Juggling Dynamite

The best way to help those around you is to start by improving yourself. This story is inspiring and useful in its simple but effective steps on how to transform poor health back to life in just 60 days. You can see more about the story and how to watch the award winning documentary here.

Here is a direct link to the film trailer.

100 pounds overweight, loaded up on steroids and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease, Joe Cross is at the end of his rope and the end of his hope. In the mirror he saw a 310lb man whose gut was bigger than a beach ball and a path laid out before him that wouldn’t end well— with one foot already in the grave, the other wasn’t far behind. FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD is an inspiring film that chronicles Joe’s personal mission to regain his health.

With doctors and conventional medicines unable to help long- term, Joe turns to the only option left, the body’s ability to heal itself. He trades in the junk food and hits the road with juicer and generator in tow, vowing only to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for the next 60 days. Across 3,000 miles Joe has one goal in mind: To get off his pills and achieve a balanced lifestyle.

While talking to more than 500 Americans about food, health and longevity, it’s at a truck stop in Arizona where Joe meets a truck driver who suffers from the same rare condition. Phil Staples is morbidly obese weighing in at 429 lbs; a cheeseburger away from a heart-attack. As Joe is recovering his health, Phil begins his own epic journey to get well.

What emerges is nothing short of amazing – an inspiring tale of healing and human connection.
Part road trip, part self-help manifesto, FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD defies the traditional documentary format to present an unconventional and uplifting story of two men from different worlds who each realize that the only person who can save them is themselves.

Technological advances, especially robotics, are revolutionizing the workplace, but not necessarily creating jobs. It is certainly leading to lay offs on Wall Street as the HFT machines continue to trade public markets in micro-seconds with little human involvement. Here is a direct link.

This weekend we watched the documentary The Queen of Versailles, now available on Rogers on Demand. Garish and over-the-top in many ways, I found the film a useful reminder of the downside of leverage and the self-destructive financial habits that are common to varying degrees in human behavior.

The Queen of Versailles is a character-driven documentary about a billionaire family and their financial challenges in the wake of the economic crisis. With epic proportions of Shakespearean tragedy, the film follows two unique characters, whose rags-to-riches success stories reveal the innate virtues and flaws of the American Dream. The film begins with the family triumphantly constructing the largest privately-owned house in America, a 90,000 sq. ft. palace. Over the next two years, their sprawling empire, fueled by the real estate bubble and cheap money, falters due to the economic crisis. Major changes in lifestyle and character ensue within the cross-cultural household of family members and domestic staff.

Here is a direct link.

In a related story, CNBC reports on how the “wealthy” are using pawn shops as a revolving line of business and personal credit. Financial duress and desperate choices are not just for those with low incomes. Here is a direct link.

The irony is that most people see a sudden downturn in their fortunes as the fault of one particular external event that comes out of nowhere and throws them into duress. The truth is that leverage, poor to non-existent risk management and lack of financial discipline are the main culprits that routinely leave people (and over-optimistic markets) vulnerable to financial shocks.