Researchers prove if you are mentored, crime pays better

Crime, they say, doesn't pay. If criminals are mentored, researchers have proven, it pays better.

Carlo Morselli and Pierre Tremblay, of the Université de Montréal, and Bill McCarthy, of the University of California at Davis, who studied the impact of mentoring on criminal success recently published their findings this paper titled “Mentors and Criminal Achievement: Researching Mentorship and its Impact”.

Morselli et al also cite an earlier researcher on mentoring, who quotes one of the subjects of his study as declaring, “Any man who hits the big-time [in crime], somewhere or other along the road, became associated with a big-timer who picked him up and educated him”. Adding, “No one ever crashed the big rackets without education in this line.”

The study however is not anecdotal but adopts a rigourous methodology.

When measured along the key metrics that signify success in this profession; the ones who were mentored made more money and got caught less often. “Those who had a mentor reported almost nine times greater earnings than nonmentored men” write researchers. “As for costs, mentored offenders experienced fewer days of incapacitation during the window period”. Download >>

There are two ways of looking at things.

As I have often written, "There are two ways of looking at life; the way it is, or the way we will like to believe it is".

The first step is a honest at our ownselves. This article on 'Critical Thinking' offers an interesting 'How-to list...' (see below).

The article is titled, "Becoming a Critic of your own thinking'.

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A how-to list for dysfunctional living

Most people have no notion of what it means to take charge of their lives. They don’t realize that the quality of their lives depends on the quality of their thinking.

We all engage in numerous dysfunctional practices to avoid facing problems in our thinking. Consider the following and ask yourself how many of these dysfunctional ways of thinking you engage in:

• Surround yourself with people who think like you. Then no one will criticize you.
  
• Don’t question your relationships. You then can avoid dealing with problems within them.
  
• If critiqued by a friend or lover, look sad and dejected and say, “I thought you were my friend!” or “I thought you loved me!”
  
• When you do something unreasonable, always be ready with an excuse. Then you won’t have to take responsibility. If you can’t think of an excuse, look sorry and say, “I can’t help how I am!”
  
• Focus on the negative side of life. Then you can make yourself miserable and blame it on others.
  
• Blame others for your mistakes. Then you won’t have to feel responsible for your mistakes. Nor will you have to do anything about them.
  
• Verbally attack those who criticize you. Then you don’t have to bother listening to what they say.
  
• Go along with the groups you are in. Then you won’t have to figure out anything for yourself.
  
• Act out when you don’t get what you want. If questioned, look indignant and say, “I’m just an emotional person. At least I don’t keep my feelings bottled up!”
  
• Focus on getting what you want. If questioned, say, “If I don’t look out for number one, who will?”
  

As you see, the list is almost laughable. And so it would be if these irrational ways of thinking didn’t lead to problems in life. But they do. And often. Only when we are faced with the absurdity of dysfunctional thinking, and can see it at work in our lives, do we have a chance to alter it.

Read the entire article

A Great Mission Statement

The previous post on a great vision statement received the highest views, so here is another one!

This mission statement was conjured up by the creative people at the mega-marketing services agency, WPP:

Our mission:
To develop and manage talent;
To apply that talent,
Throughout the world,
For the benefit of clients;
To do so in partnership;
To do so with profit.
WPP

Should Your Next CEO Be a Philosopher?

According to a Wharton professor Yoram "Jerry" Wind and an Israeli venture capitalist, in a a recent article in 'Knowledge at Wharton', a company's ability to understand its customers' philosophical outlook may be as vital to its success as R&D and other efforts.

Sounds like Marketing 101 Revisited ?!

But if you ignore the hyperbole & cliches which Wind, a purveyor of pop-strategy (like Ram Charan), is very fond of, it does make sense.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1125.cfm

Stocks ain't hot, claim LBS researchers

In a paper titled 'Irrational Optimism' three London Business School (LBS) Professors have asserted that historically stocks have had lower returns and higher risks than was previously believed.

To quote "Although the probable rewards from equity investment are attractive, stocks did not and cannot offer a guaranteed superior performance over the investment horizon of most investors. Furthermore, their prospective returns are lower than many investors project, whereas their risk is higher than many investors appreciate."

"Investors who assume that favorable equity returns can be relied on in the long term or that stocks are safe so long as they are held for 20 years are optimists. Their optimism is irrational. "

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The paper can be downloaded from : - http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=476981

A Great Vision Statement

Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company

We will build good ships
At a profit when we can
At a loss if we must
But, always, good ships.

Note: NNS&D was recently acquired. You can compare the new "Value Statement" ( http://www.nn.northropgrumman.com/about/our_values.stm ) with this powerful vision .