Pursuit of Excellence

Items in italics are direct quotes from the articles below

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/richest-men-in-history-vladimir-putin-bill-gates-and-warren-buffett-arent-even-close-2017-08-09
Vladimir Putin’s wealth, even by the most generous of calculations, pales in comparison. In fact, throw in the vast riches of Microsoft MSFT, +0.18% co-founder Bill Gates, Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A, -0.21% fame and Amazon’s AMZN, +2.58% Jeff Bezos, and their combined fortune doesn’t even approach the riches of history’s wealthiest figures. Take Augustus Caesar, for example. The first Roman emperor tops the list, according to the Visual Capitalist blog. The adopted son of Julius Caesar controlled much of the world’s most powerful states — including Egypt — as part of his estimated $4.6 trillion net worth. Egypt made up at least 25% of global GDP at the time. Then there’s King Solomon, who was said to receive some $40 billion in gold each year as tribute. That helped bring his fortune to $2.2 trillion. Though it is hard to measure who the richest person in history was, because of the lack of completely accurate records. However, the article does provide a detailed chart. This calculation can change due to wealth being tied to land, and wealth could be exaggerated due to it being oral history. Nonetheless, wealth is concept that has been passed down for centuries. There are principles to building wealth that we can all apply to our daily lives. Remember to invest in assets that will produce income. Liabilities will always produce expenses. Make your money make money for you and repeat.

http://www.businessinsider.com/net-neutrality-portugal-how-american-internet-could-look-fcc-2017-11

On Tuesday, the US Federal Communications Commission announced that it planned to vote on an order to roll back Obama-era rules governing net neutrality. Simply put, net neutrality means that all data on the internet is treated equally. An internet service provider can’t prioritize certain companies or types of data, charge users more to access certain websites and apps, or charge businesses for preferential access. Advocates of net neutrality argue that it ensures a level playing field for everyone on the internet. Telecoms firms, however, are largely against it because of the additional restrictions it places on them. But with the Republican-majority FCC likely to vote on December 14 in favor of rolling back the order, what might the American internet look like without net neutrality? Just look at Portugal. The country’s wireless carrier Meo offers a package that’s very different from the US. On top of the standard data package, users pay an additional amount based on what type of apps and the kind of data they use. Net-neutrality advocates argue that this kind of model is dangerous because it risks creating a two-tier system that harms competition — people will just use the big-name apps included in the bundles they pay for, while upstart challengers will be left out in the cold. For example: If you love watching videos, and Netflix is included in the video bundle but Hulu isn’t, you’re likely to try to save money by using only Netflix, making it harder for its competitors. And without net neutrality, big-name apps could theoretically even pay telecoms firms for preferential access, offering them money — and smaller companies just couldn’t compete with that. (It’s not clear whether any of the companies named above have paid for preferential access.) An ISP could even refuse to grant access to an app at all unless they paid up.  Yonatan Zunger, a former Google employee, recently retweeted Khanna’s tweet, adding: “This isn’t even the worst part of ending net neutrality. The worst part happens when ISPs say ‘we don’t like this site’s politics,’ or ‘this site competes with us,’ and block or throttle it.” If you’re thinking about your legacy, consider it at least two to three generations deep. In other words, you’re thinking at least the next 100 years, will what you have be able to provide for that kind of future? If not, what are you teaching your children and children’s children, so they can thrive and not just survive the world to come. In my opinion, net-neutrality is important. If it is roll backed, how will this affect the cryptocurrency markets? With more and more buyers into the cryptocurrency market, will this rollback cause a price decline?

This week, I’ve included Secrets of Success – Motivational video from the Mulligan Brothers YouTube channel.

“If you think you know it all, you’re a fool for sure; real survivors learn wisdom from others.”

Proverbs 28:26 MSG