RS 2 A Billion Dollar Bet

This blog post is my reaction to the news broadcast “Episode 431: A Billion-Dollar Bet Against Weight-Loss Shakes” from the website Planet Money on January 18, 2013.

            This news broadcast was very informative as well as educational about what is happening in the business world today. Listening to this broadcast I had mixed opinions as to who was right and who was wrong, and after reading some of the comments and going into further analysis, I believe that both the company of Herbal Life and Bill Ackman are wrong in this situation. The main idea of this episode is to find out who is right and who is wrong, whether Herbal Life is a pyramid scheme or is Bill Ackman just trying to get his name out there even more while earning billions. Through the facts and evidence in this episode I believe that both parties are trying to save their name and neither is right.

As the broadcast explained, Herbal Life makes its profits solely on individual distributors and after that there is no fact of what goes on from there. A company that has been around for 30 years finally gets looked into by Bill Ackman and that is when the trouble starts. Bill Ackman publically held an information session of over 300 slides to the public explaining how Herbal Life is a scam. Ackman also explains how he spent millions of dollars collecting information which shows how costly information can be. At the end of the episode Ackman states that he is “already rich” and just felt it was “a moral obligation to get it out there.”

Unfortunately this situation is tough to decide who is right and wrong. I feel like Herbal Life, from what I have heard and seen, is indeed a pyramid scam, but I also believe that Ackman was not doing a “moral obligation” more himself a favor. By publically displaying how this company is a fraud by betting a billion dollars the stock will drop, this instills fear into the investors to sell out of the company before things get worse. Whatever side you are on the people in the middle of this situation get hurt. Herbal Life makes its money off what the newscaster claims to be poor people’s hopes and dreams encouraging them to go out and advertise and make profits, while Bill Ackman is betting the stock to go down and scare investors to sell out so it does indeed drop. Herbal Life will not openly state it is a pyramid scheme if it is or not and Bill Ackman will not admit he caused this stir just to make more money. This is a terrible situation in which the investors are the pawns who don’t win.

RS1 HOW TO BE A GENIUS

This blog post is my reaction to the article “How to Be a Genius” by David Dobbs. This article appeared in the September 2006 edition of the New Scientist.

            This article was a great read and really inspiring. It really supports the statement that people tell you can be anything you want in life as long as you put your mind to it. This came as a big surprise to me because although I knew a lot of geniuses worked hard I thought that most of the time it was they were born with special ability. The main idea Dobbs addresses in this article is that one is not born a genius; it is attained through hard work. Dobbs illustrates this idea through his personal experience as well as scientific studies and historical figures.

            Through Dobbs personal experiences talent to him is not a gift you are born with but something that is earned. In his early life, Dobbs mother always told him he “SMARRR-ter than the average bear!". This led Dobbs to believe that this was a natural gift he was blessed with. However, that view of talent changed when he was in his thirties when he was not as above the population in smarts than he thought. He describes himself having an epiphany and that he saw that a “mountain of work,” got him somewhere compared to his previous belief that just innate talent was the key to being a genius.

            The belief on innate talent leading to one becoming a genius has been revealed irrelevant Dobbs explains stating a number of scientific studies and historical figures that disprove this idea. Psychologists have run brain scans, IQ comparisons, and memory tests all on young people who were identified as “gifted” and yet there is noting that stands out to say this person will be a genius. In a study with children at Hunter College Elementary School in New York, Psychologists observed the students who achieved an IQ score around the territory of “genius” and yet as they developed and grew older, few made anything really big of themselves. This is just one of the many tests that were run to see if high IQ scores meant one was gifted to become a genius. Stephen Hawking’s view on people and IQ scores stated, "People who boast about their IQ are losers.” Hawking’s agrees with Dobbs in that it is only through continuous hard work and practice is where a genius spawns.

            Dobbs analyzes many great athletes and musicians such as Michael Jordan and Mozart stating that these are two key examples of the  ten year rule, that people like these examples get to where they are today with over a decade of hard work and practice. Also states that hard work leading to success can either encourage you or overwhelm you. Dobbs referred to mentors that each person should possess in their live to encourage them into the way to success and help them in a direction of skills and a field they are interested rather than an overwhelming wide variety of options they do not know which to choose.

This reading was assigned because it is a great motivational read for a freshman in college. With so much room for opportunity this is a great guide to help gives students the push they need to work hard for that career they want and to be the best they can be at that position.