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Well, it has been one month now since I completely stopped using toothpaste, my oral hygiene regimen of rinsing my mouth with baking soda / salt twice a day followed by brushing my teeth with plain water twice a day seems to have actually IMPROVED things!

Stumbling upon a far more effective alternative to mouthwash

I use to use mouthwash but it seems that, after a few hours, the “ickiness” would always return and overnight, well, in the morning I felt like I had drank from a swamp the night before. All those chemicals moving around in my mouth also don’t inspire much confidence considering all the health issues people are having later in life due to environmental and lifestyle choices followed over a lifetime. There HAD to be alternatives, I read a few online articles a few years back and stumbled upon the “salt” rinsing. It’s quite easy, fill a 1/2 cup of hot water and mix in about a tablespoon of salt and a teaspoon of baking soda. The result? Well, the best damn mouthwash you can ever have at a fraction of the price of what is being “marketed” as the best. Throw the rest into an oral irrigator and your mouth will be as clean as an emergency room floor (before the patient comes in of course).

Toothpaste, for all it’s wonders, is actually rather useless

I was brought-up being “marketed” by dentists and businesses that if I don’t use toothpaste, my teeth would fall-out and gingivitis was just around the corner… what a bunch of BS! Standing-up to commercial forces even in the face of conventional wisdom is actually a fantastic habit to have! Most of toothpaste ingredients are geared towards polishing, considering it’s thrown-out a few seconds after being “applied”, it makes you realize how either incredibly potent (ei: dangerous) or useless it really is. Consider toothpaste is a rather recent invention, I can safely say that it isn’t worth the status it has been given.

Results after one month

After one month of the no-toothpaste lifestyle, my gums have went from a slight redness along the gum-line to pink! My mouth always feels fresh and clean even after a meal or a few hours of heavy exercise. Even better… “tartar build-up” is gone and my teeth are actually WHITTER! What can I conclude? Well, I wish I started this regimen 30 years ago! It has saved me money and proven incredibly effective! Before you ask your dentist about following this regimen, realize that he or she, although a professional, is still being marketed rather heavily by companies that want you to use their oral products. Try this regimen for a month, go see your dentist, ask them if they see (or you feel) a difference THEN tell them what you have done!

Is Listerine environmentally friendly?

I have nothing against Listerine or other products but when a far more effective (and cheap) method exists that is environmentally friendly, why are we being marketed bogus junk? Just think of the chemical and logistical footprint that a simple product like Listerine has on the environment? A lot of wasted energy to produce an inferior product… that is mass-produced and marketed as THE BEST when it really falls rather short. I have no qualms about the “chemicals” in my salt/baking-soda mouthwash but who knows the long-term ramifications of the chemicals found in most toothpastes and mouthwashes these days. I think our governments have truly failed us on so many levels, it’s astonishing how much of our daily lives are influenced on a subconscious level by marketing whose focus is on profits rather than co-existing within our environment.

The Bigger Issue: The government doesn’t care

If the government really cared about our health, things such as alcohol, junk food (including TV diners), tobacco products… the list goes on, would simply not be available for consumption much less marketed to us on a daily basis. If the government really cared about the environment, mass-production of useless products when environmentally friendly alternatives existed wouldn’t be profitable. If the government really cared about it’s citizens, it would put a higher priority on physical education (government run gyms, school programs etc) instead of promoting a lifestyle of stagnation. Governments are there to help guide a population regardless of economic considerations but this sadly has changed where financial considerations have a higher priority than of the people it “should” be representing.

The Bottom Line

Only by standing-up against conventional wisdom can truth be discovered.

Anybody who tells you that you cannot do this or that because of “blah, blah, blah” have no idea what they are talking about… NONE! If YOU want to make something happen, it’s up to you and only YOU to make it happen.

Barriers to making things possible

No matter your handicaps, no matter how severe they are, don’t let them get in the way of your dreams. For instance, look at the incredible success that Steve Nash, the NBA player has in his career considering how short he is… sure 6ft3 isn’t short but by NBA standards, he is surrounded by giants! How about Richard Branson? He is dyslexic yet is a self-made multi-billionaire traveling the world and outer space! The world is full of unlikely success stories that blow people away due to their ambitions more than their talent.

Beware of what you wish… it may come true!

More than once in my life, I have experienced both personally and through others that what you wish, even for a small amount of time, may actually come true! The most apt example of this was a few years back when, on a long walk, I was wondering what it would be like to be arrested (completely out of the blue), little did I know that a few minutes this “wish” would come true! My life is full of examples of this along several time lines and I am absolutely sure I am not alone. I am not psychic (this is “impossible”) but I do seem to be rather good at seeing the future of decisions I make now in a flash with very little though involved.

So what is impossible?

To be honest, the only limiting factor for most people is the size of their dreams. If you told somebody a thousand years ago that they would be talking through a small portable box to people on the other side of the world, you would be crucified as insane yet with satellite phones this is possible from ANYWHERE. I have come to the conclusion that EVERYTHING and ANYTHING is possible, screw the laws of physics or other limitations brought-up by “smarter” people… if you think it can happen and put enough sweat and tears into it… it WILL happen.

The more you know, the less you know

Why do I think that even “impossible” things are completely possible no matter what the geniuses in this world say? Well, because they have an incredibly BAD track record. I honestly cannot think of an invention, from the press to the automobile where the geniuses at the time put pressure on the creator to give-up these “silly” and “impossible” thoughts! If you told me you where working on a time machine, I would say your chances of accomplishing this are near zero but NOT zero. Look at Thomas Edison who toyed away for years on a light bulb with endless prototypes before he achieved what the geniuses at the time said was impossible! My friends, if you remember anything from this blog article it’s this, the more somebody knows about a subject, the less they actually know about it.

Why do I say this? Well, knowledge is biased information, no matter its origins, how many times it has been proven, there is always something that is missed or mis-interpreted… throw enough of this stuff together and you end-up with a rather impressive body of knowledge that is so full of holes that it becomes a self-supporting yet rather hollow structure.

Ah, the problem with Religion

This is one of my largest grievances with religion… it doesn’t teach you that “anything” is possible, it puts the explanation of “God” as the answer to EVERY question you don’t know the answer to. How did starts form? Well, God did it. Where do babies come from? Well, God does that. Why did I get a C in my math test? Well, God wanted it to be so. What do you notice? Well, the utter LACK of curiosity. If religion teachings one thing, it isn’t to expand your mind, it’s to accept things as they are and stifle creativity in the young minds that need it the most. How did stars form? Well, this is a question that continues to take generations to discover the answer to yet religion says essentially “don’t bother, God did it and that is all you need to know… move-on”. Even though I say this, I do think it’s ironic that our understanding of DNA comes from a monk who studied peas, that religion played a pivotal role in the development of the printing press and many other things we take for granted as scientific fact. Hence, my indecision on this matter which will probably continue until my last breath. I am well beyond the question of whether there is a God or not, I have “advanced” now towards thinking of whether we are better off with or without religion.

The Bottom Line

Nothing is impossible unless you allow it to be so.

Update: This past week a “man” gave birth to a baby and a 72 year old woman gave birth as well… both thanks to the advances in medical knowledge. Both of these where considered completely “impossible” just a few years ago.

From my extensive business experience, if there is any one thing that leads to a slow (sometimes quick) demise of a startup or an established company, more often than not, it can be traced to greed.

The root causes of greed

When you first start a company, the pricing is usually insanely competitive even to the point of undercutting your main competitors. Many people believe that price, and price alone is the way to compete directly against the “big boys”. While this does work for a certain period of time, and can actually be profitable, eventually, overhead such as staff, phones, office space etc. all begin to take their toll leading to you having to raise your prices just to break-even. The root cause of greed for most companies starts-up this way, simply trying to stay afloat… I have yet to meet an entrepreneur who got greedy out of desire. It’s usually caused by something far more urgent, survival!

When greed gets out of hand

Alright, you have a rather new company, you hiked prices and can now afford to pay yourself somewhat of a living wage… great! This should be where things stop but inexperience (myself included) makes you wonder, “hey, that went so well, let’s hike things up a bit more so I can buy xyz”. Your clients grumble but the costs involved with leaving your company for another aren’t large enough to warrant a new fishing expedition. Hey, you got away with it! Hmmm… let’s do it again!

Greed catches-up with you sooner or later

Alright, you are living “large”, move to new offices, hire a bunch of new staff, get a new car, start-up some new (expensive) hobbies and life is amazing! What you fail to realize is that you are slowly pricing yourself out of a market that you helped develop. Sooner or later, the contracts that use to be “guaranteed” begin going to other companies, out of desperation, you match their price but in reality, you cannot. You see, your overhead has taken a toll on how “low” you can go while still breaking even! You have nice new offices, guess what, your clients notice this as well and if “entrepreneur to entrepreneur” you see this, you quickly realize that you, as the client, are the one paying “extra” for these digs. Most entrepreneurs are cheap when it comes to spending money, they have no problem buying a plane and other gadgets but when it comes to business, every penny counts! This is when things begin to go downhill.

Excuses Excuses

First you realize that your sales staff is spending A LOT of time on the road trying to close deals that just aren’t going the way you had hoped or experienced in the past. Your subcontractors, realizing you got a bit of money, begin hiking their prices (making your prices higher) and worse, you begin living project by project. You hear all the excuses but they always seem to come down to price and customer service. You want to hire more people to handle the work flow but your overhead is already too high, you want to fire some people but cannot afford the severance, you need to give your sales staff higher commissions but with lower prices, you are being squeezed from all sides. Throw-in a natural disaster and you are really screwed big time!

What to do?

Well, the above happened to me, it took me years to recover but I wouldn’t have wanted things to happen in any other way. The lessons I learned from my past failures have made me who I am today, far smarter with my money, far more efficient with my time and a miser when it comes to Return On (potential)Investment. Well, how do you avoid a business and the personal failure that comes with it? Here are some tips:

• Only hire staff you absolutely need and not before you have at least a few months salary to cover them in your bank account, in other words, don’t count your eggs before they have hatched.
• Subcontract as much as you can, I have found that you will always PROFIT from subcontractors, when you don’t have a project, they don’t cost you anything and when you do, you will always make a net profit at the end of the day.
• Sales people, unless you can afford otherwise, should have the vast majority of their compensation based on commission, sure you can help with gas and other expenses but it’s up to them to make a living off your product/services, not you.
• Learn from your failures and try to constantly improve not only yourself but how things run in general. I believe in a constant improvement philosophy and it has served me very well in both up and down times.
• Listen to your clients and always try to ask a “lost” client why you aren’t working for them anymore or why a negotiation for a new one didn’t go anywhere. Knowledge is power, especially when it can have a very large impact on your bottom line.
• Accept that chance will play an ENORMOUS role in whether your enterprise succeeds or fails. Entrepreneurs who say they are successful or wealthy because of them and had nothing to do with luck are so full of shit that they can build a mud house out of it. Just about every entrepreneur (successful and otherwise) has been deafly affected by luck.
• Don’t give up! If there is one thing you remember from this blog posting it is that you should NEVER GIVE UP on your dreams. Hope, no matter how small, is still hope. The minute you give-up the only guarantee you will have is failure! Sometimes it is good to refocus your energies elsewhere, learn from your mistakes and move on… but never loose hope on the bigger picture to improve the lives of you, your family and those you care about.

The Bottom Line

Greed is one of those dragons that every entrepreneur has to learn how to slay.