Why I think Europe and the Modern World will fail!

Why

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Europe and the M odern World Michael J. Franklin 2011

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Europe is in real trouble! Anyone who thinks that theyre going to get their collective houses (27 Countries) in order is in for a real shock! How will this affect the rest of us in North America and around the world? Ive been a bodyguard since 1983 and have been witness to some of the worlds most remarkable and truly astonishing people, things and events. I left the safety and security of government service to work in the private sector and be my own boss along with a close knit group of professionals with similar dreams, backgrounds and experiences. Im of the opinion that the world would be a much happier, safer and a better place to live if people like me didnt have any work at all. However, were faced with the nightmare scenario; the worlds demand for professional bodyguards is so great that we no longer can keep up. We cant recruit and train people fast enough and this has us wondering why. As a personal security think tank we meet on a regular basis to work out new strategies and to find security related solutions to problems people table. In a more recent meeting we started talking about the changes in the way we are doing business and how dangerous its really becoming for everyone. Why are things getting right out of hand? Its my opinion that we only have to look at the fabric of todays societies and the people who lead them. Politicians at the most junior levels are now supplementing their own security portfolios by adding bodyguards, in some cases theyre paying for it out of their own pockets. Why? One of the first lessons we teach our bodyguarding recruits is that honest, hard working, good intending and loyal people dont need bodyguards and bullet-proof glass! Is there a message in this? Who are the people that are running our lives? If you are like most people you work for a large company that started out as a small family business. The original owners who built their companies on the foundation that hard work and loyalty would be rewarded and was. Theyre long gone and who are the new owners and more importantly what kind of professionals are running the companies that only look at you as a number? Long gone are the days where loyalty to your company and where hard work was admired, rewarded and welcomed. Ive seen an incredible morph in the past 10 years. In 2002, I was part of a bodyguarding team that looked after Jrgen Schrempp; he was at the time the

Why

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Europe and the M odern World Michael J. Franklin 2011

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CEO of the DaimlerChrysler Corporation. Schrempp was one of the last truly great leaders that Ive seen. He started as a mechanics assistance at the age of 17 and worked his way right to the top slot in the corporation. At a share holders meeting in 2002 he was under immense pressure to raise profits and reduce labour costs. He stood up and addressed the almost 3000 largely unsatisfied and angry share holders in attendance and stated that as long as he was the Boss and the corporation was writing black numbers in the financial reports that he would never reduce the work force not by one position. That was a man who instilled confidence and even the little guy in the company knew that he understood and valued their problems. Unfortunately, Schrempp is gone and the next generation of CEO and power politicians are...well pencil pushers and bean counters! Have a look at most of the fortune 500 companies and look at their CEOs, CFOs and COOs. What you are going to find is that they all are from some kind of financial background or profession, with accountants being the leading profession at the highest positions. Thats scary on so many levels. For starters, financial people have never been in the trenches or on the front lines so to speak. Even most of the USs newest politicians come from legal and financial backgrounds and they are replacing the old guard who fought for their country in their wars and know firsthand the problems of the little guy. Its even reported that the British Intelligence Service MI6 is now being commanded and run by accountants, we just have to look at the horrific shape that organisation is in. Now, when we first start protecting people we have to look at their 3 lives. Yep, everyone has 3 lives: The Personal Life, The Business Life and importantly for us as bodyguards The Secret Life. If we look into the secret lives of most financial people we will find that almost all of them have never really worked a day in their lives and theyve never produced anything of substance. Theyve studied and have no real loyalty to anything other than the bottom line and lining their own pockets. After all, that is their prime objective as financial professionals. So, it can only stand to reason that these people, who are running the world, when their bottom lines are deep in the red...like just about every country in the G20, with the acceptation of Canada. They have no idea how to get themselves out of it. The people who they should be loyal to, the
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small guys, those who have carried the vast load of the tax burden have because of financial mismanagement in pursuit of the almighty buck at all cost have been laid off, down sized and restructured as these new world order leaders like to call it. Now having said they dont produce anything they are now caught in the devils circle. They dont know how to create anything, especially jobs, investment and confidence. The bottom line is that Schrempp had a wonderful management and leadership system that is no longer in our world. He called it The 3 Way Street. This three way Street was how he ran one of the largest more successful corporations in German history. Ok, the one way street was based on sound management principles and procedures that didnt change every week like today, whereby, managers created a workplace where every worker was a welcomed and respected part of the team. The second street was that the workers knew what was expected of them and they were productive and happy because they were part of the success and not forgotten as the company rewarded them for hard work and loyalty. The final and third street was the loyalty street that flowed back and forth with the adage loyalty is earned or as some of our new world leaders do, they demand it! Why do so many people in todays modern health conscience societies die of heart attack? Denial! its in our human make-up, when heart attacks strike we simply dont believe that it can happen to us. As a consequence people wait too long to get proper medical assistance which ultimately costs almost 80 percent of them their lives. Most of our leaders today suffer this affliction and when bad things in the economy happen, like the worlds financial crisis in 2008, the worlds leaders and big business managers went into extreme denial mode. These people who had never produced anything in their lives were so ill-equipped to deal with the events as they unfolded. They really didnt know what to do; this is still the case today. Crisis management has replaced leadership and the days of leadership with answerability are long gone. World, banking and big business leaders are no longer held accountable for their decisions or actions. The banks blew up the world...what scares me the most about this is that world leaders are trying to get the shit back into the cow on so many levels...and we are all seeing how thats working out.
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In my opinion Europe will fail which will ultimately lead to the modern world going down with it because our modern societys leadership no longer puts any value on the efforts, loyalty and hard work of the little guy. He is held in fear of his job; his taxes are so high that even if he does have a job, he would never be able to save anything. He is bombarded daily with press reports of massive bonuses being paid out to top managers of companies, banks and bankers that are being bailed out by the tax payers because of mismanagement, corruption, incompetence and greed. He feels helpless and alone. If he was to act in the same manner as his bosses and leaders he would end up in jail, all his ill gotten gains would be confiscated, sold and the injured parties (tax payers) reimbursed for their losses. Hes knows that his bosses end up being retired with massive payouts and golden parachutes and they largely live out the rest of their lives on their ill gotten gains. There isnt leadership with accountability and there is a total absence of justice in any of the systems and thats why Europe will fail!

Why

think

Europe and the M odern World Michael J. Franklin 2011

will

fail

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