Orthodox Biz Blog

When you a stranger, you are planting tiny seeds of possible business relationship with each person you meet. There's no guarantee that you'll doing business right away but over time you'll harvest a large crop!

I've noticed a few common mistakes that most people make when meeting others. I made them too until I realized how to properly grow in a relationship.

In one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes stories, the esteemed detective had deduced that the villain was an American. But, all the suspects were purporting to be British. How to figure out which one was lying?

Elementary, my Dear Watson! Holmes tossed the prime suspect a ball. He caught it with his left hand, at which point Holmes promptly arrested him.

Why, you might ask? Because the man was right-handed. A right-handed European man would catch a ball thrown to him with his right hand. A right-handed American, however, would wear his baseball glove on his left hand. That means a right-handed American would catch a ball with his left hand, which is the exact opposite of how the rest of the world works.

Obama's stimulus plan won't help the economy, and might actually sound the death knell of the dollar. After all, the whole thing is predicated on the idea that you can borrow and spend your way to prosperity. That is just plain nuts, of course. You don't borrow your way to wealth - you produce your way to wealth. Americans are tapped out and swimming in debt, so producing for the domestic market is a tough slog right now. Good thing there is a big world out there, and a good way to sell what you produce is to target it.

My wife and I were filling out the paperwork to join a homeschooling umbrella group when we hit a huge snag. The umbrella school we planned to use is Christian-based, but it's run by very, very Protestant people. They had a statement of faith which all potential members had to sign. The statement of faith was, essentially, a Protestant catechism which included such fundamental Protestant beliefs as justification by faith alone and the Bible as the only rule of faith.

Looking over the statement, I immediately picked out nine heresies I could actually name. That was out of only eight clauses in the whole document. Their version of fundamental, commonly accepted Christian truths was like a mini-catalog of errors rejected by the Orthodox Church.