Archive for the ‘Personal Success’ Category
Success is solid aim for Annville archery shop
Posted: September 2, 2012 at 4:18 pm
Kyle Stokes installs a Stokerized SS1 Stabilizer on a G5 Prime bow in his Annville-based assembly room. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS TYLER FRANTZ )
Ten years ago, a then 27-year-old Cedar Crest grad took a risk while leaving his comfortable teaching job in Baltimore to return to his roots and follow his passion. After doing some research to discover that there were roughly 7,000 archery permits sold annually in Lebanon County, with very few archery shops to meet the growing needs of these local hunters, an optimistic Kyle Stokes gambled on all he was worth and opened Swatara Creek Outfitters. Looking back now, he's sure glad that he did.
"I knew the area could benefit from a well-run pro shop," Stokes said, "but I also knew it wouldn't happen overnight."
In fact, for the first three years of the shop's existence, the owner worked a full-time job on night shift while keeping the shop open for eight hours during the day.
"It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get where we are today," he added.
But Swatara Creek Outfitters has come a long way. Initially, starting out with a modest bow inventory of three relatively small lines, Stokes has since expanded to now carrying 12 different top-market bow company lines, including Matthews, Hoyt, Bowtech, Elite, G5, Bear and more. He employs two full-time staff members and anywhere from 4-6 part-timers depending on the time of year.
Though Stokes found it necessary to hire
"I am a bit of a control freak in some regards, but I take great pride in making sure that each bow I service is absolutely perfect," he said. "I try to treat each and every bow as though it is my own."
As he gained experience, Stokes proved to the archery industry and local patrons alike that he ran a professional, reputable, quality business, but he wasn't satisfied with that alone.
About five years ago, Stokes' creativity got the best of him and he began to toy around with ideas for new products that could improve his trade. While working with acrylic waterfowl calls, which channel the vibration of a reed through a solid tube to mimic the vocalization of ducks and geese, Stokes pondered the possibility of using acrylic material to reduce the vibration caused by the release of an arrow from a bow.
Back-to-back club awards mirror Big V title success for Warrnambool basketballer
Posted: at 4:18 pm
Sept. 3, 2012, midnight
ITS been a year of back-to-backs for Warrnambool Mermaids skipper Holly Greene.
Greene led her team to back-to-back Big V titles, in which she earned successive MVP honours for the play-off series.
And on Saturday night Greene was named the Mermaids most valuable player for the second consecutive year. She is also nominated for the Big V division one womens MVP and the all-star five team, to be presented on September 15.
The guard said it was a nice way to finish the campaign.
We had a really good season and like last year, its because of the good mix we had on the court, she said..
Its nice to win these types of awards, but you dont go out there for them, you want the championship. The feeling of winning the individual awards is nothing compared to winning the championships. Weve done that twice now and no one can take that away from us.
Greene put her personal success down to being a team player.
I just try to be a good leader on the court. If we need to rebound Ill try to get it, if we need to score, Ill try and shoot.
I just try and do whatever the team needs me to do, she said.
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Back-to-back club awards mirror Big V title success for Warrnambool basketballer
Targeted approach to success Save
Posted: at 6:11 am
Sept. 2, 2012, 3 a.m.
MoneySmart Week is here but it pays to be smart all the time.
Good riddance winter, with your one-after-the-other cold, mould and reality shows Channel Ten has oversold.
If the change of season/programming has you all inspired to embark on a spring clean, then don't forget that all-important financial house.
Here's a handy money-health checklist, inspired by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's efforts for this week's MoneySmart Week.
DO YOU HAVE FINANCIAL GOALS?
I write often about the importance of actually having a target if you want to hit one. Think about it: how much money have you earnt over your working life, and what do you have to show for it? If the answer is "not much" you're likely focusing too much on ''here and now'' rather than ''somewhere else and later''. To resist the consumer temptations thrown at us every day, you need a tangible, ultimately achievable reason - so get dreaming.
ARE YOU OPTIMISING INCOME AND EXPENSES?
A little extra goes a long way - unless you simply adjust to spending it. First, are you getting all the benefits you're entitled to? Think family tax benefits and Centrelink payments, and giveaways for lower earners such as the superannuation co-contribution. Ensure you are earning what you are worth (ladies, I am especially talking to you).
The other key part of your personal balance sheet is what you spend. Just like striking the delicate balance that is calories in, energy out, if money out exceeds money in your finances will spiral out of control and become unhealthy. And in this case it's your debt that may bloat.
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Targeted approach to success Save
Mesa Mayor Scott Smith's success could lead to governor run
Posted: at 6:11 am
by Gary Nelson - Sept. 1, 2012 08:56 PM The Republic | azcentral.com
When Scott Smith threw his many hats into the 2008 mayoral campaign and promised to banish Mesa's sad-sack reputation, you could all but hear the city, the Valley -- for that matter, the whole state -- raising their eyebrows.
Skeptics seemed to think that Mesa, widely disparaged as the home of broad streets and narrow minds, where snowbirds' Buicks turned into pumpkins if they didn't get home before the sidewalks rolled up at 5 p.m., was here to stay. They doubted that Smith's talk about changing the way Mesa did business, about building a better Mesa, about restoring the civic swagger he remembered from his childhood, would ever become a reality.
But a funny thing happened over the ensuing four years.
Smith defeated two City Council veterans in the election and began turning his happy talk into a new reality for America's 38th-largest city.
Some examples:
Defying historical trends, the city has attracted four liberal-arts colleges to establish satellite campuses.
Mesa found a way to finance a Chicago Cubs training stadium on its own, without asking the state Legislature for financial help.
Mesa got the keys to a top-secret military lab that has the potential to become a national aerospace research center.
An economic-development initiative with the acronym HEAT -- health care, education, aerospace, tourism and technology -- has sharpened Mesa's focus on present and future possibilities for growth.
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Mesa Mayor Scott Smith's success could lead to governor run
Richie wants success via Impulse
Posted: at 6:11 am
You know her by the sunglasses she always has with her. You know her from TV, and you might know her from the tabloids, too, but Nicole Richie isn't convinced any of it works for or against her when it comes to building her design career.
She guided aspiring designers on the fashion competition show "Fashion Star," and says she sees success in the fashion business as either potentially intense and fleeting, or broad-based and sustained. It's up to the work you do -- and doing it consistently, she says.
"You're only as good as your last season," she says.
Richie, it seems, is banking on a big fall season. That's when her limited-edition collection for Macy's contemporary department makes its debut.
Richie, 30, isn't an industry novice. She's gained recognition for her lines Winter Kate and House of Harlow, but the Nicole Richie for Impulse collaboration, best described as contemporary clothes styled with Richie's bohemian flair, is her greatest exposure yet. The clothes, including maxi dresses, asymmetrical skirts, cropped tops and fitted jackets in an array of jewel tones and prints, will be in 100 stores and available online starting Sept. 12.
She hasn't taken the task lightly.
"I'm traveling all year just with various appearances that I do for Winter Kate and House of Harlow," she says. "And the reason that I do these appearances is because I really get to come face-to-face with my customer, and as I'm watching them in the store I can see what pieces they're wearing, I can see what they're drawn to, what people's favorite pieces are."
Richie, who grew up in the spotlight as the daughter of Lionel Richie and co-starred with Paris Hilton in the reality show "The Simple Life," doesn't mind working behind the scenes. "It's important to always be a student on some level," she says. "I don't think you should ever hit a place where you feel that there is nothing left to learn."
Getting glammed up is part of her job, but Richie, who has two young children, Harlow and Sparrow, says she's not always picture-perfect. She carries the big round sunglasses she's famous for as well as bobby pins wherever she goes for a quick transformation.
"There are often times that I do look a hot mess," she says. "It's a work in progress."
Success inspires next generation
Posted: September 1, 2012 at 1:14 pm
1 September 2012 Last updated at 04:53 ET By Natalie Grice BBC News
In Beijing, Wales made up 16% of Team GB and was responsible for 25% of its gold medal haul. As an even larger number is fielded for London 2012, BBC News is looking at the factors behind Welsh Paralympic success. Here we look at the role inspiration and legacy play.
The two most successful athletes of the modern Paralympic era are racer Tanni Grey-Thompson and swimmer David Roberts, with 11 golds each.
What do these track and pool sporting greats have in common? Both are Welsh, and both have proved unparallelled role models for Welsh youngsters, whether disabled or not.
Grey-Thompson and Roberts came from a long tradition of Paralympian sport in Wales, which includes John Harris (discus), wheelchair racer Chris Hallam and table tennis player Jim Munkley.
The link between inspiration and participation is massive
Many veteran Paralympians get involved with inspiring the younger generation on a personal level by coaching.
Professor Laura McAllister, the chair of Sport Wales and former Wales football international, said: "Tanni Grey-Thompson and David Roberts have been fantastic role models because we have been able to say, look at Tanni's record.
"They are renowned worldwide and would never dream of allowing either of those two to tell you they're not Welsh.
"Now we have got for example [table tennis player] Sara Head who will talk to the others about being a Paralympian.
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Success inspires next generation
Angels' firing of scout Bane looks bad with success of Trout, Weaver, Trumbo
Posted: August 31, 2012 at 11:12 pm
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Angels' firing of scout Bane looks bad with success of Trout, Weaver, Trumbo
Analysis: Mitt Romney aims to balance personal, business appeal
Posted: at 4:19 am
TAMPA, Fla. On the biggest political stage of Mitt Romney's life, his biggest task was to make a personal connection with voters, to win them over as both the businessman and the man -- to lead the nation.
If the public Romney is in his rsum, the private Romney is a biography he has seemed reticent to reveal.
So on Thursday, the Republican presidential nominee talked about his parents, his wife, his children and his faith. He cast his experience building companies as a promise to rebuild the economy. And he presented himself as someone who will succeed where he said President Barack Obama has not.
There were many balance acts for Romney to hit. But perhaps the most important was portraying himself as a family man and a job creator.
"Those werent the easiest of days too many long hours and weekends working, five young sons who seemed to have this need to re-enact a different world war every night," he said of the early days of his family and his career. "But if you ask Ann and I what wed give to break up just one more fight between the boys, or wake up in the morning and discover a pile of kids asleep in our room, well, every mom and dad knows the answer to that."
Democrats have spent millions of dollars on TV trying to define Romney on their terms: an out-of-touch corporate raider in cahoots with the rich at the expense of the middle class.
It was Romneys turn Thursday to shake off the stiff veneer of his public persona and personalize himself as a principled businessman who understands the problems of cash-strapped Americans worried about keeping their jobs and paying the bills.
"When I was 37, I helped start a small company," he said of Bain Capital, the firm that has become a symbol to many voters of closing factories and outsourcing jobs. But Romney used the experience to illustrate success and to poke his Democratic opponent.
"That business we started with 10 people has now grown into a great American success story. Some of the companies we helped start are names you know," Romney said. "An office supply company called Staples where I'm pleased to see the Obama campaign has been shopping."
For all the debates, position papers, speeches and political wonkery, picking a president is a gut decision for voters more heart than head, less about ideology than emotion.
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Analysis: Mitt Romney aims to balance personal, business appeal
Insurers Must Stop Trying to Settle Claims With Unfair "low-ball" Offers
Posted: August 30, 2012 at 8:17 pm
LONDON, August 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
A leading personal injury lawyer has blasted the insurance industry for regularly trying to settle claims directly with injured victims for inappropriately low and unfair amounts.
Karl Tonks, an equity partner with Fentons Solicitors LLP, said the practice of defendants and insurers contacting victims and trying to settle claims early for significantly less than their true worth - in many cases before they have even sought legal or medical advice - should be a cause for great concern.
"As a national personal injury firm we handle thousands of claims for people across the country every year," said. "We have noticed a worrying increase in the number of clients who tell us they have been approached by the defendants with what appears to be a very low offer within a few days of their injury. In many of these cases the defendant has subsequently sought specialist legal advice and gone on to receive several times the amount of compensation they were first offered. But it begs the worrying question as to how many other victims are accepting these 'low-ball' offers and being massively under-compensated for their injuries?"
Karl, who is also president of the not-for-profit group APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers), said that at a time when accident victims and their solicitors were consistently being blamed by insurers over the spiralling cost of premiums, insurers need to look closely at their own actions. "It seems massively hypocritical to be constantly pointing the finger at claimants and their lawyers, when they are simultaneously trying to deny those same policyholders the right to a fair level of compensation when an injured person makes an honest, justifiable claim," he said. "People who take out an insurance policy should be able to have faith that when they are unfortunate enough to need to make a claim, the level of compensation will be calculated with their best interests in mind, and not simply the lowest amount that their insurer can get away with."
Following the reforms made to the way personal injury claims will be handled under the controversial Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Bill - which will come into force next year - Karl said he expects more and more cases to be settled earlier.
"The purpose of the reforms was supposedly to speed up the process of making a legal claim whilst reducing the amount it costs to do so," he said. "The reason for the need to do this was laid squarely at the door of accident victims and personal injury lawyers, with allegations of spurious claims and massive success fees making headlines.
"But I would ask the same insurance industry luminaries that are quick to censure lawyers to examine their own practices," he said. "Perhaps they should ask just how many claims they are settling before a victim has discussed their injury with a lawyer and been referred to a medical expert to assess their immediate and, crucially, their future needs."
He said that Fentons Solicitors was seeing a growing number of clients who might have settled their case earlier, but thankfully sought legal advice after they were offered what seemed like suspiciously low amounts of damages.
"In one recent case, a client was contacted by the defendant's insurer and was offered 500 to settle her claim in full," he said. "After engaging the services of a specialist lawyer, she settled her case for more than 37,000.
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Insurers Must Stop Trying to Settle Claims With Unfair "low-ball" Offers
ExaGrid First Company to Publish a Record 300 Disk Backup Customer Success Stories
Posted: at 8:17 pm
WESTBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
ExaGrid Systems, Inc., the leader in cost-effective and scalable disk backup solutions with data deduplication, today announced that it has published over 300 customer success stories, which can be found on the companys website making ExaGrid the first and only backup vendor to reach this impressive milestone, and only IT vendor with 300 published testimonials for a single product solution. These published stories combined with customer video testimonials comprise a library of published customer endorsements, which is larger than all competitors combined. This further underscores ExaGrids superior product capabilities, value delivered, customer support model, and commitment to customer satisfaction. Each two-page customer success story includes the persons name, title, and a personal quote.
The University of Northern Iowa is the 300th customer to publicly share its selection of and success with ExaGrids disk backup with data deduplication solution. As a state-supported university of approximately 13,000 students, and ranked among the nation's top 650 undergraduate colleges and universities in the Forbes' 2011 annual ranking of top colleges, the universitys IT department understands the importance of maintaining records and data in a safe, secure and disaster resistant environment.
Prior to switching to ExaGrid, UNI had been backing up its data to a large, onsite magnetic tape library using a chargeback service model to the university system. The IT organization backed up data files, Oracle RMAN backups and Microsoft SQL backups for its clients using Symantec NetBackup, with an average of three months retention and the ability to restore the last 30 daily backups. With a goal of offering advanced services and increasing efficiency, the IT department needed to replicate data off-site for increased data protection. A recent reduction in IT personnel led UNI to realize its previous shuttling of tape to offsite locations was not possible. The IT department also realized that data stored at both locations could be lost in a disaster due to their proximity to one another. The university needed to send data offsite more frequently and move away from tape to improve business continuity.
After getting pricing from another vendor and discounting them due to sticker shock, the IT department chose ExaGrids disk backup solution with deduplication because of the scalability of its GRID-based architecture, fast restores and price.
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About ExaGrids Technology:
The ExaGrid system is a plug-and-play disk backup appliance that works with existing backup applications and enables faster and more reliable backups and restores. Customers report that backup time is reduced by 30 to 90 percent over traditional tape backup. ExaGrids patented zone-level data deduplication technology and most recent backup compression reduces the amount of disk space needed by a range of 10:1 to as high as 50:1 or more, resulting in a cost comparable to traditional tape-based backup.
About ExaGrid Systems, Inc.:
ExaGrid offers the only disk-based backup appliance with data deduplication purpose-built for backup that leverages a unique architecture optimized for performance, scalability and price. The combination of post-process deduplication, most recent backup cache, and GRID scalability enables IT departments to achieve the shortest backup window and the fastest, most reliable restores and disaster recovery without backup window expansion or forklift upgrades as data grows. With offices and distribution worldwide, ExaGrid has more than 4,500 systems installed at more than 1,400 customers, and over 300 published customer success stories.
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ExaGrid First Company to Publish a Record 300 Disk Backup Customer Success Stories