Wayne Dyer

Wayne Dyer, an author turned his 1976 best-seller "Your Erroneous Zones" into a self-help empire, died Saturday in Maui, Hawaii, his publisher and family reported via Facebook. He was 75.

The cause of death was not disclosed.

In 2009, Dyer was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia but he claimed to have treated the disease with positive thinking, daily workouts and "psychic surgery" by the Brazilian spiritualist João Teixeira de Faria.

Dyer, a psychotherapist and former professor at St. John's University in New York, was a friend and frequent guest of Oprah Winfrey, appearing on her show many times over the years.

The former daily talk-show host and head of the OWN network tweeted a tribute to Dyer on Sunday night:

It was always a pleasure to talk to @DrWayneWDyer about life's big questions. He always had big answers. RIP Wayne. You brought the Light. - Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) August 31, 2015

Ellen DeGeneres, another longtime fan of Dyer's, offered her own tribute, complete with a photo from her 2008 wedding to actress Portia De Rossi.  

The world has lost an incredible man. Wayne Dyer officiated our wedding & was an inspiration to so many. Sending love pic.twitter.com/kzsCS278jr -- Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) August 30, 2015

In more than 30 books, including "The Power of Intention" and "Stop the Excuses! How to Change Lifelong Thoughts," Dyer espoused a philosophy that positive, happy thoughts can lead to a positive, happy life.

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the story of Wayne Walter Dyer was classic Dickensian.

Born in Detroit in 1940, Dyer grew up an orphan, an experience that molded a self-reliance as well as an aversion to self-pity.

"I grew up in the east side of Detroit in an area where there was very little, except for a lot of scarcity, poverty and hunger," he said in a 2009 interview with Success magazine. "But I never woke up saying, 'I'm an orphan again today, isn't this terrible? Poor me,' (...) there were a couple of very affluent neighborhoods nearby, but I never thought for one second that those people had more than I had. It just seemed that they got what they were entitled to, and if I really wanted those things, then I would have them, too."

After a stint in the Navy, Dyer pursued an education in counseling, graduating with advanced degrees from Wayne State University. He was teaching at St. Johns University in New York in 1976 when he penned his first self-help book. His life would never be the same.

"Your Erroneous Zones: Step-by-Step Advice for Escaping the Trap of Negative Thinking and Taking Control of Your Life" brought him out of the classroom and the clinic and propelled him onto the speaker's circuit, earning him millions on its way to becoming one of the best-selling books of all time.

Dyer espoused his philosophy throughout the more than 30 self-help books, including "The Power of Intention" and "Stop the Excuses! How to Change Lifelong Thoughts." His books generally centered around the notion that one has to has to think positive, happy beliefs in order to live a positive, happy life.

He stayed busy until the very end, doling out pithy nuggets of wisdom to his Twitter followers ('chasing success is like trying to squeeze a handful of water. The tighter you squeeze, the less water you get.') and maintaining a hectic speaking schedule.

Dyer, who lived in Maui, married three times and had eight children. 

Krugman calls for more debt?

Rand Paul said something funny the other day. No, really — although of course it wasn’t intentional. On his Twitter account he decried the irresponsibility of American fiscal policy, declaring, “The last time the United States was debt free was 1835.”

Wags quickly noted that the U.S. economy has, on the whole, done pretty well these past 180 years, suggesting that having the government owe the private sector money might not be all that bad a thing. The British government, by the way, has been in debt for more than three centuries, an era spanning the Industrial Revolution, victory over Napoleon, and more.

But is the point simply that public debt isn’t as bad as legend has it? Or can government debt actually be a good thing?

Believe it or not, many economists argue that the economy needs a sufficient amount of public debt out there to function well. And how much is sufficient? Maybe more than we currently have. That is, there’s a reasonable argument to be made that part of what ails the world economy right now is that governments aren’t deep enough in debt.

I know that may sound crazy. After all, we’ve spent much of the past five or six years in a state of fiscal panic, with all the Very Serious People declaring that we must slash deficits and reduce debt now now now or we’ll turn into Greece, Greece I tell you.

But the power of the deficit scolds was always a triumph of ideology over evidence, and a growing number of genuinely serious people — most recently Narayana Kocherlakota, the departing president of the Minneapolis Fed — are making the case that we need more, not less, government debt.

Why?

One answer is that issuing debt is a way to pay for useful things, and we should do more of that when the price is right. The United States suffers from obvious deficiencies in roads, rails, water systems and more; meanwhile, the federal government can borrow at historically low interest rates. So this is a very good time to be borrowing and investing in the future, and a very bad time for what has actually happened: an unprecedented decline in public construction spending adjusted for population growth and inflation.

Beyond that, those very low interest rates are telling us something about what markets want. I’ve already mentioned that having at least some government debt outstanding helps the economy function better. How so? The answer, according to M.I.T.’s Ricardo Caballero and others, is that the debt of stable, reliable governments provides “safe assets” that help investors manage risks, make transactions easier and avoid a destructive scramble for cash.

Columbia House

The mail-order music company that once tantalized countless broke teenagers by offering popular CDs for pocket change no longer exists.

Filmed Entertainment Inc., the parent company of Columbia House, on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and is seeking to sell off the last vestiges of what was once a billion-dollar business.

The Columbia House music club combined with formal rival BMG Direct in 2005. It shuttered its music club entirely in 2010 and began selling only movies. FEI acquired the company two years later.

By earlier this year, a third-party service was handling all of Columbia House's operations, and the company had no employees.

Famous for its eight-CDs-for-a-penny deals, Columbia House was at the height of its popularity in the mid-'90s, when it accounted for 15 percent of all CD sales, according to The Boston Phoenix's 2011 profile of the company. Columbia House reached its peak revenue in 1996, raking in roughly $1.4 billion that year. But the company's fortunes have been in a steady two-decade decline, netting just $17 million last year.

"This decline is directly attributable to a confluence of market factors that substantially altered the manner in which consumers purchase and listen to music, as well as the way consumers purchase and watch movies and television series at home," FEI Director Glenn Langberg said in court papers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Despite its popularity and seemingly irresistible deals, Columbia House eventually became reviled for the terms concealed in its fine print: Though members could nab a stack of albums for 1 cent, they had to buy additional albums over time -- at a high markup and with exorbitant shipping rates -- to fulfill the membership agreement.

Jon Stewart signs off

Genuine warmth is an extraordinarily rare commodity on television, which is why Jon Stewart’s final “The Daily Show” was something to be treasured, savored and maybe even played back a few times. As with most media-hyped events, Stewart’s exit came with such inflated expectations that it’s the sort of thing the host himself would have delighted in skewering. Yet the parade of former correspondents who lined up to bid him farewell not only celebrated what he called “the talent that has passed through these doors” but the guy who gave them that opportunity as he rides into the sunset.

Stewart opened by pretending to cover the Republican debate (which actually took place after his taping), which turned into an extended series of cameos by practically everyone who has worked for the show on camera. The producers even squeezed in testimonials from other luminaries, from Craig Kilborn – from whom Stewart inherited the franchise – to Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Bill O’Reilly.

Still, the real emotional gut punch fell, appropriately, to Stephen Colbert, who forced Stewart – who has resisted attempts to lionize him building up to the finish – to listen to a testimonial on behalf of all those who had worked for him. “You were infuriatingly good at your job,” Colbert said, and if Stewart was acting when he began to choke up, then he has a career in movies ahead of him that has nothing to do with directing.

Frankly, that would have been enough to make the hour wonderfully memorable. But the show followed that up with an extremely clever “Goodfellas” spoof, introducing everyone who had worked on the show in one extended tracking shot (and throwing in a Martin Scorsese cameo for good measure). It’s become standard operating procedure for latenight hosts to acknowledge their staffs, but this effort brought more flair to the process than most.

In the night’s ultimate highlight, Stewart then channeled the late George Carlin, and perhaps a bit of David Steinberg, in offering what amounted to parting words of advice to his audience, an extended rumination on the “bull—-” that permeates our politics, and the one word that can inoculate the public against it: vigilance. In a strange, sweet way, it felt almost like an older relative addressing a kid, telling him or her what to look out for when he’s no longer around to run interference.

Each of these segments, and especially that last one, showcased what Stewart has uniquely brought to “The Daily Show.” In an age of news coverage where partisanship often demands getting both sides of even the most absurd argument, he astutely knifed through the clutter, in a way that frequently spoke to people who had the same thoughts but didn’t hear them articulated much – or nearly as well – in other venues.

Stewart has always brought a self-effacing quality to the desk, which is part of his comedic persona. But his goodbye, in which he described his time hosting the show as a “privilege,” sounded heartfelt and sincere. The biggest non-surprise, frankly, was that he would turn the final minutes over to Bruce Springsteen, a natural sendoff for a native son of New Jersey.

Despite all the inevitable analysis regarding Stewart’s legacy, the sun will still rise Friday. But come Monday – when Stewart would have had an opportunity to weigh in on that aforementioned Republican presidential debate – Thursday’s finale merely reinforced the sense that there’s going to be a void in a lot of people’s lives more significant than just that extra half-hour four nights a week. And Trevor Noah – who came out to measure Stewart’s desk – certainly has his work cut out for him.

eliminating poverty and hunger?

UNITED NATIONS — The 193 member states of the United Nations have reached agreement on a new development agenda for the next 15 years that calls for eradicating poverty and hunger, achieving gender equality, improving living standards and taking urgent action to combat climate change.

The draft agreement reached Sunday evening outlines 17 goals with 169 specific targets on issues ranging from ending poverty "in all its forms everywhere" to ensuring quality education and affordable and reliable energy, and protecting the environment.

"We can be the first generation that ends global poverty, and the last generation to prevent the worst impacts of global warming before it is too late," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters Monday.

The document — called "Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" — will be adopted at a U.N. summit just before the annual meeting of world leaders at the General Assembly in late September.

Ban said "the goals represent a 'to-do' list for people and the planet."

"They address the requirements for all humanity to be able to live decent lives free from poverty, hunger and inequality," he said. "They commit all of us to be responsible global citizens, caring for the less fortunate as well as for our planet's ecosystems and climate action on which all life depends."

The 17 new, non-binding goals will succeed the eight Millennium Development Goals adopted by world leaders 15 years ago.

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[8/20/15] Charles Buck calls this a miracle

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Last week, esteemed author Dr. Stephen R. Covey died. He was the author of the The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, an extremely popular self-help book that has sold more than 25 million copies in 38 languages since its publication in 1989. He was among Time magazine’s 25 Most Influential Americans in 1996. He also was the founder of the Covey Leadership Center, which later became FranklinCovey, a company focusing on leadership, strategy and individual effectiveness.

Covey had a profound effect on me during my time at West Point, in the Army and now in the business world. In almost everything I do, I use some aspect of Covey’s universal principles of leadership and ethics. The Hawaii Army National Guard a few years ago saw the value of the seven habits and trained its senior leaders with Covey’s leadership principles. Covey and his famous book brought a new language to business.

Here the seven habits with a brief description:

Independence or Self-mastery – Know thyself!

Habit 1: Be Proactive.

Take initiative and responsibility in your decisions instead of being reactive. This is the primary factor for effectiveness in our lives. Life doesn’t just happen, it is based on the choices we make. Choices give us the opportunity to be proactive and produce more positive results.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind. Where is it that you want to accomplish in life? Visualize what you want in life, who you want to become, and what you want to achieve. Create a mission statement for yourself. Understanding the end goal will help you keep focused on your values.

Habit 3: Put First Things First. Prioritizing, plan and execute tasks based on what is important, not necessarily what is urgent. Focus on your top priorities so you don’t overextend yourself.

Interdependence – Know how to work with others!

Habit 4: Think Win-Win. Life is about relationships and cooperating with people. Genuinely strive for what is best for everyone and mutually beneficial. This requires integrity, maturity and an abundance mentality (there is enough for everyone!).

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood. Listening to others is critical to creating an atmosphere of mutual respect. Communication is the most important skill in life. Listen with the intent to understand, not just reply.

Habit 6: Synergize. No one person is greater than the whole. Teamwork is essential for the best performance of a group. Value differences to drive synergy and accomplish more than an individual can.

Self-renewal – Know how to self-rejuvenate!

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw. Have a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental and spiritual. Renewing yourself creates growth change in your life. Keeping yourself fresh is essential to maintaining the other six habits.

Covey’s teachings will influence generations to come. That is the greatest legacy anyone can leave. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Covey family today.

Copyright © 2015 MidWeek | All rights reserved.

Seven Habits Of Successful People

David S. Chang

on August 1, 2012 at 12:01 am

[largely reprinted in the July 22, 2015 column]