Thursday, May 21, 2020

Four Powers – C SD M Mitigation Industry


CONCEPTION - The conception of the ULECx Market occurred in the winter of 2004 at 1112 North 40th Street Suite #1 Omaha, NE 68131.  A vision appeared to Martin & Kayla Briggs and together, on a snowy day, they mapped a collage made of magazine clippings to express the meaning of the vision.  From that day forth, Martin and Kayla committed their lives to successfully establishing the foundation of ULEC Exchange. 

KM Briggs Dream Wall Winter of 2004


STRATEGY - C SD M Organized Services: The ULECx Market is a for-profit investment entity organized to respond to the four powers of the Pale Horse Rider and the hell that follows him: “the sword, famine, pestilence, and the wild beast of the earth” 

7 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.  (Rev 6:7-8)

These four biblical forces 'sword', 'famine', 'plague', and 'wild beasts' are present on the Earth and will continue to rapidly increase over time.  We call these forces the 'four powers' and have given each force a name to help define a mitigation industry with the acronym of CSDM:   
1)     Conflict - a fight, battle, or struggle, especially a prolonged struggle; strife
2)     Scarcity – severe shortage, want, lack, paucity even up to the point of death 
3)     Disease – a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment.
4)     Murder – lethal beings of all kinds including humans, animals, insects, plants, etc 

There are at least three ways Christians will thrive both on the earth and maintain spiritual harmony with heaven in a CSDM environment:   
1)     Peacemaker  - services include dispute management, defensive protection, organizational consolidation services, health & human services etc
2)     Gateway – connector (or communications of) material and non-material resources
3)     Supplier – operations that address, organize, maintain, manage, store, restoration, and/or dispose of the byproduct of CSDM will have the greatest economic returns.  In general, the supplier role will be the least challenging to maintain and will endure over a long period of time.       

FOCUS: The KMBriggs strategy to develop the world’s most influential organization is limited to geographic parameters and to the gates of CSDM within the realm of Health and Human Services. The core of our geographic emphasis is Birmingham, AL with plans to expand to the state lines of Alabama.  Our growth strategy firmly entails establishing CSDM Organized Services within the realm of Health and Human Services to the point of saturation within the region of Birmingham, AL.  We will slowly move outward toward the state borders.  Upon accomplishing such the aforementioned goals within Alabama, we will concentrically expand our network beyond state borders.  There is far greater value in fostering CSDM market penetration and saturation in tightly focused geographic areas with circumferential growth, over an interest in broadly dispersed geographic locales and industry diversification.  Our father Joseph the Vizier of Egypt ruled the earth without leaving his thrown.  The world came to him.   



MIRACLES:  The ULECx Market will successfully manage and reap from CSDM through the power of miracles given to us by the grace of the Pishon Spring.  The Fathers Grace abounds upon us from the sacrifices we submit before His anointed son the Lord of the Gihon Spring.  We shall return to the King of Havilah all power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and praise!  We shall thrive and abound with youthful vigor to the very day the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack us, and overpower and kill us in the year of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ 3834 A.D.   

*Miracle - an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the fifth horse rider named Word of God and Lord of Lord and King of Kings who is sovereign over all things.  Praise God that in all seasons no power has ever or will ever be greater than The Word of God.     Revelation 19:11-16  

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

king of kings and lord of lords. 

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Book Reflection: Buffettology by Mary Buffett and David Clark

- the very wealthy are different from you and me...the oddest being the code of silence that they demand of family and friends page 15

- like any sophisticated collector, was very careful about the price he was willing to pay for one of those trophy businesses.  In fact, the price for the business absolutely determined whether he would buy it. page 18

- In the process I will become, like Warren, an intelligent investor.  page 19 

- Folly and discipline are the key elements of Warren Buffett's philosophy of investing - other people's follies and Warren's discipline.  pge 21

- Warren is the only billionaire who made it to the Forbes list of four hundred richest Americans solely by investing in the stock market. pg 21

- Determining a business's intrinsic value is a key to deciphering Warren's investment philosophy.  To Warren the intrinsic value of an investment is the projected annual compounding rate of return the investment will produce.  page 22

- It is this projected annual compounding rate of return that Warren uses to determine if the investment makes business sense.  What Warren is doing is projecting a future value for the business, say, ten years out; then he compares the price he going to pay for the business against the business's future, projected value, and the length of time required for the business's future, projected value, and the length of time required for the business reach that projected value.  pg 23

- Warren focuses on the predictability of future earnings; and he believes that without some predictability of future earnings, any calculations of a future value is mere speculation, and speculation in an invitation to folly.  page 23

- Warren's great secretes for successful investing from a business perspective are
1) predictable earnings
2) favorable economies
3) consistent factors
4) purchase price
5) price patience
6) expect 15%+ annual pounding ROI
7) OPM - others people's money   

https://www.nerdwallet.com/banking/calculator/compound-interest-calculator

- investment is most intelligent when it is most businesslike page 27

- He will discus the details of his philosophy only with members of his family and inner circle.  To the rest of the world he feeds tidbits, and then only enough to pique interest.  page 29

- Warren is also willing to hold a stock forever as long as the economies of the business remain at least the same as when he bought it.  This ensures that he will benefit from the compounding effect of the retained earnings.   It ensures also that he will avoid the profit-eroding taxes that would be imposed if he sold his investment. page 30

- a business perspective on investing is more about discipline than philosophy, and once the concept is understood, it demands absolute devotion... It is a discipline that tends to tell the investor as much if not more what not to buy as to what to buy.  page 31

- a business venture that you anticipate will in five to ten years produce for you an annual compounding rate of return of 15% or better page 32

- You will learn that diversification is something people do to protect themselves from their own stupidity, not because of investment savy page 32

- You will learn that a $1,500 per share stock may be cheap and a $2 stock may be grossly expensive page 32

- It means that one stops thinking of the stock market as as end unto itself and begins thinking about the economies of ownership of those businesses that the common stock represent page 33

- But common stocks are in fact tangible representations of the equity owner's interest in a particular business page 33

- Warren's chief idea is to buy excellent businesses at a price that makes business sense...making business sense means that the venture invested in will offer you, the investor, the highest predictable annual compounding rate of return possible with the least amount risk.   page 33

- So if a company earns $5 a share and Warren owns one hundred share of the company, he is of the opinion that he just earned $500 ($5 x 100 = $500)...he also believes that the company has the choice of either paying that $500 out to him via a dividend or retaining those earnings and reinvesting them for him, thus increasing the underlying value of the company.  page 35

- In the early eighties the stock of Warren's holding company, Berkshire Hathway, traded at $500 a share.  Today it trades at around $45,000 a share, and it still has never paid a dividend. page 35

- Warren believes also that since dividends are taxed as personal income, there is a tax incentive to letting the corporation retain all its earnings page 36

- Warren places a great amount of weight on the quality of a company's management when he makes his investment decisions.  page 37

- A $10 per share asking price for the company's stock against annual net per share earnings of $2 a share equates to a rate of return of 20%.  Understand, though, that the integrity of the calculation is wholly dependent upon the predictability of the company's earnings. 

- In real life, if you were to buy a local business you would want to know how much it earned each year and how much it was selling for.  With those two numbers you could calculate the annual rate of return on your prospective investment by simply dividing the business's yearly earnings by its asking price page 38

- The price you pay determines your rate of return page...the higher the price, the lower the rate of return.  The lower the price, the higher the rate of return.  Pay more, get less.  Pay less, get more page 40

- We can even figure out the annual compounding rate of return on an investment if we know (1) the present value, (2) the future value, and (3) the holding period of the investment.

- Three variables when using Warren's system
1) the yearly per share earnings figure
2) its predictability
3) the market price of the security page 42 

Friday, May 15, 2020

My Character Development During Quarantine

From February 14th through May 15th, 2020 by the power of the Holy Spirit, I was homebound and quarantined due to suffering a high ankle sprain that included a tibia fracture.  During that same time period the entire world was quarantine due to COVID-19.  In those three months of isolation, I was able to face spiritual baggage I was carrying and make adjustments in my character and habits that otherwise would not have been so readily addressed. 



I am thankful that I was able to identify areas of darkness that lurked in my soul that has been removed and replaced with a greater Spirit of worship.  Kayla and I had lengthy discussions regarding my working so many hours as I was commonly working until 7PM each night.  Also, my cell phone was constantly with me and I checked in with it almost every 10 minutes during just about every waking hour.  These challenges were destroying the quality of time I was spending with my wife.  We have addressed all those concerns and I truly feel that we are so much healthier because of the quarantine.   

My pastor Chris Hodges spoke a message entitled Building Healthy Emotions that really helped me to clearly see the path I needed to take to escape the challenges I was facing and the spiritual direction the Lord wanted time to travel.  

Pastor Chris list three pillars to obtain optimal success and fulfillment.  He likens these principals as stages of building a strong house: 

1. The foundation of relationships and connectedness.

2. The structure of purpose and routines

3. The beautifying of trust and self-control.

I will forever be grateful for these principals as I have rearranged the pattern of my life to optimize the quality of my relationships, the fruitfulness of my productivity, and honestly the quality and longevity of my health in general.  

Notable changes I have made include: 
- valuing relationships in general and having a greater sense of presence for everyone especially my beloved wife Kayla  
- waking up at 5AM on weekdays and spending the first hour of the day with the Lord our God Jesus the Holy Spirit whom I love the most     
- cutting off all work by 6PM Monday - Friday
- dedicating Monday's exclusively to marketing and sales 
- keeping my cell phone at a docking station when I am not working 
- to increase my presence I removed important obligations and relationships that were spreading me too thin    


Thank you so much dear Lord I am forever thankful for you and am so grateful for my relationship with you.

Sincerely,

Martin