In his book The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor explains how getting the growth mindset is key to succeed. People with the growth mindset believe that they can grow through efforts. They believe that intelligence and competence can grow by making efforts. On the contrary, people with the fixed mindset believe that whatever their efforts, they cannot progress. They believe that their intelligence and competence are already set, predetermined, unchangeable. They lose opportunities to improve, evolve, get better. As Napoleon Hill said: “Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds.” When we believe we can do more and achieve more, we do achieve more.

CB

Democracy enables folks to elect their favorite candidate and candidates use different strategies to attract voters. One strategy consists in proposing a plan that will charm easily the majority. Am I not getting easily many followers if I say: “Vote for me and you will get everything you need for free” (free healthcare, free housing, etc.)? In this case, you should wonder whether it is economically viable and wise (healthcare has a cost, housing also, etc.). You should wonder whether such proposal is responsible, because social peace doesn’t exist without economic prosperity. If not responsible, haven’t we reached the limit of democracy? So is the candidate an impostor or a leader? As Winston Churchill said: “The price of greatness is responsibility.” Isn’t the role of a leader to be responsible?

CB

A person who won't observe has no advantage over one who can't see. A person who won’t listen has no advantage over one who can’t ear. Good leaders use their eyes to observe and ears to listen to take advantage. The more you observe and listen, the more you can take advantage, as each time you do so, you can learn a lot. You can learn what to do or what not to do just by observing and listening to other people; you can get insight that you wouldn’t have had otherwise. This is helpful to make better decisions, to choose which direction to follow, to get a better overview, or to be more creative. As Richard Branson said: “We have two ears and one mouth, using them in proportion is not a bad idea!” We have two eyes, two ears, and one mouth, using them in proportion provides good ideas!

CB

Using a compass to navigate is about discovering new horizons, new lands with new lenses. Using a map to navigate is about following what our predecessors have drawn. What if the map is wrong? How to be sure that the map reflects the true reality? Maps represent a given perception. Compass is for open-minded and critical explorations. The one who gets used to follow maps risks to loose open-mindedness and critical sense, but the one who gets used to use a compass become open-minded and critical. He can build a map. Compass is for looking, seeing, observing, reading, thinking, reasoning from the starting point “I don’t know”. As Socrates has said: “All I know is that I know nothing”. Rather prefer not knowing but knowing how to know than knowing something wrong and believing it is right.

CB

The answer is “Yes”, if you look through a quantitative lens and consider that leadership is defined by the number of followers. The answer is “Not necessarily”, if you look through a qualitative lens and wonder about the way the hierarchical leader got his followers – e.g. dictatorship is not leadership. So if you take both perceptions into consideration, leadership is not necessarily a matter of hierarchical position. May the people with higher hierarchical positions be leaders, not bosses. As Abraham Lincoln has said: “If you want to test a man's character, give him power”. May the people with power get the right character!

CB

When we buy the products “made in our country”, we support our economy because we enable local businesses to persist and local jobs to exist. Therefore we fight against unemployment. When unemployment is lower, less people need welfare. As Ronald Reagan has said: “We should measure welfare's success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added”. May we buy the products “made in our country”, especially if their quality is better and even if they are a bit more expensive, because each time we do so, we support local employment. If we don’t support local employment, people risk to lose their job and economic independence, more people would need welfare and the government would raise taxes for social peace. So, in the end, it is far less expensive to buy the products “made in our country” and keep local employment, than to pay expensive taxes to compensate for local unemployment.

CB

Abraham Lincoln said that “No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent”. A true leader gets people consent by helping them being independent and so genuinely free. An impostor gets people consent by making them dependent on him. When you become dependent, you lose freedom. When you lose your freedom, you move toward a direction in which one doesn’t need your consent anymore. This is imposture! True leaders aim for true freedom, the freedom that comes from independence. This requires goodness and greatness. You need goodness to value others interests as much as yours and greatness to put the interests of the nation above your own interests.

CB

We can divide the nation into three main stakeholders: people who create wealth, the government, and people who don’t create wealth. People who create wealth give a part of their wealth by paying business taxes to the government. The government uses this wealth to finance its plan and support all stakeholders: the government himself, people who don’t create wealth, and people who do. So people who create wealth are the cornerstone of our system. And the balance of our system depends on the level of taxes fixed by the government. On one hand, the more a government taxes people, the more the government puts a constraint on them, the more work is depreciated, and the more people lose independence. If you push this model at end, the system becomes a dictatorship. On the other hand, if you push the model toward its opposite, the system becomes an anarchy. With this reasoning, we understand that democracy is between dictatorship and anarchy, and that the level of taxes fixed by the government can be an indicator of democracy. The sweet point of democracy is reached when the balance between the three stakeholders is well-balanced and fair. When people are too taxed, you should wonder about the direction in which you are moving. And as Plato said: “Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments”.

CB

If we increase business taxes, companies would have to find ways to maintain their profitability and survive. Among them, four options have been often applied. First option is to work more to generate the same incomes as before the taxes have increased. If so, would people agree to work more without being paid more? Second option is to fire employees to reduce costs. If so, would unemployment be a solution for a nation? Third option is to sell products and services at higher prices to maintain necessary margin to pay employees wages for example. If so, customers would have to pay more to buy the same things as before the taxes have increased. Therefore increasing business taxes creates inflation. Fourth option is to take a loan. If so, would debt be a solution? Limiting or decreasing taxes to encourage people growing their businesses should thus create new jobs, decrease unemployment, slow down inflation, limit debt and reflate the economy. As Ronald Reagan has said: “The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much”. May the government support businesses, not charge them to spend more.

CB

Economy is in the front row in our system, in the world wherein we live. We need money to live, to buy food or a roof. We need money to live freely. As Franklin D. Roosevelt has said: “True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence”. People who earn money – workers, employers, entrepreneurs - create wealth, benefit of a certain economic security and independence, and strengthen the system by paying income taxes for example. So people who unfortunately cannot or don’t create wealth thus depend on what they can benefit from the system to live. When we depend on others, are we truly free?

CB