Give the Gift of Code

Last year, I had the pleasure of becoming friends with the two young ladies in the photo above. We met when my colleagues and I volunteered to teach an "Hour of Code" at their school in collaboration with Code.org. Zipping through coding games - like Minecraft, Frozen and Angry Birds - it became very clear who was teaching whom. It was amazing to watch these girls' natural aptitude and excitement for technology blossom before my eyes.

Technology drives innovation in the global economy. Yet, the juxtaposition of the opportunity vs. the reality for building technology skills in young people today exposes a major gap. According to Code.org, the 43,000 computer science graduates who entered the workforce in the U.S. last year made only a small dent in the 500,000+ computing jobs that are unfilled. And, 90% of parents want students to study computer science; yet, only 40% of schools teach programming in the U.S., and just six states have created K-12 computer science standards.

It begs the question: Why aren't kids who are growing up surrounded by technology learning about algorithms, the cloud and making apps - just like they learn about grammar, multiplication and the law of gravity?

Industry is seizing the opportunity to fill this gap - sparking an interest in technology and introducing basic STEM skills. In the last few years, the number of STEM toys in the market has increased significantly. Search "STEM toys" on Amazon and you get over 2,000 hits. Fisher-Price introduced "Think & Learn Code-a-Pillar," where kids connect different segments to make the toy light up, move in different paths and make noises. The more kids rearrange Code-a-Pillar pieces, the more they develop critical thinking skills by "programming" different combinations to send it in different directions. It mimics the same planning and sequencing skills as coding, while encouraging curiosity, problem solving and experimentation.

My friend's 4-year-old daughter, pictured below, gives Code-a-Pillar a big thumbs- up. Interestingly, she had it scooting across the floor while mom and dad were still reading the directions! I see coding in her future ...

Programmable robots like Ozobots and Dash & Dot, Kano - where you build your own computer - and puzzles and block games like Cubetto and Puzzlet have all hit the shelves. Even Barbie is getting into the game: STEM Barbie was unveiled recently, and kids can construct models (for accessories in Barbie's Dreamhouse - who doesn't need a revolving shoe carousel?) and do science experiments.

Another way to help close the STEM gap is to teach kids to code. Accenture is partnering with Code.org again this year to promote Hour of Code on December 5-11. There are many ways to get involved ... work 1:1 with a child (your own, nieces and nephews or neighbors), volunteer in a school, or host an event. I promise you will have as much fun as the kids. It's easy - no prior coding experience is needed. Last year, Accenture spent over 12,000 hours helping kids learn to code in 196 cities and 56 countries around the world. We aim to surpass those numbers this year because we believe that, in one hour, you really can change the world. Join me and my colleagues and give the gift of code this holiday season.

Old School Is New School

We live in the age of the “Next Big Thing.”

The latest and greatest smartphones are released every twelve months, rendering the last model about as useful as a paperweight (if you believe the marketing hype).  An entire industry has been built around Silicon Valley’s cult of disruption, a belief that we should always be replacing our old way of thinking and doing with new and exciting ideas.

It seems like nothing is safe from our love affair with newness.  In the coming years, cars will relieve us of the burden of sitting behind the wheel and smart refrigerators will relieve us of the worry of remembering to pick up milk.

Don’t get me wrong – I love technology. In fact, one of the most gratifying parts of my job is working with software and technology companies and the growth of their businesses. It’s hard not to be excited by the endless ways that innovation will change our lives for the better in the years to come. 

But while many of my friends and colleagues spend their free time reading about the future of robotics and artificial intelligence and thinking about how the Internet of Things will change our daily lives, I far more often find myself thumbing through decades-old issues of Forbes, Businessweek or Fortune, soaking up as much insight as I can from great dealmakers now relegated to the history books.

One mainstay on my nightstand is a battered old copy of Business Adventures by John Brooks that I bought from an actual bookstore (not online!) when I was in high school.  The book was originally published in 1969, but the insights remain astonishingly relevant today.  The passage I probably re-read the most is about the Ford Edsel fiasco, which is the ultimate cautionary tale about the importance of paying close attention to your market and being ready to respond when your customers’ preferences and demands change. It’s no surprise to many that the business leaders I admire, including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, are fans of Brooks and his timeless wisdom.

One of the core lessons the greatest investors and business leaders share is an obsession with the fundamentals. In hot markets like today, in which unicorns and pre-revenue billion dollar valuations grab all the headlines, it’s easy to lose sight of the basics.​

But sizzling markets and the lure of quick profits is nothing new. When I started investing in real estate in 2007 while still a college student, the market was saturated with speculators.  The previous few years had seen unprecedented capital growth in the residential and commercial markets, and suddenly everyone was a developer or a flipper.  Finding properties that were undervalued and had strong fundamentals was extremely difficult at the time, because the competition was snapping up everything they could find and counting on never-ending price appreciation. 

Going against the grain, I began building my company by obsessing over the fundamentals – intrinsic value, recurring cash flow, and a long-term investment horizon. When the real estate market collapsed in 2008, I managed not to panic or flee, and once again went against the grain, becoming one of the most active buyers of real estate in Austin…then Texas…and eventually, the nation. Following Buffett’s advice, I was fearful when others were greedy – and then positioned to be greedy when others were fearful.

This old school approach doesn’t just apply to investing, it applies to almost every aspect of building and running a company. In business and investing, cautionary tales are everywhere – from the one-hit wonder Wall Street fund manager who delivers one knockout year and then flames out, to the Silicon Valley rising star who builds a killer app and is never heard from again.  Those of us who have achieved success at a young age should be terrified by these examples.  I’m driven every morning to build a company that creates jobs, wealth and economic opportunity not just for years, but for generations.  I can’t imagine how to do that except for being a student of history.

I’ve never liked the old saying that those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it.  To me, history is a goldmine of proven ideas just waiting to be uncovered.  It may just be that the “Next Big Thing” happened long ago. 

Nate Paul is President, CEO & Founder of World Class Capital Group, a leading national commercial real estate investment group. 

Like Hires Like: Why Women Should Run Agencies

By Rebecca Bedrossian, Global Content Director, POSSIBLE

Imagine, for a moment, that you’re at an agency founded by two women, where the executive leadership team is 50% women, and 60% of 140 employees are women. Add to that, a growing list of clients, an impressive body of work, leaders who value their people, transparency that goes a long way in retaining talent, and this seems too good to be true, right?

Wrong. It’s real. I go there every day.

Don’t beat yourself up for thinking it’s a dream. We all know gender inequality runs rampant in this industry. The 3% Conference was founded because of it. While the number of female creative directors is up to 11%, we’ve got a long way to go.

That’s why I want you to see what I see.

I want to shine a light on how a women-founded agency is thriving, as a counterpoint to all the stories we read that highlight too many white males at the top, the gender wage gap, and sexual harassment (Elephant on Mad Ave.).

Full disclosure, I am global content director of the agency that acquired this agency two years ago, and I sit there on most days. I must admit, it's an odd place to be; I'm there, somewhat related but mostly not. But what this proximity affords me is a front row seat. And every day I see many women with a place at the table. So much so, it’s the norm. It’s not a bubble. It just is. And now that I’ve seen the culture and the work firsthand, I want others to know it too. Because once you see it, you can’t un-see it—and that’s the first step in making this the norm everywhere.

Don’t just take it from me, a fellow female. According to a new Pew Research Center survey on women and leadership, “Most Americans find women indistinguishable from men on key leadership traits such as intelligence and capacity for innovation, with many saying they’re stronger than men in terms of being compassionate and organized leaders.” There are countless articles touting the benefits of working for women, who are typically more engaged than their male counterparts. And more engagement leads to a more productive workforce.

It makes business sense. And this is what I see.

I’ve learned a lot simply by watching my surroundings. While Swift doesn’t like to play the “woman” card, in this industry I feel they are a stellar example of what does work—and works well. So I’m playing it for them.

I believe in “if you cannot see it, you cannot be it.” Let’s urge trade publications to feature more women-founded companies, women-focused stories, and demand that juries and speaker panels have equal numbers of men and women. We are 50% of the population, we need 50% representation.

In Cindy Gallop's closing keynote at The 3% Conference last week, she presented a 10-point plan to start your own 'agency'. And she gave shout-outs to women-founded agencies that had started in the past year, like New York-based Joan and Wolf & Wilhelmine. It only then that I truly realized what an anomaly a women-founded agency is—because Swift is not celebrating its first anniversary, but rather its tenth.

I’ve seen the future of advertising. I want you to see it too.

3 Reasons Entrepreneurs Need Better Self-Care

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The challenge of being an entrepreneur is enormous and it has emotional and physical effects. As a consequence, you are at a health risk by virtue of being an entrepreneur. The stress and workload is capable of wearing and breaking you down health-wise. It does not mean entrepreneurs should be lax in productivity, but it calls for a smarter approach to ensure you stay healthy as an entrepreneur.

There is a common cliché that health is wealth. I am an ardent believer of that statement, and I believe you do too. Since the job of an entrepreneur is to create wealth, then staying healthy is a critical part of the entrepreneur's plans. To this end, constant self care is good business practice. The misconceptions about constant checkups are numerous. For instance, if you are between the ages of 20 and 45 years, it is generally 'ok' to see your doctor every year or two. Not a very healthy arrangement. Also, similar recommendations advise you check your cholesterol level every 5 years, blood pressure level every 2 years until you are 65 years old. This is much less frequent than most people assume, the frequency should be more and I will tell you why:

1.It Costs Less To Prevent Than To Cure
Frequent check ups save you a lot of money in the long run. Most of the tests that you need to run on a regular basis will cost you little amount of money compared to what you will spend if your health condition deteriorates. A case in question is glaucoma. While many will say it's not the worst case, it sure is a bad case to record. As often as you can, check yourself so whatever is abnormally present can be fixed before they get the chance to reel out huge medical bills that'll hurt your business in the long run.

With the global warming and the climate change that has bedeviled the world today, human health is now a high-risk issue. This has reduced life expectancy in great proportions globally. And for entrepreneurs who are exposed to harsh weather conditions in trying to make birth their dreams, they stand a higher chance of being health challenged. The business trips, the site inspections, the sleepless nights for strategics and planning, all contribute to the health risks the entrepreneur is exposed to. The earlier you detect a health challenge, the less complicated it is to deal with it. You need to be healthy to be wealthy.

2.Your Health Is An Important Asset
So many entrepreneurs are not giving their health the attention it deserves. This is chiefly because they do not see it as worth a high position in their order of preference. Well, despite what others might say, I think your most valuable asset is not your car or your home, and not even your career. "Health is not valued till sickness comes", these are the words of the British physician and scholar Dr. Thomas Fuller in 1732.

I could not agree any less with him. Too often, we take good health for granted and assume it will last forever. It is, perhaps, the greatest of all illusions. However, if it is prudent to insure our houses, our cars and other possessions, surely it is also prudent to make sensible provision for our own health. Let us, therefore, take a lesson from Dr. Fuller and value our health before sickness comes. Constant self care should form part of the entrepreneur's routine.

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3.How Long Your Business Lives Could Be Dependent On How Long You Live.
I have seen great and thriving businesses collapse soon after the demise of the entrepreneur who founded it. It could live on digitally, with the presence of some loyal staff, social media and functional web presence, but most times it fails. This is a worrisome trend and one that every living entrepreneur should look out for. Whether or not there is a recognized succession plan, the probability of businesses failing after the death of the founder is high.

So at least, make plans to secure your health so as to put up strong structures that will help your business survive after you are gone. Whenever you feel a pain or a discomfort, get it checked. A number of people have died of some complications from a knee injury after neglecting the pains felt during a simple workout session. Check yourself regularly so that you can be around for as long as you possibly can.

Elections Are Won by Votes, Not Likes and Shares

"Politics is just like show business." - Ronald Reagan

It's hard to argue with that sentiment after the recent US election. However, my interest is more on the side of how the show-business effect impacted Millennial voter turnout than in the antics and theater of any particular candidate.

To that end, it is important to note that in the US only about 50% of the eligible Millennial population actually cast a vote, versus an average of about 57% for the general population, a figure that, in and of itself, is sadly and pathetically low and, in fact, a few points lower than the last US presidential election.

Now, contrast this with the rest of the world, and by world I don't mean the countries where voting is compulsory. I mean the world where voting is mandatory as a public service. In October, The Guardian reported,

In Belgium's most recent election, 87% of the voting-age population turned out. In Turkey 84% voted and in South Korea it was 80%. But in the US, in 2012, just 54% of the voting-age population exercised their right to vote. That is one of the lowest turnouts in any developed country.

If you are interested, I recommend you read the Pew Research Center on this. It's fascinating to see how voter registration varies country to country, and I'm sure you will have, like me, your own take on why.

But back to Millennials.

While I usually hate writing about labels and have never believed the "experts'" view on the monolithic "movement" status of this generation (once again proven by this election), the ganging together of an age group as an aggregated audience is a convenient way to knock off some sacred cows.

To begin with, a critical numerical line has been crossed. According to Pew Research Center from May,

As of April 2016, an estimated 69.2 million Millennials (adults ages 18-35 in 2016) were voting-age U.S. citizens - a number almost equal to the 69.7 million Baby Boomers (ages 52-70) in the nation's electorate.

Yet, here is the critical piece of data...while many were counting on that youth vote to propel a different outcome, the truth is that:

...the high-water mark for Millennials was the 2008 election, when 50% of eligible Millennials voted. By comparison, 61% of the Generation X electorate reported voting that year, as did even larger percentages of older eligible voters. In 2008 Millennials comprised 18% of the electorate, but as a result of their relatively low turnout they were only 14% of those who said they actually voted.

But wait...it gets worse according to Pew:

Millennial turnout was less impressive in 2012, when 46% of eligible Millennials said they had voted. Since the oldest Millennials were 31 years of age in 2012 (as opposed to 27 in 2008), the expectation might have been that turnout would have edged higher. After all, an older, more mature, more "settled" age group presumably should turn out at higher rates. This underscores the fact that young-adult turnout depends on factors besides demographics: the candidates, the success of voter mobilization efforts, as well as satisfaction with the economy and direction of the country.

Depends on more than demographics? My starting point...obvious, no?

And according to the US Census,

Overall, America's youngest voters have moved towards less engagement over time, as 18- through 24-year-olds' voting rates dropped from 50.9 percent in 1964 to 38.0 percent in 2012.

Maybe not so obvious.

Look at the recent Brexit vote in the UK. The data - not surprisingly - seems all over the place. Some sources claim a very low Millennial turnout and others peg the number much higher. VICE reports the numbers at the highest.

I've just got the figures back from our other survey, which is from a fresh sample, and what we found is that turnout among voters eighteen to twenty-four was sixty-four percent. Now that is an estimate, because it's always an estimation, but it comes from an actual survey where people were asked whether they voted or not, and whether they registered or not. We also controlled for over-reporting of electoral participation, because people always have a tendency to tell you that they voted even if they did not. So even when you account for all of that, we find is that turnout among eighteen- to twenty-four-year-olds was about sixty-four percent. That would be the highest turnout among eighteen- to twenty-four-year-olds for the past twenty-five years.

But every other source had it far lower. The Guardian reported,

We cannot know for certain the demographic turnouts on 23 June, because there was no exit poll. So don't let any figure thrown around under pretence of being cast-iron fool you. That figure does not exist. But we have some guidance. Sky Data put 18-24 turnout at 36% and 25-34 turnout (also millennials) at 58%: but it was projected - representing those who said they were certain to vote and had done so in the past. Data crunched by the FT found that "on a general basis, areas with younger populations had lower turnout" and the Guardian, Telegraph and BBC data all back this up.

Clearly, given the poor performance of polls, none of these numbers, either in the UK or in the US, fill me with deep conviction...yet based on all that I have read, heard, and seen I would say we do have a problem of an engaged younger electorate, but I don't believe it has anything to do with the candidates, the issues, the economy or the general direction of anything.

For one, I give this generation some credit for caring...in fact, for caring deeply about the world. The problem I believe is a lack of understanding of how the levers of power actually work and, as a result, in how to actually make a difference in the world.

For one, we are living in a glut of uncurated, unverified, highly questionable information or maybe better put words...as it's often unclear what's real and not.

Just take a look at how we use Facebook - and not just Millennials. More than a billion people log in to Facebook every day, with most users admitting to more than once-a-day use. millennials are the least likely to share political content (4% or less) and more likely to share memes (6% or more). Baby Boomers are most likely to share political content (7% or more), according to a Fractl study from April 2016.

Although Millennials may not be sharing political content, Facebook remains a major source of news. According to a June 2015 Pew Research Center study:

About six-in-ten online Millennials (61%) report getting political news on Facebook in a given week, a much larger percentage than turn to any other news source. This stands in stark contrast to internet-using Baby Boomers, for whom local TV tops the list of sources for political news at nearly the same reach (60%).

Roughly a quarter (24%) of Millennials who use Facebook say at least half of the posts they see on the site relate to government and politics, higher than both Gen Xers (18%) and Baby Boomers (16%) who use the social networking site.

And Twitter seems to be no less a source of news for many. As reported by California Magazine:

It's the year Twitter catapulted billionaire Donald Trump from being a long shot to being the GOP nominee, in part thanks to his uncanny penchant for newsmaking in 140-character posts, which reaped millions of dollars in free publicity for his campaign during the crowded GOP primaries. The stunningly effective strategy sparked veteran journalist Tom Brokaw to wonder if the billionaire businessman may become the first "to tweet his way to the White House". [emphasis mine]

On the Democratic side, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, boosted by Millennial voters, churned effective social media outreach into a fundraising bonanza - the average donation was $27 dollars - along with mega-rallies, which threatened to upend the campaign of frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile, the former Secretary of State, who introduced her 2016 campaign on Facebook, fully graduated to Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter - this time in Spanish - and celebrated her historic nomination with social media emojis celebrating "The Woman Card," among other things.

Now, to be clear, I do believe that news channels actually amplified the social message, and that is where Trump triumphed as he wasn't bound by the Digibabble that, in my opinion, limited some of the Democratic Party operatives. And, I'd also posit that Trump and Bernie shared the mega-rally strategy, a decidedly analog way to make news and spread the word.

It seems to me there is a critical missing link, a crucial disconnect, an essential gap between what we think we know about millennials, their pursuit of causes, their consumption of news, and their compulsion to share.

The Guardian speculated as follows:

[T]ech can be helpful when encouraging engagement -Facebook's voter status initiative, for instance - and I see that changing your profile picture to a French flag, or a Rainbow flag helps you to feel better and does contribute to a nicer, supportive tone of discourse - it has its place - but when it comes to affecting policy change, it's as good as hovering a pencil over the box and crossing the air.

Bottom line? We have lost touch with reality. People no longer understand how elections work.

John Oliver of HBO's Last Week Tonight said it best:

The one theme that seemed to emerge in the chaos and confusion of the RNC was, feelings were king, and viewers experienced a "four-day exercise in exercising feelings over facts".

We even experienced the following, as reported by Wired and many others:

America's electoral system is already kind of a mess. Now, Twitter trolls are doing their best to make it even more confusing by spreading disinformation about how to cast a ballot on election day. The latest example: Donald Trump supporters are spreading memes on Twitter in both English and Spanish, trying to trick Hillary Clinton supporters into thinking they can vote by text.

Have we become so confused that anyone would take such misinformation seriously?

Why not? When such a large percentage of the so-called news being shared online was laughably false. And let us not forget the increasingly narrow silos of information which, true or not, are skewed one way or another. Vox reported,

Reddit is a popular news aggregator in which users vote about which stories to promote to the front page. And by March of this year, the politics section of the site had become dominated by Bernie Sanders supporters. As a result, if you relied on Reddit for your political news this spring, you basically only saw stories that praised Sanders and criticized Clinton and the Republican candidates.

We live in a world where Reality and Reality TV are often confused with each other, where sharing and liking are considered action, and where our skills at discerning the truth are being challenged, to say the least.

Summing it all up I turn to a statement made by Jennifer Lawrence - not because I think she is an influencer, (next week I will tackle that topic) but because it speaks volumes to the problem we all face:

We're all allowed to be sad that the present isn't what we thought it was. But we mustn't be defeated. We will keep educating ourselves and working twice as hard as the man next to us because we know now that it is not fair. It is not fair in the workplace, so you make it impossible to fail. And like Hillary, it might not work.

But like Hillary, you can still be an inspiration and get important things done. Do not let this defeat you--let this enrage you! Let it motivate you! Let this be the fire you didn't have before. If you are an immigrant, if you are a person of color, if you are LGBTQ+, if you are a woman--don't be afraid, be loud!

Where is the admonition to go out and vote? To get involved in the process. To make a difference by actually making a difference.

Being loud just doesn't cut it...nor does mere sharing, liking, sending disappearing messages, posting, and certainly not whining and whinging.

Perhaps the great poet Robert Frost said it best...Listen:

"Thinking isn't agreeing or disagreeing. That's voting."

So, no matter where you live, voting, taking real action, is the only way to effect serious change.... until the revolution, and we all know where that can lead.

What do you think?

Read more at The Weekly Ramble

Follow David Sable on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DavidSable

“Her Face Is Half Gone!” Why Baby Turkeys Are Starving On The President's Farm

“My god, what happened to her face?”

It’s the middle of the night, and I’m with a team of activists from the Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) Open Rescue Network on the White House’s turkey farm. And we’re all in shock at what we’re seeing. The top half of the little bird’s face is flattened, as if pounded in with a sledge hammer. Her beak, which birds use the way we use our hands, is a shriveled stump covered in scars.

“How has she survived?” I whisper. “Can she even eat?”

She is a midget, just one fourth the size of the other birds. Her slow movements show the toll of malnutrition. This baby bird is starving to death. And it’s all happening at a “free range” Whole Foods turkey farm.

Disturbed by what you’ve read? Sign the petition asking President Obama to pardon all the White House turkeys!

Mass mutilation and starvation are the dark secrets of our Thanksgiving turkey. And these practices occur, not just at Walmart or Costco, but at Jaindl Farms, supplier to the White House and Whole Foods. President Obama has sung Jaindl’s praises. Whole Foods touts Jaindl’s turkeys as “free range” and “global animal partnership certified.” Even major animal welfare organizations have been duped into applauding Jaindl’s supposed commitment to animal welfare.

But here’s the truth.

Every baby turkey born at Jaindl is greeted into this Earth the same way, by burning her face. The industry must do this because the alternative is even worse: birds with intact beaks tearing each other to pieces as they go insane from confinement. (Even on so-called free-range farms, 25 pound birds typically get less than 2.5 square feet of space each, about the size of a small floor mat.) Around ten percent of the birds die before they reach slaughter, often starving to death because they are in too much pain from debeaking. But, to the industry, this is better than losing 100% from the birds cannibalizing one another. Indeed, death from starvation is so common that the industry has a term for it: “starveout.”

How is this possible at a supposedly “humane” farm? Quite simply, because no one bothers to check that anything the industry says is true.

This is partly a self-inflicted injury. Influenced by corporate grants from giants such as Whole Foods, animal advocates have moved towards self-regulation -- i.e. voluntary corporate commitments to implement more “humane” practices, such as cage-free eggs -- despite compelling evidence that, well, self-regulation doesn’t work. To the contrary, from finance to coffee, corporations have used self-regulation as a tool to ward off real regulation and co-opt progressive movements. “We’ve got the problem solved,” the CEOs say. “No need for you to worry any longer.” But with no accountability, progress is just an illusion. A prior DxE open rescue found that a certified humane Costco farm was, in fact, filled with rotting animals and cannibalism. And deceptive “humane” marketing has been accompanied by the largest increases in per capita meat consumption in 40 years.

Fraud in animal welfare is also a failure of government. Voters do not want animals tortured, or to be deceived when they are shopping. Yet the rules of the game have been set up to ensure those outcomes. Turkeys, for example, are not even considered “animals” under federal animal cruelty law. (One wonders how USDA officials passed first grade biology.) And the Meat Inspection Act bars consumers from taking action to stop fraud at stores like Whole Foods. (Courts have held that ‘misbranding’ of meat products is the exclusive domain of the federal USDA, pre-empting other parties, even governmental bodies, from taking action.) Government, in short, is not just asleep at the wheel but complicit in the fraud.

But most of all, the failure of animal welfare is one of our culture. We all look at violence against animals with disgust. And we look at the Thanksgiving turkey feast with joy. Yet those two scenes are flip sides of exactly the same coin. We cannot have one without the other. Only years of socialization under bizarre cultural norms -- norms that abhor violence against animals… unless it’s for dinner -- allow this tension to be ignored.

But a house built on a weak foundation will eventually fall. Philosophers have found that inconsistent moral beliefs are almost always resolved, over the long run, in the direction of truth -- what John Rawls called “reflective equilibrium.” And as more pressure and attention is placed on animal agriculture, people are reconciling their conflicting beliefs on animals by showing increasing support for animal rights. Indeed, a remarkable 32% of Americans now say that animals should have “the same rights as people.” That is higher than support for marriage equality just 20 years ago.

A generation from now, then, perhaps activists will no longer have to sneak on farms to save a handful of dying animals from the President’s turkey farm. Because, as a movement for animal rights grows, and truly effective legal protections (including a constitutional bill of rights for animals) are passed, all the slaughterhouses in the nation will have disappeared. And our nation will finally have a truly “humane” Thanksgiving feast -- one where no animals are killed at all.

Want to take action? Sign the petition asking President Obama to cut ties with Jaindl and spare all the White House turkeys!

3 Ways Millennials Can Take Control of Their Destiny

With the launch of Robinhood just a few years back, millennials have become more involved in stock investing than ever before. With a desire to increase net worth, be fiscally responsible, and also take a little risk while utilizing personal knowledge, these people demonstrate how stocks and Robinhood are allowing millennials to access their dreams all through their cell phones.

The only problem with stocks is that not only are the returns extremely variable and risky, but realistically lay-men do not know how to do them successfully. So if a millennial is trying to establish an investment portfolio with safe large returns, where should they turn?

If you ask Ross Alex, the obvious answer is real estate.

Ross was a typical rowdy high schooler and dropped out of community college twice. During this time, he bounced between jobs at his local mall, bars, etc. in New York. Eventually, Ross knew he had enough, he wanted to be successful and take his life by the reigns. Reaching out to his uncle who was an established investor in Texas, Ross borrowed money and found himself in Las Vegas at a life changing conference and one week later in Houston, Texas pursuing a real estate business.

Real estate is a stable asset. While markets vary, a house has a fairly standard value and when rented can give fixed income each month. These qualities are what make the industry a much better alternative to stocks which can easily go up or down and sometimes both 10%+ during a year. However, most people view real estate as an unobtainable desire, since houses all cost over $100,000 typically right? Wrong.

After sitting down to talk with Ross, he shed light on his investment strategies, which focuses on real estate wholesaling, rehabbing, and owner financing. The wholesale practice means that before you close escrow on a house (the time between signing a contract and actually transferring ownership, you find a buyer to pay more than what you need to pay to the seller. For example, if I contract a house for $100k I then find a cash buyer for let's say $110k within my option period days. The fee you make after assigning your interest in the deal is called an assignment fee. He started making 10-20K per deal with just a few hours of work.

Over the course of a couple years Ross used this methodology in addition to rehabbing (fixing and flipping) to make generate multiple six figures in real estate in his first year and is now focusing on teaching others how to find the same level of success as he has. His advice to all aspiring entrepreneurs, dreamers, and people who know they could be making more with their life is as follows.

1) Take Massive Action

Sitting in College one day before he had dropped out, rather than crafting out a resume and joining corporate America, he talked to the one man he knew had the right mindset and later that week found himself flying to Vegas to go to a seminar with that man, his Uncle Alan. A few weeks later he packed up his life into a single bag and moved from New York to Houston. Within two months he closed his first real estate deal and launched his company ChristianRoss Property Solutions, LLC.

While massive action takes massive commitment and risk, the only way to pick yourself up from a bad situation and completely change your life is to ditch your old mentality and adopt a winning mindset. It is easy to succumb to the pressures and belief that you will always be in the same tax bracket, that rich people get rich and poor people get poor, and that you have to play with the cards you are dealt, but if you take the time to say "No" you no longer need to abide by these rules.

The second you acknowledge that you can act and perform at the same caliber or higher than the people making a million bucks is the second you grab your life and make of it what you want. Look to those who are succeeding and follow in their footsteps. Ross chose real estate and has never looked back, whether you do the same or use a different industry, figure out what needs to be done to make your life better and do it.

2) Never Quit

Whether due to an increase in laziness, the effects of video games and social media, or some other force of nature, people just do not have the attention spans that they used to have. But as the old adage goes 'Rome was not built in a day'. If you ever want to see a substantial change in your life you need to focus so hard on making that change a reality that you are willing to commit 5, 10, 20 years towards that goal even if you do not start seeing immediate results. How would the world be different if Steve Jobs spent 6-12 months trying to launch Apple and then since it did not blow up instantly he just dropped it and moved onto something else? Never take no for answer and never let doubt get in the way of your success.

The truth is massive success comes with massive responsibility. The life of an entrepreneur will be a challenging one. It will come with failure. Learn to embrace it and learn from it. Quitting won't solve anything. As the quote from "Three Feet From Gold" goes "Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit." Ross says he sees far too many aspiring entrepreneurs quit and give up before they have given it enough time and put in enough work. "There is no such thing as overnight success" he says. It just doesn't work like that. Success takes time and it loves preparation. 80% of your success is simply showing up. Make sure you are showing up every day and giving it your all. It is either all or nothing.

3) Align Yourself with the Right People

Throughout my lengthy talk with Alex, one phrase stuck with me, "You are an average of the five people who you associate with." Since humans naturally pick up the mannerisms, actions, mentalities, ambitions, etc. of those around them, it is your most important mission to only associate with people who will help you achieve your goals and make a better life for yourself. Sometimes confuse networking with simply getting to 500+ on LinkedIn, but real networking requires you to be prolific in your connections and deep in relationships. Your network is only as good as its usefulness to you, which comes from providing real value to those around you.

As Ross put it to me, "a baseball team has lots of players, but only a few are starters that impact the team's performance regularly." Rather than worrying about filling up your network with benchwarmers who will maybe catch a pop-fly or hit a homer once in a blue moon, focus on those starters that will directly translate to a better life for you. Similarly, to a baseball team, you need diversity in your main group. The Cubs would not have won if they only had pitchers or second-basemen. Understand the people you need in your life and the different skillsets they need to have, then go out and find them!