilt with my sunshine delight.

Well, I know it is hard to help each and everyone, but lend a hand when you can and where you can and pride yourself in helping others. Make it a point to do some good deed every day, or make someone smile because that smile will make your life worth living, try! And come back here and share it with others. And if you have a story which left a lasting impression on you or made you think please share it too.

Health Care Reform: An Overview

This an Overview of what Obamacare is going to do in order to provide Health care for all Americans, But I think it is essential to develop the best health care system in the world for all Americans. In that "best of all plans" we need to reward new technological breakthroughs and procedures, pay promptly for services and goods provided, and develop standards for acceptable care and facilities. I will use the House plan as the jumping off point and note differences with the Senate’s version. Here we go

The Current Proposed Plan:

· Costs $1.04 trillion over 10 years (Congressional Budget Office) [Senate plan would cost more]

· Covers 97% of legal American citizens

· Mandates all individuals to purchase insurance or pay penalty of about 2.5% of gross income

· Establishes insurance exchange where consumers can compare policies and buy coverage

· Includes Public Options to compete with private insurance

· Individual subsidies: The government will offer assistance (credits) on a sliding scale up to four times the poverty level (up to $43K for individual and $88K for a family of 4)

· Requires employers to provide health coverage or pay a fee to the government [Senate plan is $750/employee for employers with > 25 employees]

ü Payroll > $400,000 = 8% of Wages

ü Payroll $250,000-$400,000 = to be determined (smaller penalty)

ü Payroll < $250,000 = NO FEE

· Bars insurance companies from denying coverage due to illness or health status

· Eliminates insurance company lifetime caps

Where’s this money coming from?

Under the House plan, there are three main sources available to fund health care [The Senate plan seemed to pass over this not-so-small detail]:

1) New Taxes on Wealthy Generating $544 Billion

· 5.4% surtax income > $1M

· 1.5% surtax on income $500,000 - $1M

· 1% surtax on income $350,000 - $500,000 (starts at $280,000 for individuals)

2) Surcharges on Businesses

3) Reduction in spending for Medicare and Medicaid

Sticking Points:

· New taxes on rich

· Impact on small businesses

· Change in care–Americans will wonder whether their doctors will participate in public op

What’s next?

Now the fun begins. The Senate Health and Finance Committees must agree to a unified version of the bill. Then, the House and the Senate start to wrangle over a compromise. Once that’s done, the bill goes to the President for signing.

Effective job search strategies in a downturn

Following this process will definitely help you to find the right long-term opportunity, as opposed to just another job.

1) Define your scope by answering the following three questions: a) What industries do I want to work in (no more than two)? b) What size company am I comfortable working at (start up? mid-size? large corporation?)? c) Where geographically do I want to live?

The classic mistake that many job-seekers make is defining a scope that is too broad. Narrow your scope aggressively, and know that you can expand later if necessary. By narrowing the scope you will dig deeper in the space, which will allow you to find hidden opportunities (which are always there), and you will have a better and more convincing story for hiring authorities.

2) Create an exhaustive list of all companies that meet your scope. A manageable scope is anywhere from 15 to 50 companies that align with your career goals. Any less and you're unlikely to find a good opportunity, any more and you'll spread yourself too thin. There are multiple ways to find this information. If you have access to pay services such as Hoovers or ZoomInfo, those are best. You can also Google your scope for free: for example, Googling something such as "Chemical companies in Chicago, IL" will get you started.

3) Research and prioritize your list of companies. Simply go online and review the websites of each company in your scope. Force yourself to rate each company as either a) high interest; b) some interest; c) no interest. It's easy to fall into the trap of prioritizing companies based on the open positions they list on their website, but don't make that mistake. This is not about what positions a company has listed publicly (which is never an accurate reflection of a company's hiring needs). Instead you're simply trying to prioritize which companies you want to work for, regardless of what you believe they are looking to hire.

4) Identify and call the appropriate hiring authority at your top target companies. The hiring authority is effectively the person to whom you would report if you were to join the company. This is NOT human resources (unless you desire to be in a human resources role). Identifying this person is not always easy as many companies (especially large companies) will not tell you who sits in a specific position when you call the main switchboard. If your hiring authority is a senior person then you can likely find their name on the company's website. Secondly, you will be surprised by how much you can learn via Google as well: for example try Googling something like "Who is the Vice President of Finance for Dow Chemical?" Lastly, I strongly advise growing your LinkedIn network and using Linked In search to identify potential hiring authorities in your target companies.

What you say to this person is clearly important. I believe that a simple, straight forward message is best. Your script (which you should write out and practice) should include the following topics: a) this is who I am; b) this is what I do (or have done); c) I have no idea if you're looking for someone like me (this provides a nice disclaimer which allows the hiring authority to drop their guard); d) but I'm interested in you and I would appreciate the opportunity to set up time to speak with/meet with you. Note that it is likely that you will get this person's voice mail. In this case your message should be largely the same as what I've listed above, just in an executive summary format. If you're calling a senior person then you'll likely get their Assistant on the phone. In that case you should communicate with the Assistant almost in the same way you would with the hiring authority, as they will be passing your message along to their boss (the alternative is to wait until after 5:00 pm when the Assistant has left for the day).

Many of you may be asking "Why call a hiring authority if they don't have a job posted?" The reason is two-fold: a) Many companies don't post every role they're looking to fill. b) Hiring Authorities are always looking for great talent, even if they don't have an open requisition. I've heard countless executives say "I don't have an opening, but I'll create one for this person."

5) Be highly appreciative to those that help you. Be sure to get the email address of everyone you speak with and send a brief thank you note. In your email be sure to list your career goals (in two sentences or less) and don't hesitate to attach your resume. You'll be surprised by how many calls you get from people that received your resume from a colleague you sent it to.

The key to this approach is Polite Persistence. Don't just call the Hiring Authority once and give up. These are busy people, and there are a lot of things vying for their attention. My rule of thumb is to call the individual three days in a row, and then send an email.

Coutsey: Chad Oakley