Free Teleseminar With Andrea Kay

Free Teleseminar With Andrea Kay I just found out about a teleseminar that is featuring someone that Ive been tracking for a while here are the details (I just took this from the Reach Branding Club website Im guessing the link will have different stuff on it once they have their next teleseminar): Lifes a Bitch and then You Change Careers Date: March 21, 2007 thats tomorrow! 9:00 AM PDT Los Angeles 12:00 PM EDT New York 4:00 PM GMT London 5:00 PM CET Paris Registration: Free Register Now Space is limited to 100 participants, so reserve your spot now. In our 1-2-3 Success! Personal Branding Process, we advocate pursuing work that is congruent with your vision, purpose, values, passions and goals. For many, this means making a career change. Thats why in March, William Arruda will be interviewing Andrea Kay, Author of Lifes a Bitch and then you Change Careers: 9 Steps to Get Out of Your Funk On to Your Future. Andrea is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and career consultant who has helped thousands of job hunters and employees cut to the heart of their frustration and dissatisfaction and take control of their careers. Shes was named Best Career Counselor by Cincinnati Magazine and Money magazine wrote, Every word out of Andrea Kays mouth is gold. Dont miss this opportunity to benefit from hearing Andreas fresh perspective on career change. To get the most out of this call, we highly recommend that you order and read Lifes a Bitch and Then You Change Careers. If have been thinking of joining the Reach Branding Club, do so on the day of the call, and we will buy you a copy of Lifes a Bitch and Then You Change Careers. Register Now Space is limited to 100 participants, so reserve your spot now. Free Teleseminar With Andrea Kay I just found out about a teleseminar that is featuring someone that Ive been tracking for a while here are the details (I just took this from the Reach Branding Club website Im guessing the link will have different stuff on it once they have their next teleseminar): Lifes a Bitch and then You Change Careers Date: March 21, 2007 thats tomorrow! 9:00 AM PDT Los Angeles 12:00 PM EDT New York 4:00 PM GMT London 5:00 PM CET Paris Registration: Free Register Now Space is limited to 100 participants, so reserve your spot now. In our 1-2-3 Success! Personal Branding Process, we advocate pursuing work that is congruent with your vision, purpose, values, passions and goals. For many, this means making a career change. Thats why in March, William Arruda will be interviewing Andrea Kay, Author of Lifes a Bitch and then you Change Careers: 9 Steps to Get Out of Your Funk On to Your Future. Andrea is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and career consultant who has helped thousands of job hunters and employees cut to the heart of their frustration and dissatisfaction and take control of their careers. Shes was named Best Career Counselor by Cincinnati Magazine and Money magazine wrote, Every word out of Andrea Kays mouth is gold. Dont miss this opportunity to benefit from hearing Andreas fresh perspective on career change. To get the most out of this call, we highly recommend that you order and read Lifes a Bitch and Then You Change Careers. If have been thinking of joining the Reach Branding Club, do so on the day of the call, and we will buy you a copy of Lifes a Bitch and Then You Change Careers. Register Now Space is limited to 100 participants, so reserve your spot now.

Resume Writing Services Guaranteed Job Positions

Resume Writing Services Guaranteed Job PositionsIf you need to create a great resume that will help land you a great job and you want to find an employer that will allow you to use resume writing services, you have two options. You can try to do it yourself or you can hire a professional. I think it is a lot easier to do it yourself and you should do that, but it is also a lot less expensive.There are many different websites that offer free services for making a good resume for you, but when you get all the pieces together you will probably find that the service you chose does not have the training and expertise that you need to put together a good resume. If you are a business owner and you do not have the time to work on your resume on your own, you may want to consider hiring a professional. Why hire a professional if you can try your resume out for free?If you are willing to invest the time and money it takes to make a great resume you will save a ton of money by simply going thr ough the process of trying out a few different companies and services to find one that is certified. You will get a better idea of what you want and what you do not want when you have a few resume writing services review it for you. This is a crucial step in making sure that you do not overspend on resume writing services. You can always try the service out for free before you choose one that you do not like.If you hire a professional resume writing service they will help you create the resume that you want and can even tell you the types of things that will help you get hired. A great resume will be something that attracts and retains the attention of the employer and tells them that you are the right person for the job. If your resume is not good enough the employer may not even bother to even look at it because they feel that you are not qualified for the position.Careerservices will help you get hired or keep your current job because they know that employers are looking for some thing that they have never seen before. They are more likely to take the risk of hiring someone that is unfamiliar with the company that they are applying to and that can get on them if they don't find something in writing that makes them comfortable about the job and the company. They will also help you focus on the job you want by using your skills and education in ways that make you stand out above all the others.In order to find the best resume writing services you will need to research the company you are considering and make sure that they have experience and expertise in the industry you are interested in. You will also want to find a company that has training in resume writing. These steps should ensure that you get the best service possible and that you have every advantage over other applicants.Resume writing services should also be able to edit your resume for you and make sure that it is perfect for the job you want. They should provide you with examples of previous resu mes and the steps that are required to create a perfect resume for your needs. If you do not find any company that will help you make a resume that you can use for free, you may want to spend the extra money and hire a professional.Resume writing services should also be able to provide you with samples of job applications and cover letters. They should be able to tell you exactly what the company needs and how to write a good cover letter that will get you the interview and help you get the job.

Bankruptcy Can Save Your Home from Foreclosure

Bankruptcy Can Save Your Home from Foreclosure You’ve fallen behind on your mortgage or real property tax payments, and your home is in foreclosure. Whether you’ve received notice of the sheriff’s sale or not, you know it is only a matter of time before you do. What to do? As any good bankruptcy attorney will tell you, your response to the foreclosure action will depend upon whether you can afford to pay your mortgage payments plus another monthly payment to cure the arrears in the mortgage or taxes, considering that you can be discharged of most, if not all, of your unsecured (i.e. medical, credit card) debt. If you think you can afford to do that, then filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition is the way you can save your home from foreclosure. What If I Cannot Afford My Home? If you answered the question above with no, I cannot afford to make my payments, then filing a Chapter 7 petition is the way to go especially if you have fallen behind in those payments due to loss of income. Chances are you are behind with your other bills as well, and Chapter 7 can help with that too. Chapter 7 is a 4-6 month liquidation process by which the Court and the Trustee assess your income, assets, expenses, and debts, and determine that you cannot afford to pay back your unsecured debt. Exemptions are applied to take your important assets out of the bankruptcy estate and out of reach of the Trustee, who otherwise would have the power to seize and sell your assets for the benefit of your creditors. Your attorney will help you make sure your assets are protected. In a Chapter 7 filing, you also have the opportunity to legally “surrender” your home, and you will be discharged of any mortgage or tax debt as well as the unsecured debt you have.   This provides you with a true fresh start. The Chapter 7 filing will also impose the automatic stay on the foreclosure proceedings, meaning, the foreclosure proceedings must stop while you are actively in bankruptcy. So, you get to stay in your home for a while longer, giving you time to sort out where you will live next. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Can Save Your Home From Foreclosure If you have a steady income and the ability to make your monthly mortgage payments or quarterly tax payments as they come due, and you can also make a small arrearage cure payment in addition, then Chapter 13 is the way to go. First, you and your attorney organize your income, assets, debts, and expenses into a Chapter 13 petition and schedules and a proposed 3- or 5-year repayment plan. Your attorney then files these electronically with the bankruptcy court.   The Court and Chapter 13 Trustee assess the information in your filing and determine whether your plan is “feasible”, meaning, whether you can pay the plan payments and whether the plan pays the secured creditors the arrears in full. Once your plan is approved, all you do is keep paying your plan payment to the Trustee every month until your plan is complete. You also must keep your mortgage and tax payments current, or your creditors can file a motion to dismiss your case or to lift the automatic stay so that they can proceed with foreclosure. As long as all payments are made in full and on time, you receive a discharge of your unsecured debt and are all caught up! Veronica Baxter is a writer, blogger, and legal assistant operating out of the greater Philadelphia area.

Where Do Recruiters Go to Find Talent

Where Do Recruiters Go to Find Talent If you want to get found by recruiters then you need to understand how they think! Bullhorn Reach released their 2013 North American Social Recruiting Activity Report  and this information should help you understand how to improve your job search: Who Is Bullhorn Reach? In case you havent heard or seen this name before, Bullhorn Reach was launched in February 2011 and was designed to help recruiters leverage social media to source candidates more effectively. Over 170,000 recruiters subscribe to this service to tap into social recruiting. The Bullhorn Reach report is based on data gathered from over 160,000 North American recruiters in 2012 and it examines their social media activity across the “big three” social networks â€" LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Theres a lot you can learn from recruiters (both in-house and third-party) and how they source candidates! LinkedIn IS Where You Need to Be LinkedIn is the g0-to source for recruiters sourcing candidates because it produces results: 64% of recruiters used  only LinkedIn for social recruiting in 2012, compared to 48% in 2011, and with good reason. Jobs  posted on LinkedIn received more views than jobs posted on Twitter and Facebook put together! It is a no-brainer for recruiters LinkedIn gets results! What This Means For Job Seekers You have to have a LinkedIn profile and it has to be keyword rich! You need to connect with recruiters on LinkedIn. You also have to monitor your LinkedIn homepage regularly if you want to see the jobs recruiters you are connected to are promoting! What Types of Jobs Are Being Posted using Bullhorn Reach? Information Technology Finance and Banking Healthcare These are the top three categories of jobs being recruited for using Bullhorn Reach however, there are other types of jobs recruiters are sourcing via social networks. As  jobs become harder to fill, you can probably expect more activity across all job types through social recruiting. What This Means for Job Seekers No matter what occupation you are in, you need to be on social networks, specifically LinkedIn. Expect to see jobs moving away from the job boards (or change) and move towards social networks or become even more integrated with social networks. Learn how these social networks work! What you can lock down, how to interact, where to find jobs, etc. Is Bigger Better? Recruiters with bigger networks did get more applications, but not as a percentage of their connections. So which is better, quantity or quality? That is a question this study doesnt address. However, Bullhorn Reachs  2013 North American Staffing and Recruiting Trends Report found: 92.9% of respondents stated that LinkedIn produced candidates they  were able to place. Overall this is a numbers game. Your potential message/reach is only as big as the number of people in your network. If you only have 50 connections, that limits the number of  people who know about you (what you are saying, doing and looking for.) This isnt a good thing if you are actively job searching. Cast a wide net in a sea full of fish! What This Means for Job Seekers Your chances of gaining a recruiters attention by interacting with them on Facebook or Twitter may allow you to stand out since they arent interacting with as many people on these networks. Recruiters want to connect with you and grow their network! It becomes their own private, more targeted distribution channel for jobs. Learn the rules of engagement on all 3 social networks so you can maximize your presence on all three (at least during your job search). Important Reminders: LinkedIn is a must-use resource for job seekers to discover jobs being advertised by recruiters. Job seekers MUST connect with recruiters on LinkedIn (whether they know the person or not) in order to quickly find the shared opportunities. You must also understand how to work with recruiters, so please read this post! Individual recruiters might have social network preferences, so dont give up on Twitter and Facebook (yet!). Just be sure they represent you professionally.

When Writing a Resume - What is a Cover Letter?

When Writing a Resume - What is a Cover Letter?When writing a resume, the first thing you need to do is find a professional resume writer. Many of these writers are good enough to write an impressive resume for you, but it is also a good idea to find out how to write a resume cover letter as well.Many people get confused about how to write a resume cover letter. After all, if the letter looks convincing, why not send it? It makes more sense to actually spend some time learning how to write a resume letter before you send it out.Resume writing is an art, and a good resume writer knows this. As a result, they will usually include examples of their work with other resumes. For example, a writer may have already helped someone write a cover letter for them and even edited it for grammar.An important part of the resume, cover letter is the introduction. This is a short paragraph that summarizes who you are and what you have to offer the person receiving your resume. It should be short, ye t descriptive enough to help them decide whether or not they would be interested in hiring you.There are many different types of resume cover letters. Some people feel that simply writing a 'Hello Mr./Ms. ', is sufficient. However, this isn't really what a resume cover letter is about.In fact, the actual 'introduction' paragraph is usually the best part of the entire resume. What is most important is that you know what you want to say and be able to say it succinctly and clearly. There should be no hesitancy, and you should use all of your available talents to make the introduction for yourself. It is quite common for the applicant to change something in the introduction to their resume cover letter. However, it is vital that you stick to the basics. In addition, if you are submitting an application online, it's wise to write it all on a single page, as it is easier to scan through a dozen or so applications instead of one. It is also wise to avoid using high-pressure techniques to close the deal, as this will be seen as a snub.Keep in mind that it's OK to add a bit of flair here and there. However, the presentation of your resume cover letter needs to be done correctly. This will help to create the impression of professionalism, and make it easy for the reader to choose you over the next person.

Words For Resume Writing

Words For Resume WritingBusiness key words for resume writing are the best place to start when you are looking for ways to improve your job search. They give you an edge in the job market and they will increase your chances of getting the job you want. Use your keywords wisely and you can get what you want. The combination of business and career words will work.Start with what you love to do and then look for words that describe your profession. Word games are fun to play and if you really love what you do you will be able to write a great resume. You want to use your passion and strengths in your words so that employers will know exactly why they should hire you.Your writing skills need to match your abilities as well as the work you do, which is why professional phrases should be used. It is important to write your resume using professional phrases so that you will look professional. Your resume should be an asset to you rather than a liability. You want to use words that have a pr ofessional tone.Professional words that will get your resume noticed can include words like leader, innovator, expert, and technology. These words can be used in your resume in much the same way as the words entrepreneur or business owner. You want to make sure that you emphasize these words when you are writing. Words like leader, innovator, and an expert can work for you to help you get a job.Remember that you can use business and career words for resume writing in order to improve your resume. You want to stay away from numbers when writing your resume and try to show who you are through your words. Just make sure that you add those professional phrases to your resume so that it looks professional. You don't want to look like you are just wasting time when you can get a job.The best part about words for resume writing is that they have been around for centuries. You have to use these words to get you where you want to go. It is time for you to get the job you want and use words t o do it. Show employers what you can do so that they will hire you.Words for resumes are definitely a good tool for increasing your chances of getting the job you want. You can find phrases to use in just about any situation when it comes to your job search. You will need to put some time into looking for words that are just right for you.You can find words that will appeal to you and also make you stand out among your competition. You may not find them right away but you can find them. You will also find that the words for resume writing can make a big difference in your chances of getting a job. Use these words and get the job you want!

The 10 most awesome things from Valves employee handbook - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

The 10 most awesome things from Valves employee handbook - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog I recently had a chance to read the employee handbook from video game company Valve and its the single most inspiring such document I have ever seen. I play some video games myself (the Bioshock and Dead Space franchises are my favorites), but if you dont partake you may never have heard of Valve so heres the skinny from Wikipedia: Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States. Founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, Valve became famous from its critically acclaimed Half-Life series. It is also well known for its social-distribution network Steam; and for developing the Source engine. Valve is privately owned so few financial figures are known but they have 300 employees and Forbes estimates the companys worth at $3 billion. Their employee handbook was recently released on the web and it explains how theyve become so successful. Here are the top 10 most awesome things from the document. 1: Valve has no hierarchy Hierarchy is great for maintaining predictability and repeatability. It simplifies planning and makes it easier to control a large group of people from the top down, which is why military organizations rely on it so heavily. But when you?re an entertainment company that?s spent the last decade going out of its way to recruit the most?intelligent, innovative, talented people on Earth, telling them to sit at a desk and do what they?re told obliterates?99 percent of their value. That?s why Valve is flat. It?s our shorthand way of saying that we don?t have any management, and nobody ?reports?to? anybody else. We do have a founder/president, but even he isn?t your manager. How cool is that? 2: Pick your projects We?ve heard that other companies have people allocate a percentage of their time to self-directed projects. At Valve, that percentage is 100. Heh :o) Screw Google and their 20% time to work on your own projects. Valve turned that dial to 11! 3: Dont forget the long term Because we all are responsible for prioritizing our own work, and because we are conscientious and anxious to be valuable, as individuals we tend to gravitate toward projects that have a high, measurable, and predictable return for?the company. This sounds like a good thing, and it often is, but it has some downsides that are worth keeping in mind. Specifically, if we?re not careful, these traits can cause us to race back and forth between short-term opportunities and threats, being responsive rather than proactive. So our lack of a traditional structure comes with an important responsibility. It?s up to all of us to spend effort?focusing on what we think the long-term goals of the company should be. In many, many workplaces where employees are unhappy and frustrated because their workdays are entirely taken up with putting out one fire and then the next, leaving no time for long-term planning of any kind. Valve try not to fall into that trap. 4: Dont stress over the things you dont do It?s natural in this kind of environment to constantly feel like you?re failing because for every one task you decide to work on, there will be dozens that aren?t getting your attention. Trust us, this is normal. Nobody expects you to devote time to every opportunity that comes your way. Instead, we want you to learn how to choose the most important work to do. At most workplaces there is a huge and unrelenting focus on the things employees havent done. Almost every meeting, email and phone call are intended to remind people of the next deadline and how far away they are from reaching it. Valve try to take the pressure of employees so they dont stress over the things they dont do. 5: We test ourselves rather than simply trusting each other to just be smart, we also constantly test our own decisions Yes. Dont believe your own hype. Test your decisions and adjust as needed. 6: Overwork is bad While people occasionally choose to push themselves to work some extra hours at times when something big is going out the door, for the most part working overtime for extended periods indicates a fundamental failure in planning or communication. This is a brilliant slap in the face to all members of The Cult of Overwork, ie. everyone who believes that the key to succes is simply to work more hours. 7: Enjoy yourself Sometimes things around the office can seem a little too good to be true. If you find yourself walking down the hall one morning with a bowl of fresh fruit and Stumptown-roasted espresso, dropping off your laundry to be washed, and heading into one of the massage rooms, don?t freak out. All these things are here for you to actually use. And don?t worry that somebody?s going to judge you for taking advantage of it?relax! And if you stop on the way?back from your massage to play darts or work out in the Valve gym or whatever, it?s not a sign that this place is going to come crumbling down like some 1999-era dot-com startup. If we ever institute caviar-catered lunches, though, then maybe something?s wrong. Definitely panic if there?s caviar. In short, you should feel good during your work day. 8: Youre free to screw up Nobody has ever been fired at Valve for making a mistake. Providing the freedom to fail is an important trait of the company ? we couldn?t expect so much of individuals if we also penalized people for errors. Yes! I cannot stress enough, how important it is to let employees make mistakes. In fact, we should celebrate mistakes at work. 9: Its not about growth We do not have a growth goal. We intend to continue hiring the best people as fast as we can, and to continue scaling up our business as fast as we can, given our existing staff. Fortunately, we don?t have to make growth decisions based on any external pressures ? only our own business goals. And we?re always free to temper those goals with the long-term vision for our success as a company. Ultimately, we win by keeping the hiring bar very high. Yes! Way too many businesses are slaves to growth goals that are arbitrary, unrealistic and ultimately meaningless. As Ricardo Semler put it: There is no correlation between growth and ultimate success. For a while growth seems very glamorous, but the sustainability of growth is so delicate that many of the mid-sized companies which just stayed where they were doing the same thing are much better off today than the ones that went crazy and came back to nothing. There are too many automobile plants, too many airplanes. Who is viable in the airline business? 10: Hiring Hiring well is the most important thing in the universe. Nothing else comes close. It?s more important than breathing. So when you?re working on hiring everything else you could be doing is stupid and should be ignored! Again, this is brilliant. Nothing undermines a strong positive company culture faster than hiring people who dont fit in. In short, this is a fantastic document and one of the coolest things about it is that its maintained by the Valve employees themselves, who are free to edit it on their intranet. You can find the whole Valve Employee Handbook here read it, read it, read it :) Your take What do you think of these 10 points? How does this document compare to your workplaces employee handbook? Is there anything in your employee handbook that inspires you? Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Think insurance as an entrepreneur is a bad bet Think again (aka My response to Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and his ridiculous advice)

Think insurance as an entrepreneur is a bad bet Think again (aka My response to Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and his ridiculous advice) Please dont hit me, I dont have health insurance tote from PapaLlama In my 4 years as a blogger, Ive never done what Im doing right now. I never read a post (by someone Im a subscriber toor otherwise, come to think of it) and got so enraged that I dropped everything to post a response right now.    There is nothing more important to me in this moment in time than to respond to How to Make Health Insurance a Bad Bet on Zen Habits. You can find the post here. Please read it through (skimming is fine the jist is very easy to get), and come back over. Just in case you didnt see it, heres my absolute favorite/most enraging part: What you’re really throwing away: For my family, a high-deductible insurance policy can cost $4,000-5,000 a year (about $350-400 a month). For a smaller family, it would be less. A lower-deductible insurance policy costs a lot more. Assuming a monthly payment of $380 and an annual return rate of 8%, if you invest that instead of spend it on insurance, you’d have  $250,000 in 20 years. More, if you adjust the payments upward for inflation. That’s a big amount to gamble on something where you have less than 1% chance of using.() As you get into your 50s, your odds go up, and into your 60s, they go up a lot. Most people who have heart attacks or cancer are in their 60s or older. Same thing for frailty, Alzheimers, hip fractures, etc. As you get older, it gets very likely you’ll need expensive health insurance. But I’m 39, and my family is younger than that, so we’re not in serious danger at the moment. Now, Leo Babuta is one of those Big Bloggers with a huge subscriber base, and when I think of all the young, self-improvement-prioritizers, mostly (aspiring) entrepreneurs reading this, and having them cancel their insurance and as Leo suggests build up savings/investment of at least a few thousand()for unexpected medical needs.I start shaking. Id be lying to say that this post didnt hit home in a very personal way for me. Like, a super very personal way. All my usual readers know that I was diagnosed with Stage Two breast cancer on Nov 25, 2011 at the age of 33. You can read what the last years been like for me here  if youre new around these parts, but the main points are that I did not carry the gene (despite a family history of cancer for every one of my relatives over the age of 70), I was down/upgraded to Stage One, I went through 2 lumpectomies + 4 rounds of chemo + a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction, and I was finally declared cancer-free on June 5th of this year. I thank my lucky stars each and every day that Im a heterosexual, married woman and that Ive been on my husbands (stellar) health insurance since I quit my corporate job in March of 2010. This year alone, I paid $4,649.49 (yes, I added up all my receipts) for tons of co-pays, insane amounts of medicine, an office visit for an out-of-network doctor, a trial to allow me to keep my hair (didnt work, but I still had to pay for it), a service that keeps my embryos frozen (cause chemo puts me into early menopause, and as a 33 year old without kids, my husband and I didnt want this option taken away from us), and 1 night in a private room in the hospital. Most of the large expenses were choices on my end: to try to keep my hair, to get a private hospital room, etc. I look at that figure and breathe a sigh of relief each and every day. Despite the cancer, I consider myself a lucky lady in every other regard. Now, I cant get the exact figures of what I would have had to pay sans insurance for all of my appointments, medications, and treatments, but I think you can get a taste of it based on the receipts I have that told me what I should have paid. Here they be: The pills that cost me $10 every time are listed on the receipt as costing $59.17, $105.25, $32.59, $45.99, $67.49, $77.49.so lets say 3-11 times what I pay for them, and I have at least 20 receipts from Walgreens for this year alone. Lets say, on average, I wouldve paid $1,000 for my pills and instead I paid $100. My plastic surgeons office visits + my breast reconstruction surgery cost $20,750. I paid $25. And keep in mind that this doesnt include the fee from the breast surgeonshe performs the first part of the surgery, and the plastic surgeon only does the reconstruction piece. I would think the entire surgery + office visits would be close to $50,000. I paid $50. My husband had to inject me with a syringe after each one of my chemo treatments, which costs $3,821.25. Times four (one for each round of chemo). My cost? $20 each. $100 total. Four visits to my oncologists office: $1,100. My cost? $100. Do we get where Im going here? Do I need to figure out the other charges and then put them up against what my husband and I were paying for our insurance every month and show how I saved hundreds of thousands of dollars while only shelling out a few thousand?    I dont think I do. Im sure you get the point. The $250,000 that Leo said you could save (in 20 years!) by investing your $380/month instead of spending it on insurance could be gone in a matter of weeks. Welcome to bankruptcy, or worse. I know this is getting long, but my point isnt done being made. Leo wrote that: So what if you get into a bad accident or get some unexpected disease? Isn’t this invitation for bankruptcy? Well, how often has this happened to you? In my 39 years, it’s never happened, and most people I know haven’t faced this either. Again, let’s use rational arguments instead of fear. Want some rational arguments, Leo?  Use me and my breast cancer diagnosis at 33 (and yes, doctors described me as young, thin and healthy even after the cancer diagnosis). Use my client and friend Steffanie, a young woman in her 30s who had to have brain surgery last year (no, she didnt have any of the Risks you talk about) that wouldve cost her $30K (and $5K/mo for medication) at a minimum. Use the 872 members in my Young Survival Coalition Facebook  group, all of us diagnosed under the age of 35. Use a close friends sister-in-law, a woman in her 30s or 40s (Im not sure of her exact age) who suffered a brain aneurysm just last week. Talk to Matthew Zachary who founded Stupid Cancer, an organization that works for the 72,000 (!!!!) young adults ages 15-39 who are diagnosed with cancer every year. And then? Talk to my friend and former client Lisa, a 34 year old who was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer just months after she lost her young husband to cystic fibrosis. Actually, you cant t alk to Lisa. She passed away three months ago. I think of her every day. Yes, we should all do what we can to make ourselves healthier. Exercise, eating few-to-no processed foods, not smoking, etc should be done by everyone (unsure where/how to start? Get this book STAT the content inside isnt as close to eye roll inducing as the name suggests). I agree. But just because you dont smoke, have protected sex, never drive, and are under the age of 50 doesnt mean that your health insurance is a bad bet. On the contrary indeed. Of course, everyone should pick the plan/deductible they feel comfortable with and hopefully Obamacare will pass and us entrepreneurs wont have outrageous costs for ourselves our families anymore and theres no need to pick the most expensive if you know youre relatively young, thin and healthy. Because, Leo? Anything can happen to anyone at any time at any age, no matter how many miles they run or green smoothies they consume every day. And one more thing. Its a bit of a petty point but I cant not say it. Your post is extremely condescending to myself and everyone I mentioned above those whose own actions did absolutely nothing to bring on their diseases. I had someone tell me that she thought cancer was brought on by stress.which implies that the patient brought the cancer on themselves. Its preposterous. And so is your advice. I would like to highly encourage you to take down your post, or at least update it with some of the facts, stories, and figures Ive given you here.  I invite you, Leo, to post your thoughts in the comments or send me an email at michelle(at)whenigrowupcoach(dot)com. Given your large audience base, I hope you take this responsibility seriously. As a young (thin and healthy) breast cancer survivor, I know I do. P.S. Leo, I just noticed that you said we should have regular screenings for cancer. The only such screening I know of is a genetic test that insurance wont pay for unless you prove that theres cause to give it to you (meaning you have a strong, early family history or youve been diagnosed yourself). I was told that it would be $8,000 out of pocket if I was rejected by insurance. Thankfully, I wasnt but I know others who have been. Do you mean a mammogram, or a biopsy? Please let me know if you know of any other cancer screenings that Im unaware of and dont cost thousands out of pocket. NOVEMBER 9th UPDATE: While I did not get a personal response from Leo, I was just alerted that he added an update to his post. He wrote: I’ve gotten a lot of negative feedback on this post. I’m OK with that, as I don’t expect everyone to agree with me and actually appreciate opposing viewpoints. It’s caused me to reconsider my recommendations in this post, so I’ll clarify my position here: I don’t recommend that most people forgo health insurance. This is what I believe is best for me and my family, and I offer this post as an alternative to the mainstream view. I hope you’ll give these ideas some thought, but don’t make decisions based on one person’s example. These issues are too important to just go with what I’m doing. While I wish that he would have rewrote the post so that this was expressed at the beginning of the article and that his accusatory tone would have softened to more of an opinion (as well as including points made above and in the comments: having the cost of his familys medical care fall on other people; the cost of mundane things like having babies and the sudden onset of asthma; the mental toll a bankruptcy-causing illness can take; the cost of needing ongoing medication; etc. The brilliance in these comments has not gone unnoticed, and I appreciate everyone who rose up with me this week). Im glad he at least added this disclaimer. I dont know what other negative feedback hes received, but I have a feeling hes heard all of us loud and clear. Now lets hope that impressionable entrepreneurs can separate what hes doing with whats best for them. If youre interested in hearing more about my self-employment/cancer/insurance roller-coaster this year, a video interview I did with Laura Simms on Oct 31st was posted yesterday. Good timing, huh? Click here in case you need more proof on the importance of being insured as an entrepreneur and/or you want to know how my cancer affected my workload, my self-care and my healthy habits its all there.