I'm very excited to announce that, as of today, Jewcy has been adopted by JDub, the non-profit dedicated to innovative Jewish content, community, and cross-cultural dialogue. What does this announcement mean for you, the Jewcy reader? A few things:

• We'll be making it easier for you guys to participate on Jewcy and be part of our community, making sure all voices are heard.
• Jewcy is no longer a for-profit company. We're a non-profit. So stop asking to bum twenty bucks already. In fact, speaking of twenty bucks...
• Our vision and editorial integrity will not change. We are still committed to bringing you up-to-date, relevant, challenging, interesting content.
• Another thing that won't change: me. I'll be giving up my title of "Head of the Jewcy Government in Exile" and going back to just "Jewcy Editor."

Want to know more? Check out the official press release below, but first a quick note from JDub's Jacob Harris:

Huge thank yous go out to Jon Steingart and Jenny Wiener for their visionary leadership in the creation of Jewcy, Tahl Raz for his editorial expertise and creative passion, and Michael Tive and Craig Leinoff for leading us to this new opportunity and shaping it into a reality. We are very excited to welcome Lilit into our organization and continue the important work they began!

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I do not have a head for business. I know this for a fact. In college I took one business class to fill a requirement and when it came time to write my final paper, my topic was: "Why I'd Be a Bad Business Owner." I got an A-; apparently, I had an airtight case.

After college, I tried out my own handbag business. It wasn't lucrative by any means. After all was said and done, I had made a few thousand dollars over the course of the year, I had my custom-made handbags in stores in Boston, Brooklyn, and Boulder, but I was definitely not on my way to being the next Kate Spade. I did it more for the love of handbags and sewing, and less for the big dreams of seeing my bags on the arms of celebrities and socialites.

I thought I had abandoned all whimsies of the business world until a friend sent me an article about something I think I'd like to get into...making money off the Christians. Yes, that's right: making money off the Christians. I've piqued your interest, haven't I?

So this company, Eternal Earthbound Pets, is offering the service of "confirmed Atheists" to look after your pet when the Rapture happens. Obviously, when the Second Coming of Jesus rolls around only the Christians (both alive and dead ones) are going to be called on up to Heaven, and sadly, their pets will be left behind.

Eternal Earthbound Pets charges the very reasonable rate of $110 per animal per household ($15 for each additional animal per household), and guarantees the safety of your pet for up to ten years of receiving your payment. Yes, this means that if the Rapture goes down 11 years from now, then you're shit out of luck. Like any good business, Eternal Earthbound Pets has a set of terms and conditions, and basically, you're not getting a refund if you lose your faith between now and the end of the world, or if Jesus decides you're not worthy and leaves you behind. Oh well.

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G-d told me to go on tour with a punk band called CAN!!CAN.

No shit, I wish I were making this up.

I'd love to wake up in the morning, eat a bagel, go to work in a cubicle Office Space style and fly under the radar for the rest of my life. But I can't. As The Blues Brothers said, "we're on a mission from G-d".

It came to me like a flash in the dark; like a warm feeling in my stomach after eating hot tomato soup on a cold day. I need to go on tour with my band. I need to sing about spirituality, G-d's love for humanity, tikkun olam, olam haba and all the things that drove me crazy-in-love with my creator.

And I needed to do it through indie punk, hipster metal and noise pop. 

So I started messaging some friends; frum-punks, hippiedox kids, tattooed Reform rejects...anyone who would listen to what I was trying to do. 

It worked out. My tour is being guided by the great people at Shemspeed, Artists4Israel, ModernTribe.com, Frumsatire.com, HeebnVegan, Bahay Shalom, Birthright Israel - Next, PresenTense...you name it! And I get to work with some awesome cats like Y-Love, Matthue Roth, Diwon, DeScribe, Stereo Sinai, Juez, Darshan and others.

The greatest thing that ever happened to me was waking up and realizing that my life was no longer about me anymore. Luckily, G-d saw it fit that the one thing I'm good at, playing in a rock band, is the thing he needed me to do the most.

I'm one lucky guy. Shalom...and I better see you guys rocking out with your cocks out!

TH Aug 13 Louisville, KY @ Derby City Espresso

F Aug 14 Louisville, KY @ Adath Jeshurun Synagogue Patrick A Dvar Torah!!

SN Aug 16 Chicago @ Empty Bottle sponsored by Birthright Israel, PresenTense, Shemspeed

M Aug 17 Indianapolis, IN @ The Vollrath

T Aug 18 Teaneck, NJ @ Shemspeed Summer Music Festival - Mexicali Live

W Aug 19 Baltimore, MD @ Sidebar

TH Aug 20 Philadelphia, PA @ Shemspeed Summer Music Festival -The Raven Lounge

F Aug 21 Providence, RI @ AS220

S Aug 22 Trenton, NJ @ Millhill Basement 

SN Aug 23 Amityville, NY @ Broadway

M Aug 24 Asbury Park, NJ @ The Saint

TH Aug 27 NYC @ Shemspeed Music Festival - The Bellhouse

F Aug 28 Hickory, NC @ Drips Coffee House 

 

www.punktorah.com

www.myspace.com/cancanband 

Jews don't seem to care as much about Judaism as they used to.

This smacked me on the head recently when I learned that a friend of mine's step-father (born to a Jewish family) recently "accepted Christ" and attends an Evangelical Christian church.

Based on history, the two best ways to destroy Jewish populations are to kill or convert. Outside of extreme Islamo-Facsist nations, we really don't have to worry too much about Holocaust Part II. 

Conversion, on the other hand, is our own damn fault, and marketing is the only way to stop it.

Marketing has a principle called the Four P's: product (what you're actually selling), price (cost), promotion (what you use to convey your ideas) and placement (where your product stands in the market). For a company or movement to be successful, it has to have the right product, at the right price, promoted and placed well in the market.

Jews are leaving the "Jewish lifestyle" for three religions: secularism/atheism, Christianity, and Buddhism. So how does Judaism fail to meet the Four P's and how have these other religions been successful? Let's compare:

PRODUCT

Atheism: you get to be just like everyone else, living for yourself and nothing more. No rules, no responsibilities, just fun!

Christianity: you get to be like everyone else, only you get to go to Heaven, too! You have to go to church on Sunday, but there's one on every corner and every flavor you like.

Buddhism: if you're introspective and want to sit on your ass and learn the nature of everything just by chilling out, then you're in!

Judaism: you get to eat a restricted diet, can't go out Friday night or shopping on Saturday, and all your rituals seem quaint and mysterious, like a cult.

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When I graduated from college, my enemy was clear: the man in the grey flannel suit.  The big-business corporate capitalist, fixated on greed, destroying the environment, spreading consumerism - and all so that he could get the better BMW than the next guy.  There was everything wrong with this guy.  He was barely human: fixated on materialism, on feathering his own anti-spiritual nest.  Worse, he didn't keep his mediocrity to himself: in his lust for more and more money, he screwed the poor and paved the Earth.

Typical college naivete, I suppose--but worth revisiting, now fifteen years later, because as many of my peers have outgrown it, I've come to re-embrace it.  In fact, I've noticed a strange thing happening in the last few months: I've come to really re-appreciate a lot of my adolescent dreams, and see how important they are, politically and spiritually, for more people to dream in their own way.  In "The Dream of the Magician," the dream was about seizing the day and living an extraordinary life instead of an ordinary one.  Now, I want to explore what happens when you don't do that. 

I should know.  I spent eight years as a part-time software lawyer, and was only able to quit that "day job" two years ago.  Unlike my college-aged self, I actually have some experience with the business world.  So, if you, Zeek/Jewcy reader, are in a similar place to where I once was, and you're wondering which path to take--or if you're somewhere along your path, and wondering what went wrong--consider this my sage advice.  All of this, of course, is based entirely on my own experience, and is entirely subjective.  I'm no sage, and don't want to tell anyone how to live.  But here's what I learned.

1.         Some of my story

There was never a moment where I actually, consciously sold out.  After college, while many of my classmates jumped lemming-like into the high capitalist business world--and are millionaires today (or were, Fred Hill Briefcase Drill Team: by jenniferrt66before Madoff and the recession)--I looked to a path less traveled.  I took a year out, pursued writing and mysticism, and other ends.  Eventually, yes, I went to law school, but I did so to become an environmental lawyer.  I felt then as though the choices were between indulgence (writing, grad school, etc.) and activism--and I chose activism, to fight the urban-sprawlers and carbon-spewers. 

But eventually, I fell off that track, disillusioned with the careerism of professional environmentalists and dispirited at my chances of joining them.  I had thought I was going to use my talent to make a difference, but instead I found a highly competitive job market, in which dozens of qualified candidates jockeyed for the few jobs available--jobs which I couldn't really see myself enjoying.  Besides, at that time, I was confused about who I was sexually, religiously, and in many other ways.  There wasn't anything I could really see myself enjoying.

So I took another year out, again focusing on writing and music, but also doing some academic work, and generally unsure of what to do.  At that time, the dot-com boom was booming.  People were making millions overnight.  And so, when an acquaintance of mine discussed a business idea, I decided to go for it.  We actually had a solid business, and a product that had merit - we weren't selling pet food on the web.  And so I thought we had a good shot at flipping the company quickly: 18 to 24 months at most.  Sure, I would suffer and languish for that year or two that it would take to build up the company.  But I could cash in my chips for enough money to keep me satisfied for many years.  And then I would be able to spend those years doing what I really  wanted to do, whatever that was.

Now, such an aspiration is not unique.  Many Wall Street folks have what they call "The Number" - the amount of money needed to retire for good.  Of course, most of these people continue to work after ‘retirement,' but at that point, it's for fun, or more riches, or whatever.  For what it's worth, my Number was about $3-4 million.  Much more modest than most Numbers, and entirely realistic, given the market at that time.

Unfortunately, the market crashed, not long after we started the company.  Because, as I mentioned, we actually had a product, we didn't disappear like so many of our peers.  (Ah, for the days of UrbanFetch!)  In 2001, I cut back my hours, started Zeek, and did start doing what I really wanted to do-- write, spiritual practice, teach, and make music, as well as, you know, come out of the closet and start leading a normal life.  But I kept the day-job, and I was lucky to have it; it supported me for a long time.  I don't regret it.
But I did learn a few things about what happens when you sink into the business world--and let me share some of those with you.

2.         Darth Sidious

Let's start with this: either you're authentically interested in your work, or you're not.  If you're not, the result is likely to be good, old fashioned alienation: feeling unfulfilled, hating your job, sacrificing yourself for something (kids, house, etc.).  You can focus on those other things, but, I've found, alienation is incredibly soul-killing.  You just slowly become grey, without even knowing it's happening.  This is obvious.

by jenniferrt66I'm more interested in the less obvious, more insidious consequences.  Chances are, after awhile, you either get interested in your job, or leave and find one that interests you.  But this, too, has its pitfalls: because you start caring about the job, instead of things which, I think, should matter more.  The worst is the small stuff: issues which can't possibly matter - but, dammit, there's a right way and a wrong way!  But even the bigger stuff is a distraction.  Our poor, human minds are limited, and you can only feed one part at the expense of another part.  It is, to some extent, a zero-sum game.  So which factor do you choose to feed: the loving-life one, or the business part?  The naive, open, loving, artistic part, or the practical, nuts-and-bolts, time-to-grow-up part?  Of course, you can have both, but you do, at some point, have to choose which to feed more.

It's not even that the business side is all about greed or avarice, like in Hollywood movies.  On the contrary, I found that the money is often beside the point.  It functions exactly as points in a sports game: to see who's winning.  The point is that the whole game is a distraction.  Personally, I entered business for instrumental reasons, and yet most people around me, at least on the leadership level, are here for intrinsic ones.  I'm like someone who started to play tennis to improve my hand-eye coordination, but who eventually got really interested in the game--instead of other stuff, like living a good life, experiencing awe and wonder, all of it.  The more comfortable I became in business, the less I resembled the person I set out to be.

Next point.  Business is not just a neutral distraction from the important stuff; it tends to reinforce certain values over other ones.  For example, asking "how much stuff can I get for the self" instead of poking the head up, looking around, noticing that there are six billion of us confused and suffering ants in this anthill, and saying "wait!  I see!  I'm awake!  I don't have to get more stuff!"  The first view is quite natural; every animal wants more and bigger stuff, and so many conservatives will tell you than any other view is just delusion.  But, having lived from both views, I will tell you that the second one is liberation.  It is the essence of religious and spiritual teaching, and the opening to spending life wisely.  Yet at times, I've been so enmeshed in business, and also the cost/benefit fetishism of legal academia, that I've tried to quantify the value of an afternoon picnic, or the utility I get from gazing at a flower.  This is horrible.  But when I'm a bit more centered, the "natural" view looks like insanity.  What is the point, again?

Similarly, it just doesn't do, in most workplaces, to be the kind of warm, fuzzy, hippieish loving person that I want to be.  I want my heart to be open--but it's pointless to do that in the business world, where there is work to be done, and where you've got to work with people you might not choose to interact with otherwise.  I remember trying it, a few times, coming off of meditation retreat and being a bit warmer and more human in my business conversations.  Usually, it was just weird.  Getting along in business means holding back on the Double Check: MacGeekGrllove a little--and that, to me at least, sucks, especially as its replaced by values of efficiency and professionalism.  I've come to see the "businessman" as one of many voices I can take on.   He's a valuable voice; I create mean Excel models and Powerpoints.  But he also is kind of dismissive, contemptuous, and, well, mean, just like the financial models.  I don't like being him for very long; it's toxic to the parts of myself I love more.

So, these are some of the troubles with business.  It sneaks up on you, and gradually changes you into someone you never set out to become--only, since so many other people are doing it too, you get a whole ready-made ideology for why that is a process of "maturation" rather than alienation.  Maybe you'll have a midlife crisis when you suddenly realize how little time you have left to live--and maybe someone will sell you a sports car as a result.  Or maybe you'll look at your kids and put your deferred dreams onto their heads instead.  Or, who knows, maybe it's right for you; remember, my only point is it wasn't right for me.

Of course, almost all of us must do some business some of the time, even if it's only balancing our household budget and paying taxes.  It's part of life.  But when it becomes a primary part, I can be sure that the qualities I appreciate most, about myself and my life, will be threatened. 


3.         The rest of the story

As I mentioned at the beginning, many people I went to college and law school with became millionaires, not to mention mayors, professors, and partners in huge law firms.  They are more powerful than I am, and their money can buy them the best seats on Broadway, the best hotel rooms in the Caribbean, and many other best things that I'd like to enjoy, but rarely can afford.  Obviously, one reason I have spent time considering "the trouble with business" is that, as I discussed a couple of months ago ("The Dream of the Magician"), there are plenty of troubles with the non-lucrative life as well.  I cop to all of that.  So, if you, reader, feel yourself authentically drawn to the business world, and not drawn to anything else, go for it.  Give at least 10% of your adjusted gross income to charity, build thick retaining walls between your professional and personal lives, and make sure you can take enough vacation to do real spiritual work on yourself. 

But if you're like me, and wondering which path to take, just remember that there are costs on all sides--it's a question of which you want to bear.  For myself, even copping to all that envy, I remember a very simple point:  Life is short.  How much of it are you going to waste making money?

 

 

Header Image: The Devil That You Know by Thomas Hawk.

Mark Cuban, the 50-year-old owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and all-around BMOC, has been popped by the US Securities and Exchanges Commission on allegations of insider trading. A couple of years ago this would have appeared to have been no big deal, as famous people simply didn’t go to jail. However, following the gigantic- corporations- collapsing- because- all- of- their- executives- were- hilariously- corrupt trend of the early aughts, it’s a whole new ballgame. If Martha Stewart can spend time up the river, Mark Cuban is hardly untouchable.Cubes

Cuban is probably best known for the over-the-top excitement and zeal he demonstrates as the owner of the Mavs. Rather than perching himself in the owner's box like a gargoyle, Cuban attends every game sitting in the stands and sporting a Mavericks jersey, cheering loudly when the team is playing well and letting refs know what’s up when he disagrees with their calls. It is the latter that has led to Cuban being slapped with over a million dollars in fines since buying the team from Ross Perot in 2000. He initially made his money with the start-up software company, MicroSolutions, which he sold to CompuServe in 1990, and then Broadcast.com, which he flipped to Yahoo! for $5.9 billion in stock in 1999 before diversifying his portfolio and getting out before the dot-com crash. Other than his maverick ways as owner of the Mavericks, Cuban has gained exposure as a contestant on Dancing With The Stars, the proprietor of HDNet and holder of the Guinness World Record for the largest eCommerce purchase in history, with his $40 million airplane that he purchased online.

The current charges against Cuban revolve around his dealings with Mamma.com, a search engine that Cuban had invested in and subsequently pulled his money out of upon apparently receiving a confidential tip about an upcoming business transaction. Considering the regularity with which I personally use the Internet and had not heard of or visited Mamma.com before hearing of the accusations against Cuban, I would imagine the past 12 hours or so have been the most trafficked in the site’s history. It’s not so good; I can see why he bailed.

If there was any Jew whose legacy confuses us, it's Karl Marx. On the one hand, his thoughts led to the largest political movement in history and changed the world. How's that for a nice young Jewish boy from Trier? On the other hand, his writings led to dozens of totalitarian dictatorships, state-sponsored murder of tens of millions of people, and economic catastrophe for hundreds of millions. The shonde!

You can give your guilt complex a nap on this one. Marx wasn't even a lapsed Jew. He was a lapsed Christian. His father converted to Christianity to advance his career. Young Karl disavowed all religions and would later rant against them, especially Judaism. In fact, he is better remembered as one of the world's most accomplished anti-semites. His famous "On the Jewish Question" called for an end to the emancipation of the Jews because they were enslaved by a harsher taskmaster than the German state: their own religion. He referred to money as the real God of the Old Testament. And, probably not coincidentally, he was frequently in debt to Jewish moneylenders.

Therefore, Karl Marx only counts as a Jew on the slimmest of halachic opinions. And if there was an expulsion process for the Tribe, he would probably be first on the list. His hatred of Jews arose more from his own confusion about his heritage, and his inability to repay his debts, than from a legitimate concern for the human race.

This isn't meant to be a "Who Is a Jew" exercise, though. Something more important is at stake. Right-wingers throughout the world often equate Marx' supposed Judaism with a solid link between the religion and communism. There isn't. Marx borrowed nothing from the Jewish tradition to formulate his ideals. In fact, the concept of social classes is very much woven throughout the Torah and Talmud. A rich man should be Karl Marx: He's got the nosehonored, it's written, because he has received the blessing of wealth from God. A midrashic quotation even claims that God hasn't performed any open miracles since the sojourn in the desert because he's too busy being entertained by the rising and falling of human beings along the "ladders of wealth". Apparently the Forbes 400 is delivered up there.

Marx took his brand of ideology from the roiling cauldron of German intellectual thought of the mid Nineteenth Century. His only nod to Judaism was to denounce it. So the next time you're at a party and a suburban socialist mentions how Marx was a progressive Jew, please correct that person. The God of the Torah wasn't money, as Marx claimed, but He also most definitively was not a communist. And Karl Marx most certainly wasn't Jewish.

Sam Jaffe, co-author of Jewish Wisdom for Business Success, has spent the last week guest-blogging on Jewcy with fellow co-author Rabbi Levi Brackman. This is his parting post. Want more? Buy the book!

The vultures are gathering. In the midst of the carnage of the financial meltdown, the anti-semites are starting to circle. Everyone's favorite carrion-picker, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announced to the U.N. General Assembly that "aggressors" who hide behind their "financial, political and propaganda powers, not only escape punishment but claim righteousness..." are to blame for the problems of today's markets. Hamas soon dug in its claws too when spokesman Fawzi Barhum analyzed the global financial system and blamed the "Jewish lobby that put the banking system in place."

How can these people say such things? Because we let them. By not engaging in a free and honest debate about Jews and money, we are handing the discussion to our enemies on a silver platter. Instead of greeting them vigorously with facts and solidly-based opinions, we offer them silence. All too often, the rest of the world interprets that as agreement.

Nobody has offered me the podium at the U.N.'s General Assembly to reply to the Iranian president. But Jewcy has offered and encouraged me to respond. So here's what I have to say:

Dear Mahmoud,

Yes, it is true that there are a lot of successful Jews on Wall Street. It's also true that the Jews are disproportionately represented amongst scientists, academics, lawyers, artists and musicians. But that has nothing to do with our DNA or a secret group of our leaders pulling everyone else's strings. The secret to our success was seeded in the desert four thousand years ago when Abraham taught us how to be entrepreneurial and later when Moses taught us the finer points of leadership skills. We honed it later in the streets of Europe when we were banished to the mercantile backwater of money-lending. And then it bloomed when we were given an equal footing in America. Whether or not we, as individuals, are religious doesn't matter. The religion itself taught our forefathers the keys to success, positive thinking, how to recover from failure, and many other lessons. We've absorbed it by osmosis whether we, as individuals, are religious or not. We didn't come to this success because we cheated. We were given tools by our tradition that gave us a smidgen of advantage. I'll be glad to share them with you. If you buy my book.

Sincerely,
Sam Jaffe

Sam Jaffe, co-author of Jewish Wisdom for Business Success, is guest-blogging on Jewcy with fellow co-author Rabbi Levi Brackman. He'll be here all week. Stay tuned.

Also see: Letters to Ahmadinejad

The global financial markets are in ruins. It's irrelevant whether the street's name starts with Wall or Main; on every metaphorical avenue, dirt road, and interstate in practically every city and locale around the world the real people that inhabit these spaces are scared and uncertain.  So it should be surprising that the incredibly relevant and timely wisdom and advice offered by Rabbi Levi Brackman and Sam Jaffe, co-authors of the recently published Jewish Wisdom for Buisness Success, has been met with the equivalent of an angry shush by Jewish media.

Christian media outlets, as the New York Times reported a week ago, have enthusiastically responded to a book that condemns greed, promotes charity, and attempts to outline a holistic existential blueprint balancing financial imperatives with spiritual ambitions. The Times' article implicitly begs the question as to why Jewcy would be the only Jewish outlet to feature the book and its authors.

For an answer to the Times' question one doesn't need to go further than the ADL's Abe Foxman, an almost full-proof barometer of the most fear-driven and ignorant elements of the Jewish communal psyche. Foxman's public refusal to endorse the book is but one point in a constellation of public and private interests that continually stifle any discussion around Jews and money.

It's a shame. Brackman, a Judaic scholar and teacher who runs a consulting practice for business-people in search of career fulfillment, and Jaffe, a former Wall Street Journal staffer and entrepreneur within the renewable energy space, have written a book with an undeniably fascinating premise: that is, the statistically disproportionate success Jews achieve in business is not due to "smart" genes or a secret Yiddish cabal that controls the levers of power, but to the religion itself. Their book is an attempt to prove this hypothesis. 

Join us this whole week as Jewcy will devote its lead space to the posts of Brackman and Jaffe as they wrestle with Jews and money, not only from a perspective of altitude, to elaborate and often counter the explosive mythologies that have developed around this issue, but also at street-level, to show readers how Torah and the culture that it spawned established concrete ideas and lessons to help anyone - Jew or gentile - achieve greater success in business. 

Today's posts:

Sam Jaffe on whether God has a place in the worlds of business and money

Levi Brackman on writing a How-To Guide on Becoming Rich Like the Jews

It is great to be blogging on Jewcy.com. My blog posts this week will be about my recent experiences with the media and the reactions to my book: Jewish Wisdom for Business Success. Some Jews were not impressed by the title. 

They don’t realize that the title I originally wanted was “Become Rich Like the Jews: A How-to Guide” but the publisher refused to go with it claiming that is was too antisemitic, so we settled on the less explosive title we currently have.

OK OK… Before the ADL's Abe Foxman (who the Maariv Newspaper says won't endorse my book) lynches me, let me say—for those without a sense of humor—that I am joking. Of course I am not trying to use a nasty stereotype to sell books.

Israeli Daily Newspaper The Maariv says ADL's Abe Foxman wont endorse Jewish Wisdom for Business SuccessThe point “Jewish Wisdom for Business Success” makes is that there is profound wisdom within Judaism's ancient teachings and holy books that instruct successful financial and business practices. This wisdom is needed now—when the current financial crisis is hitting many of us in our pocket books— more than ever.

Here are a few tips from Jewish wisdom that will help you through.

1. Do not let fear motivate your financial decisions. (Chapter 1 of the book).
2. Don’t allow yourself to be pulled into a cycle of negative thinking. Remember that many will get hurt but some will prosper as well. Why should you not end up being one of those that will prosper? (Chapter 8 of the book)
3. When you need to purchase something, know that it is now a buyer’s market and you can negotiate better terms and conditions for yourself on large item purchases. (Lern how to negotiate in Chapter 5 of the book)
4. Remember that failure is a state of mind not a state of being. So if things do not go well for you there might be a lesson there for you to learn from. (Chapter 6 of the book)
5. Don’t allow the bad economy to take you off your path towards your ultimate goals. (Chapter 2 of the book)
6. Be involved with your finances; don’t completely rely on others. (Chapter 4 of the book)

Each day this week, at the end of my blog posts, I will elaborate on one of the above-mentioned tips, so look out for them.

Rabbi Levi Brackman, co-author of Jewish Wisdom for Buisness Success, is guest-blogging on Jewcy, and he'll be here all week.  Stay tuned.

When Zimbabwe recently cracked down on CARE—a leading humanitarian organization focused on global poverty which has spent more than $100 million in Zimbabwe in the last 16 years—I started thinking about how some charities do amazing work, but somehow don’t leave the people they serve any better off. This month, CARE would have fed more than 110,000 people who will now go hungry because President Robert Mugabe has limited the charity's access. It's upsetting that 110,000 people depend on CARE every month, and leads me to wonder whether charities like CARE and Feed the Children could be doing more to fight hunger and poverty long term, instead of always focusing on the immediate.

This is a tricky question. If someone is starving in front of you, it’s unimaginable to say to her, “Well, I’m going to give my money to an advocacy group that is helping to eliminate hunger long term.” But if that person is dependent on handouts from you and others, there’s little chance the problem will ever be solved.

Judaism places a high priority on giving time, money and resources to those in need. Over and over again, the Torah commands us to care for the widow, the orphan and the stranger among us. We are to provide food and clothing for those who need them, heal the sick, and bury the dead. But of course, it’s not that simple. Thousands of charities compete for our support every day, dealing with everything from hunger relief in Africa and animal cruelty in the States to global warming. Kids Can't Survive: without CARE

Maimonides is famous for his ladder of tzedakah, or hierarchy of giving. The highest form of tzedakah, according to Maimonides, is to give an interest free loan, or to enter into a business partnership. To help someone get back on her feet and provide for herself is considered higher than providing immediate relief to a problem.

In some cases, immediate relief is all that is needed. In the aftermath of major natural disasters, immediate support in the form of food, water, clothing, shelter, and medical supplies is absolutely necessary, and may be all that can be reasonably done. But when we’re dealing with a long term problem with no end in sight, it may be better to think big picture and give to charities that are working on the roots of our problems, not the buds.

Long ago, far away, I bought a typesetting company in Iowa with my mentor and business partner. Yes, yes, yes, I know I'm an idiot. I am reminded daily. The Wall Street Journal said I was a dope. Business Week decided I could have been more clued in. And a letter I got in the mail today told me that "If you'd talked to me, you'd never have bought that company and had to bear your guilty soul."

As the book the Secret says, if you want it bad enough, it will come to you. And if you don't, you'll deserve the crap you get.

It's nice to be smart in retrospect. It's comforting to know you'd never have pushed the launch button on the Challenger or invested with the Hunt Brothers or bought a Newton.

In the book the Black Swan, Nassim Taleb points out that, "Nobody would publish a book about business failure." Because the business press, and media in general, creates the myth of the formula for success. How do you find this equation? Just get a bunch of successful people in a room and try to find something they all share in common. Do they get up early to exercise? Did they have sloppy handwriting in grade school? Do they lace their shoes all on the left and then the right?

Nassim says it's all bunk. Success is what we all know already, a mix of skill, perseverance, and luck. And luck is a big big part of it. If Bill Gate's mother hadn't been on the board of United Way with the CEO of IBM, he likely wouldn't have gotten that meeting to sell them DOS. And how do you control who your mother knows? I guess you just have to wish hard enough.

 

 

Johnny Carson: As if you didn't know.I remember as a child watching Carson propping up his guests' latest book on his prop desk (why's he need a desk? he got a stapler in there?) and the camera cuts to a close shot of the title. I thought nothing of it.

Now I'm an author and, while Johnny is gone, the thought of my book being pimped on TV is nothing short of pornographic. I turn on my Tivo'd Daily Show and wait for John Stewart to say, "And tonight, author of the engaging memoir about stupid business decisions, David Silverman."

Of course, that's not going to happen. Mostly because the show I'm watching is taped. And also, I already sent them a nice email and they said no.

I can't speak for all authors, but I can for myself and several friends. We are schizophrenics, all of us. We want nothing more than for you to buy our book and love it, and yet, when the chance comes to sell it to you, we kind of shrug our shoulders and say, "Yeah, um, it's about losing $4 million and ruining this business in Iowa and putting 200 people out of work. So, OK, I think it's maybe interesting to some people. I mean it's no Salman Rushdie, but it's a nice book."

The fact is, we feel guilty for trying to sell ourselves, and yet we secretly check our Amazon ranking every night at 2 am. (I just did, and I don't want to talk about it.)

Well, earlier this week I went to my cousin's funeral where two things were hammered in my head by all my relatives:

1. "The gravestone has two dates and a dash. What really matters is the dash and what you do with it."

2. "Hey David, how are the book sales going?"

So, without further ado, I give you an excerpt of Typo: The Last American Typesetter or How I Made and Lost $4 Million, as animated by the amazing Scott Bateman. And then I shrug my shoulders and smile hopefully.