Many of you perhaps have seen the movie “The Curious Case of
Benjamin Burton” a fantasy drama movie If you haven’t seen the
movie I highly recommend. The movie presents the life of Benjamin Burton (Brad
Pitt) who reverse age as he grew older.
This is a fiction movie. Reversing aging and aging backwards
is something unreal. What the new scientific breakthrough can say about aging?
One interested book that I’ve read in the last time is
Lifespan written by David Sinclair. I have been watching David Sinclair in the
last years. For those who don’t know who David Sinclair is is professor of
Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.
I always have been obsessed with the idea of aging and I’m
still. We’ve been taught that that aging is something that come naturally, but
is still this true? Can we stop aging? Delay it? And why not to reverse it?
Lifespan is a book that gives some insights and scientific notes
about aging. Aging is associated with many diseases like cancers,
cardiovascular, neurogenerative (Alzheimer and Parkinson) and frailty to name a
few of them.
Aging Can be attributed to the following factors and present
the following hallmarks:
Genomic instability caused by DNA damage
Accumulation of senescent cells (zombie cells)
Alteration of the chromosomes that affect telomeres
Mitochondrial dysfunction
What cause aging? The New Theory of Aging?
Over
the years aging had many definitions started with something that come naturally
as time pass, shorten of the telomeres all of these are wrong.
We can define aging as the process of loss of information.
Epigenetic changes cause aging. To understand this, we have our DNA which is
the digital information, we can make an analogy with a compact disk and the
Epigenome the reader that read songs.
Epigenome is the structure that is wrapped with DNA around
protein histones which say what genes should be turn on/off. What cause aging
are scratches and distractions on the compact disk making to skip the songs. Skipping
to read the song makes the cells to read the wrong genes and the ability to
fight diseases.
Resseting the Epigenome
Sirtuins : SIRT1, SIRT6 and SIRT6 (Silent Information
Regulation) are critical for the control of epigenome and DNA repair. Other
form of SIRT3,4,5 help mitochondria and control energy metabolism. The
good news here is that we can reset the epigenome by polishing the CD and get
back to original copy.
What can be done?
The first thing that we can do is to put our body in a
survival circuit hormesis by tweaking sirtuins, mTOR and AMPK. Sirt2 control
the Epigenome. When a DNA break occurs SIRT2 is recruited repair the damage. On
average more than 2 trillion breaks occurs to our DNA.
David
Sinclair recommends the following:
Intermittent fasting restricting
your caloric intake is one of the best choices that a person can do. Inhibiting mToR (Mammalian Target Rapamycin) force cells to spend less energy and recycle old proteins.
Exercise (High Intensive Intervals) Sinclair recommends those exercise that lose your breath for few minutes to induce the body in the hypoxia state.
Resveratrol is chemical compound found special in red grapes, cacao and berries. Resveratrol activates Sirtuins
NMN Supplement Nicotinomide Mononucleotide is an NAD booster. Without NAD our life cannot be possible even for a few seconds. Once we age the level of NAD(Nicotinemide Adenine Dinucleotide) start to decline.
Metformin is a drug normally recommended for people with 2 Type Diabetes. Is considered one of the safest drug in the world. Metformin helps increase the lifespan by mimicking caloric restriction activating AMPK and also activate SIRT1
Hot/Cold showers Recent studies demonstrated that cold showers promote brown fat production can help improve health by increasing the lifespan
Genetic Reprogramming on the early stage of development. Is one the promising technology, tests that had been done over animals (mice) are mind blowing. I consider these technology the only one that can reverse aging quick.
In Conclusion I highly recommend these book is one of the best book written about longevity and lifespan. David Sinclair expertise and work can give you an overview about aging, what cause it, how can we stop it or even reverse it.
It has passed almost 76 years since the last world conflagration. The events of the second world war are still fresh in our memories. The competition between nations and the desire to extend the sphere of influence has resulted in many cases in wars. Are we close to the next world war? How the next world might look? These are the few questions we should ask.
The United States and China are the main economic powers but between these countries, a fight for supremacy began. In the last years, China has increased military build-up in South Pacific. They claim vast territories from the Pacific, have territorial disputes with Philipines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Taiwan.
The aggression actions against Taiwan have increased in the last years. Their actions are not against neighbors countries, are directed to challenge the US dominance in the Pacific. Can this become the outcome of the next world war?
A book that I found interested is "2034 -The novel of the next war" written by Admiral James Stavridis and Elliot Ackerman. In this book, the authors present how a hypothetical war might look between China and US. Admiral Jim Stavridis (ret) was a Supreme Allied Commander at NATO and commanded US southern fleet.
The events in the book, how Stavridis revealed starts with the sinking of Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer " John Paul Jones" the pride of US navy and vessels "Carl Levin" and "Chung Hoon " by the Chinese Navy after the US navy seize the Chinese spy ship "When RUI".
What is important to remember is that according to Stavridis the Chinese outclassed the US military in cybersecurity and cyber warfare hacking the American information and communication systems.
At this stage of the war, the Americans were incapable of organizing centralized self-defense. It seems that regulation that resulted in many innovations and economic strength become US weakness.
The US response is prompt, the unthinkable happens a nuclear war between the two countries. On 27 June 2034 US launch a 150 kiloton bomb on the province Zhanjiang. In response to this China launched a nuclear strike against "San Diego" and "Galveston". The war finished after the US nukes Shanghai a city with a population of 33 million people.
In conclusion, I highly recommend this book for those who want to discover who the next world war might look. I hope that the events presented by Stavridis in his book will be hypothetical and never happen.
One book that I had on my reading list is "Sapiens" written by Yuval Noah Harari. I was intrigued by the evolution of the human species from its inception to the present and how the future might look.
Humans are by far the most advanced and intelligent species that live on Earth. The evolution of humans started million years ago. It is amazing to see how humans evaluated from a primitive form of life to the absolute supreme species of this planet.
There are two theories about the evolution of humans :
1) Creation
2) Evolution
The first theory claim that human is the result of the creation by a divine force. The second theory which is emphasized in the book presents that humans are ancestors of Homo Sapiens. We can argue that we (humans) are the outcome of a blind evolution process that operates without goal and purpose.
One factor that had contributed decisively to the evolution of humans from the evolution from a primitive form of Apes to lead the world is Cognitive Revolution.
Important facts to remember that emphasize the evolution of homo sapiens about 2.5 million years ago men and women's brain was about 600 cubic centimeter. Today modern sapiens have a brain between 1200-1400 cubic centimeters.
Homo Sapiens brain accounts for 2-3% of the total body weight which consumes 25 % of the body energy. On the other hand, Apes brains consume only 8% of their energy.
The evolution of humans is amazing but at the same time, we have many reasons to worry. If at the beginning total population was about few thousands today is more than 7 billion and is forecast to hit 9 billion by 2050. Facing this situation humans have to solve many problems starting with the environment, food, and so on.
In conclusion, I highly recommend "Sapiens" to have a clue of the evolution of Humankind.
They said that big fortunes are made by families and transmitted from generation to generation among families members. A book that applies this rule is Master of the Game, written by Sidney Sheldon.
The story of the book is about the Blackwell family and the Kruger Brent Company. Over the years the Kruger Brent becomes one of the biggest companies in the world, a multi-million dollar business conglomerate. If I have to find an analog today it will be Berkshire Hathaway.
The analogy with Berkshire Hathaway stops here. The Kruger Brent has another story, a story about greed, betrayal, suspense, and murder.
Master of the Game can easily be considered a drama book. The Kruger Brent company was founded by Jamie Mcgregor a Scottish who had the desire to become rich by trying his luck in South Africa to find diamonds. The key player in this story is Kate the daughter of Jamies who later becomes Mis Blackwell after married David Blackwell.
Kate Blackwell was behind the success of Kruger Brent, she builds a financial empire, she sacrifices everything around her even the life of his son Tony Blackwell who later become isolated into an asylum, for the sake of his company.
In conclusion, I highly recommend this book is full of suspense and action.
"Il Capo dei Capi" is the movie that presents the life of the Salvatore Riina. After I've seen this movie, I was curious to discover more about the life of Salvatore Riina.
One opportunity was to read the book "The Life of the Infamous Toto Riina by Attilio Bolzoni and Giuseppe D'avanzo.
Salvatore Riina aka "U Curtu " or "The Beast" was one of the prominent leaders of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. Born in Corleone Sicily the son of Giovanni Riina. After his father's death, he becomes in charge of the family affairs being the family's old brother.
From a young age, he started his criminal activity together with his friends: Bernardo Provenzano, Calogero Bagarella under the supervision of Leggio Luciano. In a short period, the coreleonesi gang controlled al Corleone after they killed Dr. Michele Navara.
The peasants from Corleone wanted more, they weren't happy with the control of their local town, they wanted Palermo and all of Sicily. With patience, cleverness, ferocity, and murder they controlled the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.
Salvatore Riina will remain in the history of Cosa Nostra who started a bloody war against the state. Victims of their ferocious actions were other leaders of Mafia-like: Bontate, Inzerillo , Busceta, police officers, magistrates, prosecutors like Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino, and many more.
In conclusion, I recommend this book to discover more about the life of Salvatore Riina.
It passed a while since I wrote my last article. We are in a full Covid-19 Pandemic, many countries are in lockdown, many businesses are forced to close their operations only essential businesses are open.
It is a tough, difficult, and challenging period for many businesses. In today's article, I will present my personal solutions for industries and businesses that is been affected most by Covid-19.
The level of the impact differs from industry to industry, from businesses to businesses. If some industries are badly affected some industries less or even become more prosperous.
I will analyze only the industries that are most affected by Covid19.
As you can see in the image above the S&P Global Market Intelligence has done research on the industries that are most affected by Covide 19. The most affected industries are airlines, leisure, oil and gas, auto parts& Equipment, and Restaurants.
In this article, we analyze and come out with solutions in my view only the industries that are affected most. The industries that I will choose for this topic are Retail, Food, and Beverage, Hospitality Industry, and Travel Industry. So let's get dive into it
1 Retail Industry
(Retail Shops, Shops, Non-essential shops)
The retail industry is one of the industries that is affected by Covid-19 restrictions. The truth is those essential businesses are affected less than non-essential. Non-essential businesses are forced to close due to restrictions. For those businesses, the only helping solutions came from the Government. The Government provides Covid19 pandemic payments. The level of the payment differs from the size of the businesses and in which country the businesses are based.
My solution
If you are the owner of the shop who does not get any pandemic payment, the online solution to keep alive your business is to Go Online.
Going Online means the first start building a digital asset. The most important digital asset for every business is the website. My suggestion is: if your business does not have a website, I suggest to create a platform where you can sell your products. If your businesses have a website and do not convert, my advice is to update and optimize existing content. Social Media platforms are also ideal for promoting your business online. Here are some recommendations I don't go too deep on how to do digital marketing.
2 Food and Beverage
We can include this category businesses like restaurants, pubs, night clubs, and coffee shops.
Restaurants
Like many other businesses, restaurants are one of the businesses that are most affected by Covid 19.
My Solutions:
Managing this kind of business on Covid-19 Pandemic differ from the level of restrictions from country to country. If for example, your business is operating in a country where the government has eased some restrictions, a restaurant business can operate under normal conditions, but keeping social distance.
If your restaurant business is facing severe restrictions and can not operate under normal conditions, the only solution is to change the business model and transform it into a Food Delivery Business.
The transition from a restaurant to a food delivery business can be done. In the lockdown period, many restaurants have transformed into a food delivery business with success.
Pubs
The situation with pubs is a bit different from restaurants. If in some countries pubs remain closed during the Covid19 restrictions in some countries when the government ease restrictions let the pubs open for businesses. The only source for pubs to survive, like in restaurants cases are government payments. However, is a big difference in selling alcohol under-delivery business is prohibited in many countries. We took out this solution from the equation.
My Solutions:
Selling Stuff Online
When I say "selling stuff online" I don't mean alcohol as you probably think. Pubs are places designed for selling alcohol. Pubs have different characteristics and traditions from country to country. One example that I have in mind are Irish pubs. Irish pubs are promoters of Irish traditions, they promote the culture, music, and lifestyle of Ireland.
A business like this can take advantage of that by trying to promote traditions, culture, and lifestyle instead of selling alcohol. Temple Bar is a well know place in Dublin where you can find famous pubs.
If you are a pub owner you can try something to keep your businesses by selling different souvenirs online.
VR and Augmented Reality
In full Covid-19 Pandemic with many restrictions imposed by governments, creating a virtual world is the only solution that seems it will work, excepting social distancing that I have some doubts about the efficiency. VR technologies are in the early stage of development. I consider those technologies will have a huge impact on the near future.
From a pub business perspective creating a virtual world where you can feel and live the sensation of an Irish pub. Imagine what feeling you will have to be in a virtual world that replicates exactly The Temple Bar with traditional Irish music.
To be feasible first you need to be able to develop a Virtual Reality application, that can be accessed from a headset.
3 Hospitality Industry
In the hospitality industry, we can include businesses like: (Hotels, Resorts, Hostels and so on)
Is one of the industries that is been hit by the Covid19 Pandemic. Despite the introduction of restrictions, these businesses are still open for businesses. However, even if the businesses are open their profit margin is severely impacted. What can be done in this case? The answer not to many options. Even the options are few, I believe we should exploit them.
My Solutions:
Food Delivery Businesses
A hotel from example can easily transform the business model in food delivery businesses. In general, hotels provide food for their existing customers. I don't see any reasons why a hotel can not be converted to a delivery food business.
Selling Souvenirs Online
You can find hotels everywhere in the world. If you are based in a country that has traditions why you don't try to promote and sell it. Creating an online platform where you can sell different souvenirs that are representative of your country is a good solution. You might say: Well The income that you can get from selling these souvenirs will be enough to cover operating costs?
The answer is no, but I remember you that this kind of business is still open. So you can get an important percentage of your turnover from bookings.
VR & Augmented Reality
This kind of application can help to improve the user experience. I will give an example, Imagine you are a US citizen and want to book a hotel in Ireland Dublin. The person that is interested in making the booking can feel the experience of the hotel in a virtual world. If he likes the experience the probability to make the booking will be higher.
4 Travel Industry
The travel industry is big and includes many types of businesses. I will take only a few types of businesses. The businesses that I will choose will be Travel Agencies and Cruise Shipping Line.
Cruise Shipping Line
One of the industries that were hit badly by Covid19. It was sad to see companies that are liquidated and no longer exist and ships that are dismantled. I have friends that are working in the industry and I know how sad they are about this situation. For a cruise shipping line business there are not too many solutions that can be implemented to keep the business alive.
My Solution
VR & Augmented Reality
Living the experience of Cruise Line Shipping in a virtual world is not something S.F. Immersive VR Education is a software company based in Ireland dedicated to transforming how training and educational content is delivered and consumed. In the video above you have one of the applications developed by the company to recreate a virtual world for Titanic.
Having said that. Why some important cruise shipping line businesses like Royal Caribbean for example will not develop this kind of application to recreate the life of cruise shipping in a virtual world. Developing VR technologies can also help cruise shipping businesses to improve User Experience before somebody can make a booking.
Travel Agencies
Are also one of the businesses hit hard by Covid19 restrictions. For this kind of business like cruise shipping businesses, there are not too many solutions that can be done to keep this kind of business alive.
VR & Augmented Reality
To feel the experience to be in the Maldives or Seychelles from your headset is something that can make travel agencies around the world think seriously. Creating a virtual world for the Maldives islands for example is something that will improve the experience for potential users.
In conclusion, these are my solutions to how businesses can survive the Covid-19 Pandemic. I'm not saying that are feasible or will work 100 % but sometimes is far better to try to do something rather than nothing.
I consider skills one of the best assets that a person can have. Today having gifted with many skills is a real blessing. Skills are important and will remain important in the near future. We live in a period where science and technologies are moving very fast. What we been taught in the past is not valid in the present and will not be in the future.
In today's article, I will list my top 6
skills that need to have to be successful in the future.
1 Communication
Seen by many as not so important, communication is perhaps the most important skill that a person can have. I have to admit communication is not my strong part, actually, I'm very bad on this. Improving my communication skills is one of my tops priorities. Having good communication skills can improve your value with 50 % according to Warren Buffet.
2 Marketing& Sales
The concept is very simple: "you can't sell, you can't make money". In life and business, sales are what count most. The example that I have in mind now is Steve Jobs, he was an extremely good marketing guy. The presentation when he had introduced for the first time the iPhone was amazing.
Developing selling skills by digital marketing today is something that a person don need to miss if wants to become successful in the near future.
3 Coding
I discovered coding very interesting and I fall in love with this. Seen difficult by many, coding is a skill that you need to have success in the near future. The opportunities for software developers are endless.
Having coding skills like HTML, Javascript, Java, CSS can help you to solve some problems related to developing websites, apps, and other applications.
Coding can help you to develop complex systems using: machine learning, AI, and blockchain technologies.
4 Biotechnology
We are in a full pandemic crisis generated by the spread of COVID-19. The important biotech companies in the world are in a full race to develop a vaccine. The opportunities to be involved in the biotech field today are endless and with future perspectives.
Cellular agriculture is perhaps one of the most trendy parts of biotechnology today. There are companies startups that are working to create meat in another way that we used for. They are developing meat by culturing muscle tissues.
Agriculture is not the only domain where biotechnology is evolving. The food industry, medicine, plastic surgery are only a few fields.
5 Creativity and Content creation
If there are jobs that will not be extinct by AI, definitely will be jobs that imply creativity. People with creative skills can be successful in the near future. Social Media platforms are places where we can find those people starting with: bloggers, vloggers, and influencers.
6 Copywriting
After communication, I consider copywriting another important skill that a person should master if he wants to become successful in the near future. The two examples that I have in mind are Richard Branson and Bill Gates. What those people have in common? Both are successful business leaders and have a strong online presence on social media and they are posting periodically to their blogs.
In the last years I've been involved in some activities with the real estate companies. Dealing with real-estate agencies business have some disadvantages. Let's imagine the next scenario a person who wants to buy a house or apartment goes to the real-estate agency. The all process is bureaucratic and time-consuming. One modality to solve this problem is with the creation of a blockchain. Actual transactions are done following the path that you see in the next picture. As you can see all process is complex.
Today worldwide transactions reached a high record.
Dealing with a large number of transactions actual systems posses a lot of vulnerabilities and inefficiency. Back to our main topic of how a blockchain network can disrupt a real-estate agency business model? First, with the help of a blockchain network, third parties that are involved in transactions will disappear in our case real-estate agencies. And second, the process of buying and selling properties will be done more quickly.
Blockchain Network
For those who are not familiar with the term "blockchain". We can define blockchain as a process that facilitates and records transactions in a business network.
Advantages of a blockchain network vs real-estate agency business model
more efficient and reliable
cost-effective ( Commission for real-estate agencies will disappear )
information about transactions are more secure ( In traditional transaction systems every breach can pose a real threat to all system, instead in a blockchain network even is a breakout all system will not be compromised)
All transactions will be recorded in a shared digital ledger
A smart contract will appear, it will be an agreement between two people under a computer code
"Live the American dream" is a sentence that is widely used by many people in the world. There is no more suitable person that is fitted for this title than Andrew Carnegie. Known by many as steel business magnate the richest man in the world in that period. Andrew Carnegie together with John D Rockefeller were considered agents in the triumph of America industrial capitalism.
Carnegie remain in history records as person who was involved in many philanthropic activities, creating the biggest philanthropic organization in the world. Actual Giving Pledge Non Profit Organization founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet imported some ideas of Andrew Carnegie.
As businessman Carnegie was ruthless capitalist who was guided after the principle "The more you earn the more you have to give it away"
Thanks to David Nasaw who wrote this book, I have discovered important aspects related for his activity and life. Andrew Carnegie was born in 1835 Dunfermline Scotland . Like many other european people he saw the potential of new world country and the decline of United Kingdom and other european countries that were drived by colonial expansion. He started his career in the new world as telegraph operator at Pennsylvania Railroad. At age 30 he resigned to start his own first business with Tom Scott and J Edgar Thomson and culminating with the sale of " Carnegie Steel" to J P Morgan in the early march of 1901 and the formation of US Steel Corporation. US Steel become the first company with over 1 billion $ capitalization. At that time Andrew Carnegie net worth was 226 millions $, merely 120 billion $ today.
One of his biggest regrets in his life was that he has not given away as he wanted. According with his treasurer Robert Franks at the time of his death he had given away more than 350 millions $ !!.
Like I said at the beginning of this article he was not only a ruthless capitalist but also a person who militate for slavery abolish. Was one the vehement critique at colonial expansion, one of the reasons of the start of first world war. He openly has critiqued United State military interventions in Venezuela and Philippines. Despite his business has flourished from the building on naval battleships , he was strong critique to military buildup spending. During his entirely life he tried to promote peace and stability among countries. All his efforts were in vain , he could not prevent the start of the WWI.
What I did not like to Andrew Carnegie?
Andrew Carnegie achievements in life are amazing, great business leader, great philanthropist a person who has contributed to the building a society that no other. Achieving this, he become an important person with great power to influence people. Former US presidents like: Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were influenced by Carnegie marked the beginning of a period where Rockefeller and Carnegie influence started to become part of United States policy.
In the end I firmly recommend David Nasaw book to discover the life of one of the most important person in our modern society.
The natural resources that we found on Earth are not endless who probably many of us think. I consider the biggest challenge for the next period is " How we can preserve our natural resources. Mankind are looking to find viable and alternative solution to solve these problems. Global warming is a big concern among specialists. Thanks to industrial expansion which in many cases is done by deforestation and transform it in agriculture and industrial land. For me was very sad to see how the Amazon rainforest is exploited by humans in desire to obtain more profit and to feed an increasingly world population. For many who do not know the Amazon rainforest is responsible with the production of 20 % of our planet oxygen. It is hard to imagine how our planet with look with no Amazon forest. One of the reasons why people are deforesting
the forest is to create agriculture land to feed humans and animal. With the expectancy that world population will grow to 9 billion by 2050 , makes more challenging any attempt to find alternative solutions to not damage the nature and to feed the world.
One of the product that are wasting a lot of natural resources to produce it is meat. Meat is a source of food that always will be in demand no matter of economic situation and social class. One innovative solution found to solve this problem without to harm nature is to produce meat by culturing muscle cells so called lab grown meat. In today article I will present reasons why we should adopt lab grown meat. From the beginning I do not want to denigrate traditional meat producers, is not the purpose of this article. I consider that how meat is produced today wont be sustainable in the future.
1 Greenhouse gas emission
According to UN Food and Agriculture Organization animal agriculture is responsible for 14,5 of the world total greenhouse emission. Animal agriculture is responsible of methan production which has a 25 % greater potential to global warming than CO2. Animals like: cow, sheep and goat are responsible for methan production.
2 No Animal Slaughter
Animal ethics we do not need to slaughter animals to produce meat.
3 Environmental issue
As I said of the beginning of this article Amazon rainforest produce 20 % of oxygen on Earth. Amazon deforest is one dangerous and stupid action ever took. 70 % of Amazon deforest is used as pastures and 30 % is used to raise animal crops. !!! Livestock farming are taking 70 % of arable land around the globe.
4 Viruses transmission
In our history many viruses and diseases have been transmitted from animal. Diseases like: influenza, avian, swine and bovine spongiform are transmitted through livestock.
5 Antibiotics issue
Industrial production of meat ca not be done without the use of antibiotics. To force animal grew quickly meat producers are using different hormones and antibiotics. Many of them poses a really treat to human body. To produce meat by culturing muscle cells will not need hormones and antibiotics.
6 No need for factory farms
We conclude than animal farming is efficient for land and environment. Industrial animal farming is done by farms where animals are kept in many cases in inappropriate conditions . Maintaining animal the wellbeing of animal is almost impossible , time consuming and nobody cares so much.
7 Nutrition of growing world population
Feeding with meat of entirely whole world population will be assured without to harm the nature.
If I have to list something that most successful entrepreneurs have in common is the power to disrupt certain industries. Jeff Bezos by his Amazon was able to disrupt and redefine entirely retail industry, Brian Chesky Airbnb was able to give tourism industry other perspective. These are few examples of how business are evolving during the time.
Being force to stay home due to government restrictions to prevent spread of Covid-19, I wasn't able to go to event meetings. I spend important part of my day watching webinars and live stream events. Yesterday night I was watching a webinar " VC's view of series funding in a post Covid world " and suddenly a light bulb went off in my head. Not far from the present days I had strong believes in real estate office business. Due to lockdown measures many business have stopped their activities and some are continuing their activities even in this period of time. To keep social distancing many organizations were forced to take some unusual measures like to allow their employees to work from home. A new trend has appeared "remote work from home". Social media channels are bombarded with live stream events. Zoom application, Skype and Yotube live are few tools that companies are using even in this period to continue their business.
Back to our main topic "Can this new trend be a real threat to office business ?" , and " How business will redefine after post Covid period ?" I consider office real estate business solid business with good margin of profit. Dublin is important tech hub in European Union, many important tech companies and not only have offices here. I remember october 2019 when Green REIT shareholders have decided to sell the business. For me was a sad news in that period, first a source of dividend was cutted and second to own a piece of that business was something that not many people have this opportunity and have tenants (customers) like: Bank of America, Vodafone, Barclays, AIB and so on was something special. In the late of november 2019 the transaction was made Henderson Park bought Green Reit plc in 1.34 billion euro , 1.9135 euro/share for each shareholder. That transaction was the largest real estate transaction in 2019 and the largest real estate ever sell in Ireland.
Since the transaction was ended many important things have happened the world entered in lockdown. The next office real estate developers should ask: "How office real estate business will look in post covid period ?" Can developers face the imaginable scenario where tenants (business) will redefine , instead of looking huge offices with many square foot many companies will look for more small offices and more dynamic. For them the lockdown and the new trend of work from have created a dangerous perspective. For many organisations the perspective to allow their own employees to work from home can be cost effective in special in this period of time. If the business will find this solution efficient and cost effective will apply this solution in the future which might represent a real threat for real estate office developers.
This board game is one of the games that I used to play and I'm still playing with my friends when I have time. Being a very popular board game in Eastern Europe, I have decided to do something different more exactly to build a robot or machine learning model to play this game.
Being influenced and have study case AlphaGo a computer program developed by DeepMind Technologies. In 2017 AlphaGo shock the world by beaten the best Go chinese players . Go is a very popular game in China is about strategy and was invented 2,500 years ago. For China the defeat of their best players was a huge humiliation that was given by US. Since than The Chinese Communist Party has settled that by 2030 to be the leading power in artificial intelligence.
Ken Jie a chinese guy who has never beaten by a computer in Go game said he had "an horrible experience . The next question we should ask our self is how AlphaGo did this ?
The reality is very simple the computer programs have always beat humans , that happen with Garry Kasparov. The secret of AlphaGo were deep neural networks , containing million of connections similar to the neurons of the brain.
Back to our example the rules of the Board Game are simple for this game you need a pair of dice and game chicks. In the above picture you have an image of how the game looks. Let's say you are with white chicks , you need to come with all your white and put them in the right side at the bottom and after than you start to clean the place, the winner is the first who finish.
In the process of building the model I will use machine learning which is sub field of artificial intelligence , linear algebra, probabilities and as programming language Python.
Machine learning models can have more methods depending of what type of problems you want to solve. This methods can be:
Supervised Learning
Unsupervised Learning
Semi-supervised learning
Reinforcement learning
In our case I will gone use reinforcement learning.
Reinforcement Learning
The reason why we use reinforcement learning is that we have an robot that we want to train over a period of time to interact with an environment in our case the board game and improve is performance over a period of time with actions performed by the environment (board game) . The first step is to teach the robot with rules of the game. Being familiarized by the rules and strategies of the game the robot start to become smarter and familiar with the game.
We live in uncertain time, many economies are locked down due to government measures to try to stop Covid-19 spread. Many business have stopped their activities, some are on the verge of collapse, workers are laid off temporarily, social payments for unemployment pays have increased.
For many people to invest or start own business looks a crazy idea. To invest in this condition can provide you good investments opportunities.
In today article I will present my on view regarding investment activity. For many times I had a contradictory view with one friend regarding investment activity. His view on investment is you invest a certain amount of money in let's say a business in hope that business will go up in value and in some point you will sell your participation in that business and you will make a profit, this is know as " Capital Gain" . What my friend missed to say is that investment is not only capital gain, but also cashflow earnings. Being involved for several years in certain investment activities , I have gained some experience and I want to share with you from my experience. From the beginning you need to understand that I not make investment recommendations. So let's get started:
1 CAPITAL GAIN
Is the simple and easy to understand form of investment. You invest X amount money in something, if the price of that asset goes up at one point you sell your asset. The difference between your initial investment and the price you will obtain is know as capital gain. You can obtain capital gain if you invest in many asset categories. I will try to enumerate the most important of them:
Own Business
Is the most important type of investment you can make. Being a business owner can provide you huge opportunities, your are accountable for your own decision and so on. Startups are in general very risky to invest but in the same time have huge rewarding potential. Ventures Capital companies are looking to invest in startups with potential to scale up quick. They are looking investments that can provide 5 to 7 times return on investment. For that reason to invest your money in a startup is the best decision that you can make.
Public Companies
Is perhaps the most easy way to invest. Public traded companies provide opportunities to average people to invest. You don't need huge amount of money to invest, with few hundred dollars you can open a brokerage account. Capital gain can be obtained by investing in Company X and selling when price goes up.
Real Estate Properties
Type of real estate properties are : houses, residential properties, commercial, office and logistic parks. The same principle will apply like the previous two. You buy a property a certain amount of money and you will sell when the price will goes up.
Physical Gold
Seen by many as "God Money" gold is doing very under uncertain periods of time like we live now.
2 Cashflow
Many people see investment as an activity to obtain gain, which is true but not 100 %. They forgot to mention as source of extra income. It is nothing more happy for a person to obtain additional source of income by not doing any effort and work. People can choose to invest in different category of assets that can provide valuable source of income.
Startup
As I said above, startups can be the most rewarding type of investment that you can make. Let' say you help your friend to start his business by borrowing him money in exchange for equity in his business. By the end of each year you will share the profit by not doing any activity.
Dividend Stocks
Is one of my favorite source of passive income. Public trade companies usually pays dividends once or twice per year in Eurozone Area , in US quarterly . There are companies in the world that have impressive dividend record payments for more than 50 years. These business are large with strong competitive advantage, however you need to be aware that in this economic conditions of Covid-19 pandemy some companies will cut dividend payment. ECB (European Central Bank) send a directive to all commercial banks in Euro Area to cut dividend payments for 2019 financial year.
Real Estate
Is widely used by many people, is an exceptional source of extra money. Let's say you own an apartment and you rent it to a person in exchange for monthly rent payment.
Amazon FBA
If you have a product and you are looking to sell it online, Amazon can be the right platform for you . The principle is simple you send your products to Amazon fulfilment center and the company will take care for your products and orders in exchange for weekly fees (storage, handling, shipping). This is an exceptional way to have extra source of income.
In conclusion the decision to invest or not is up to you. To keep your money in cash is not seen as wise move, however with all of us should be aware of the importance of cash in special on this economic conditions of pandemy. Cash can be the king !! Let's imagine you are a person who was laid off by government lock down to have extra cash can be extremely important can help you to pay (rent, bills, food, mortgages and so on). The same principles applies to business, cash for business is like to oxygen for people, making a sad analogy with what happen today with some people infected with Covid-19, without air people slowly dies, the same principle will apply for business.
Watching movies is not regarded like an activity that can improve your skills and is seen by many as a waste of time, however there are movies that can be a real source of inspiration and motivation.
In today article I will present my top 10 movies that might be a source of inspiration for entrepreneurs. Despite it is not something that can guarantees you that will become entrepreneur 100 %. I made this ranking after I've seen those movies. Let's get started:
12 American Gangster 2007 produced by Ridley Scott with Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe
From the beginning you have to know that I not support criminality and other activities related to organize crime. This movie presents the evolution of Frank Lucas who smuggled heroin in US become one of the most important important drug dealer in US. This movie can be a source of inspiration for those who have entrepreneurship drive. Frank Lucas come from poor black family and become one of the most important figure of New York organize crime.
11 Goodfellas 1990 produced by Martin Scorsese with Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci
From the beginning you have to know that I not support criminality and other activities related to organize crime. Classic movie about organize crime , this movie presents the rise and fall Henry Hill. This movie can be a perfect study case of how you can make money from scratch starting with smuggling and robbery.
10 The Godfather 1972 directed by Francis Ford Coppola with Marlon Brandon , Al Pacino and Robert Duvall
Voted one of the best movie all time. The story of this movie presents evolution of Corleone crime family. Al Pacino in Michael Corleone role can be a source of inspiration about leadership and negotiation.
9 The Social Network 2010 directed by David Fincher with Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake
Facebook is the most popular social media channel. Many people are using are present on it. The story of this movie presents the evolution of Facebook from the beginning to present.
8 Arbitrage 2012 directed by Nicholas Jarecki with Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon
Hedge Funds are managing billion $ , the story of this movie represent the life of Robert Miller (Richard Gere) a successful fund manager who was involved in many scams investment scheme activities.
7 Wolf of Wall Street 2014 directed by Martin Scorsesse with Leonardo Di, Jonah Hill
For many people Wall Street is regarded like a place, where money are flowing every day. The story of this film presents the evolution of Jordan Belfort a stoke broker in New York, who have created the brokerage company Stratton Oakmont.
6 The Count of Monte Cristo 2002 directed by Kevin Reynolds with Jim Caviezel and Guy Pearce
Having the base the novel " The Count of Monte Cristo" written by french novelist Alexandre Dumas this movie is one of my favorite movie. The key figure is Edmond Dantes ( Jim Caviezel) who was imprisoned for 13 years on Chateau d'if. This movie can be a good source of inspiration for entrepreneurs . In the life of every entrepreneur betray is very common , people who you trust one day can betray you letting you alone.
5 Gold 2016 directed by Stephen Graham with Matthew McConaughey, Edgar Ramirez
Gold will always be in demand no matter of how economy will go. What entrepreneurs can learn from this movie? Every entrepreneur dream to create a company and to have a successful IPO ( Initial Public Offer) .
4 The boy who harnessed the wind 2019 directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor
I found this movie very interesting, the main character on this movie is William Kamkwamba a boy in a poor african family . One of the problem of Africa that is facing is drought. Coming from a poor family William Kamkwamba was able to create an improvised system of irrigation system by using wind as power generator.
3 Nightcrawler 2014 directed by Dan Gilroy with Jake Gyllenhall, Rene Russo
Louis Bloom ( Jake Gyllenhall) a psychopath who record violent events than happen in the night in LA. The story of this movie is how to create a video recording company.
2 The Pursuit of Happyness 2006 directed by Gabriele Muccino with Will Smith, Thandie Newton and Jaden Smith
I 've seen this movie recently and I found it captivating. The life is tough if you want to achieve your goals you need to make sacrifices. Chris Gardner (Will Smith) a person who was straggling financial was able to create a portable bone density scanner from his savings and got a job as stoke broker.
1 The Shamshak Redemption 1994 directed by Frank Darabont with Tim Robins , Morgan Freeman
This is by far the my best movie. The movie is the story of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) a banker who was sentenced to life prison for the murder of his wife.
If I need to make a movie recommendation for Netflix , I will choose the story of Theranos startup. ( A story of Theranos in on HBO) . For many of us Silicon Valley is considerate to be the Holy Land of entrepreneurship. Silicon Valley is the place where many successful companies were born. Companies like: Google, Apple, Facebook, Airbnb, Tesla are few examples. Silicon Valley is regarded like a place where the success is 100 % guaranteed but reality is completely different, what we see today is the top of the iceberg and the bottom of the iceberg unseen part , where the important thinks are happening. Those companies that I've enumerated are the results of many hours of work, failure, lies and intrigue.
A company that is fitting in this shape is Theranos a company founded by Elizabeth Holmes. Elizabeth Holmes was seen by many as Steve Jobs of women, a college dropout who was dreaming to become entrepreneur. Theranos a biotech company who have created a device that analyze blood samples. Few drops of blood are taking out from a subject and transfer it to plastic cartridge the size of the credit card. The cartridge would slot into a rectangular box the size of the toaster. The box was called reader . It extracted a data signal from the cartridge and beamed it wirelessly to a server that analyze the data and beamed back a result. The technology on the paper was a breakthrough technology that unfortunately dose not work.
The story of Theranos include elements like:
how to create a product that dosen't work
hiring the wrong people
doing things that are not in your area of competencies
Firing important people and installing a regime of terror among employess
Financial reports manipulation in hope to raise money
Misleading investors and spending their money
Treating employees to not make any disclosure
The first person who made public Theranos practices was John Carreyrou the book author . With his work the Theranos scam shows up and now Elizabeth Holmes is facing criminal charges.
Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality and our Destiny Beyond Earth
It is the third book, written by Michio Kaku that I've read. Michio Kaku become for me the favorite science writer, reading previous two books " The future of Mind" and " Hyperspace"
The future of Humanity follow the same path almost , but goes more in deep regarding space travel.
Movies like: Star Trek, Star Wars and Space Odyssey are not fiction anymore. The technology of space travel existed for many years but was limited only to Orbit of Earth. Today mankind thanks to peoples like: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson want more, to go beyond Earth Orbit.
To go to Mars and to colonize it, is not a fiction. Today Space X the company founded by Elon Musk aims to go to Mars and colonized it by 2025. Richard Branson with his company Virgin Galactic wants to develop space travel for touristic purpose to be more affordable to people.
What actually those people want ? According to scientific research the Earth has already sustained five major extinction in which up to 90 % of all life forms vanished from Earth. The concept of Multiplanet Species that lives among the stars is not something fiction.
The Future of Humanity book include elements of the fourth industrial revolution and fifth industrial revolution. The fourth Industrial Revolution (Present)
Artificial Intelligence
Nanotechnology
Biotechnology
Space travel
The fifth Industrial Revolution
Nanoships
Laser Sails
Ramjet fusion machines
Animatter engines
I'm not go deep in to them is to much information , I firmly recommend this book for those who want to get more insights about science and what kind of technologies we might see in the future.
The world is getting crazy, we are witnessing of potential outbreak of coronavirus who can it become a global pandemic . For long period of time I wanted to write about this topic and now I have the chance to do it. On this article I will talk about coronavirus is not the subject of this article.
Since with the end of 2008 global financial recession when the global economy has started to recover many individuals so called financial gurus and planners came out with articles and theories that a new financial crisis is imminent . Regarding me I never wasn't intrigued when will be the next financial recession and what are the facts that have triggered financial crises. As person I always I am interested on personal development, how to improve my services, how to create good products and how to solve real world problems. With the beginning of 2020 many of economic articles have the headline " 2020 Economic recession or market crash" , but this headline I've seen in 2015, 2016, 2017 and nothing happen , I don't blame them this kind of content is getting a lot of interests and clicks.
Reading and analyzing what those people are saying I can draw some conclusions, I consider is very hard if not impossible to make predictions economic recessions or market crash. Of course I'm worried about some financial indicators, I'm worried about real estate and stock market that are at record high and make me feel a little bit prudent about my actions. However I admit I like this situation when a lot of hysteria is produced by media in general the psychology is playing an important role here. I remember what Warren Buffett said years ago: " Be fearful when others are greedy ,by greedy when others are fearful" this statement is very representative for me and my philosophy of investing.
Back to our topic I have few simple questions to ask to those who make this claim that we are heading to a new economic recession:
When exactly the new economic recession will start ?
What exactly will happen ? (major bankruptcy the new Lehman Brother)
How can we protect ?
Those are few simple questions that I want to ask for those who make this statement. As you can see is very easy to make this affirmation but extremely hard to respond efficiently to this questions.
There are also people who come out with some strategies to protect more efficiently during market crashes. We will analyze this in the following moment.
1 Save money
This is one of the stupid idea that I ever heard. What are the reasons why somebody work and save money. Back in the past in 1971 the US president Richard Nixon took off the us dollar after the Gold standards. This one dangerous economic decision ever took. From that moment the us dollar become debt. Why somebody work and save money if FED can print as much money they can ? , by the way today US National debt is about 23 trillion $. This situation will not apply only on US, almost all central banks are printing money. If you look to ECB (European Central Bank) , Bank of Japan have low interest rates and in some cases close to negative. To invest your money in to a saving account with this conditions is not a wise move.
2 Sell your assets
Is perhaps the most common financial advise given by so called financial planners . What are the reasons why somebody sell their assets ? It is well know successful people own assets, you can become wealthy if you don't own assets. As Robert Kiosaky said in his book "Rich dad poor dad" rich people don't work for money. One of the advise that is giving by financial planner is " Sell your assets , keep money in cash and wait for new crash to come and buy new assets. This statement is partial true but not 100 % and I will explain why.
Imagine you have an asset ( real estate property) and you decide to sell that property today, you get an amount of money and you decide to put that money in a saving account hopping that one day a new crash will come and you can buy another asset at discount price. For those who believe this is a good strategy I will come with an different argument. The Great Depression started in 1929 was one of the longest and deepest recession that mankind faced. In the last century we faced many recession but those which had a big impact I can enumerate Dot.com bubble started and 2000 and subprime mortgage crisis that has started in 2008. As we can see the crisis which a huge impact on real estate was the 1929 crisis and 2008. Back to present you decide to sell the real estate property and keep your money in a saving in the hope that recession is imminent and you can buy another one at discount price. As you can see the difference between to major economic recession is 79 years. What makes you think that we are in the economic recession. The economic recession dose not start from year to year or from five to five years. In our example you need to wait another 79 years to market to crash to hope to buy an asset at discount price ;))). It is not a smart strategy you miss a lot of opportunities if your are not holding that assets and getting monthly rental income. That source of income can compound over the time.
In conclusion economic crises are part of our life. Mankind has faced this from centuries. We should not fear them . With a little knowledge and skills, those crises can be handled, after all What is wrong if we are in recession ? . Recession means opportunities and that is the most important thing
Yesterday I had the honor to be present to an event hosted by UCD having topic " The use of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity. Having huge interest on artificial intelligence field, I didn't want to miss this opportunity to be present to such an event.
Representatives from many organizations have gathered at Moli Newman House to listen the speakers:
Dr Marguerite Barry - UCD School of Information and Communication Studies
Dr Giovanni Russo - UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Dr Mathieu Sinn - IBM Research Staff Member -Cognitive Data Science
Ian Trinder- PwC Director Cyber Security
I will try to make a short description of the main points of this topic. Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence capabilities are growing at unprecedented rate. These technologies start to be used in absolute all domains. There are not fields in which AI are not implemented or will be implemented soon or later. However AI models can possess some treats which I will present in the following moment:
1 Malicious use of AI
Building machine learning and AI models rely heavily on big data. These models are incredible accurate if the data they are using are correct. To understand how important is data I will give an example. A certain bank decide to implement a machine learning automation system to try to prevent credit card fraud detection system. A system to be reliable must contain accurate data. We can imagine what will happen if the data contains errors, the system will automatically give errors because the models are trained to make predictions based on that data.
2 AI Regulation
Is not yet know, how artificial intelligence will be regulated . Wisely will be that regulators should collaborate with researchers to prevent or investigate potential malicious use of AI.
3 Digital Security
One of the reason why automation systems are implemented or will be implemented is that make our job more easy, more fast and better. The example that I gave with credit card fraud detection is representative.
4 Fake News
We are continuously bombarded with fake news and propaganda via media channels . AI systems will be able in somehow to make distinction between a fake news and a good one. However the expansion of automated tasks can lead to expand threats associated with social manipulation. Authoritarian states can take huge advantages using these tools in order to manipulate their own people.
Playing video games, watching TV and spending time on social media are one of the habits that are popular among us ,which are considered bad. People are influenced by habits and become what they are because of their own habits. We can define a habit like the process in which the brain converts a sequence of actions into an automatic routine.
Having said this, we can ask few questions like: How do we know which are good and bad habits ? Can we change or replace them? To find out answer to that questions I recommend the book " The Power of Habit" written by Charles Duhigg.
Charles Duhigg examine how habits can be ignored, changed or replaced in real life. In his book he has discovered why some people and companies are struggling to change despite years of trying , while others seem to remake themselves overnight. Creating new habits is not an easy process. One of the first person who explained how habits are created among consumers is Claude Hopkins.
Two basics rules of how habits are created among consumers:
Find a simple and obvious cue
Define rewards
Figuring out how to spark a craving makes creating a new habit easier. New habits can be adopted to organizational structures. Starbucks is an amazing and well know company that discovered how to turn self discipline into an organizational habit. Facing problems like: customers complaints, screaming customers and long line cash register, Starbucks has introduced a set of rules of how to respond to specific cues. This is know like Starbucks " LATTE " Methotd L- Listen to the customer A- Acknowledge their complains T- Take action by solving the problems T- Thank them E- Explain why the problem has occurred
Introducing this new set of rules, Starbucks not only changed the company habit, but also gave employee a greater sense of authority and how to use more efficient their intellect and creativity.
For an organization to become successful, the leaders must cultivate habits that create a real and balanced peace.
Unlock the creativity and innovation in you and your team
There are many reasons that business are failing in today environment, one of the reason perhaps the most important is the lack of innovation. Business owners must encourage themselves and empower their people to take creative and entrepreneurial approach to exploit new opportunities.
The best way to create value is to innovate your organization and to stay ahead your competition in order to create temporary monopolies where yours is the only in town.
Innovation can be bring in your team by harnessing the creative power of your people. The goal is to turn them into opportunistic entrepreneurs or lateral thinkers.
Lateral thinking is a new approach of doing business which is emphasized in Paul Sloane book " Lateral thinking skills". Lateral thinking means approaching business challenges from new direction in order to create better solutions.
According to Paul Sloane the key elements of creating a truly innovative and entrepreneurial organization can be summarized in the following steps:
Paint an inspiring vision
Build an open, receptive, questioning culture
Empower people at all levels
Set goals deadlines and measurements for innovation
Use creativity technique to generate a large number of ideas
Review, combine, filter and select ideas
Prototype the promising proposal
Welcome failure and manage risk
Analyze results and roll out the successful projects
