Author: anwaryusef

Anwar Y. Dunbar is a Regulatory Scientist. Being a naturally curious person, he is also a student of all things. He earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan and his Bachelor’s Degree in General Biology from Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU). Prior to starting the Big Words Blog Site, Anwar published and contributed to numerous research articles in competitive scientific journals reporting on his research from graduate school and postdoctoral years. After falling in love with writing, he contributed to the now defunct Examiner.com, and the Edvocate where he regularly wrote about: Education-related stories/topics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Financial Literacy; as well as conducted interviews with notable individuals such as actor and author Hill Harper. Having many influences, one of his most notable heroes is author, intellectual and speaker, Malcolm Gladwell, author of books including Outliers and David and Goliath. Anwar has his hands in many, many activities. In addition to writing, Anwar actively mentors youth, works to spread awareness of STEM careers, serves on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the David M. Brown Arlington Planetarium, serves as Treasurer for the JCSU Washington, DC Alumni Chapter, and is active in the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Ministry at the Alfred Street Baptist Church. He also tutors in the subjects of biology, chemistry and physics. Along with his multi-talented older brother Amahl Dunbar (designer of the Big Words logos, inventor and a plethora of other things), Anwar is a “Fanboy” and really enjoys Science-Fiction and Superhero movies including but not restricted to Captain America Civil War, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Prometheus. He is a proud native of Buffalo, NY.

Stories from My Interview with Niagara Falls Coaching Legend Pat Monti from the LaSalle Basketball Dynasty

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“People probably don’t know this, but Coach Monti is a better classroom teacher than he is a basketball coach.”

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The first principle of my blog is “Creating Ecosystems of Success”. As a part of a book project I’m working on regarding my high school basketball experience and what it taught me about life, success and failure, I was granted an interview with Western New York coaching legend, Pat Monti who was the Architect of the LaSalle basketball dynasty. My book project is entitled, The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story. I’ve already published parts one and two of the interview, but Coach Monti blessed me with enough material for one more piece. His was unlike any interview that I’ve done up this point, in that during the interview, he told numerous ‘stand-alone’ stories in addition to the question and answer portion of our interview.

The following are the numerous stories Coach Monti told about his coaching career and the LaSalle basketball program – stories which were too long to publish in parts one and two of our interview, but which also were too valuable to not share. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. The pictures in this interview come from an archive of Western New York basketball assembled over the years from issues of the Buffalo News, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, and Sections V and VI playoff programs by my first Coach at Hutch-Tech High School, Dr. Ken Jones. Other pictures were generously shared by Coach Pat Monti himself. Click on any of the images to enlarge them.

The Syracuse Parochial Schools

Back in Syracuse we had what we called the “Parochial” league which were ten small Catholic schools. You went to school and right across the street was a church. All we had was basketball and baseball as our sports. It was an unbelievable basketball league – phenomenal. We used to beat up on all the public schools. I went to St. Patrick’s High School in Syracuse, but there was also St. John the Baptist, the Evangelist, St. Lucy’s, Cathedral, Assumption – there were ten and none of them exist anymore obviously – they just got devoured and private education was taken over by a couple of bigger Catholic schools.

The 1975-76 Explorers – Coach Monti’s First LaSalle Varsity Team

First off, a little background how I landed the Varsity job. As you know I graduated from Niagara University in 1968 but being from Syracuse and not being local, there were politics like everywhere else, and I was unable to get my foot in the door as a coach even though I was teaching in the district. So, in 1968-69 I landed the Freshman job at St. John Neumann under Johnny McCarthy, former Buffalo Braves and Canisius College Coach. I did that for one year, and then the late Bob Laurrie who was the Varsity Coach at Bishop Duffy which became gave me a job as his Junior Varsity (JV) Coach for the next three years from 1969-72 which was great because I was close to home and LaSalle where I taught. By the way Niagara Catholic just closed its doors this summer.

Finally, after applying for years, I got hired as the LaSalle JV Coach from the 1972-73 season thru the 1974-75 season. At 29 years of age, I then landed the Varsity job at LaSalle replacing legendary coach Matt Mazza for the 1975-76 season. After coaching those previous three years as the JV coach, if memory serves me we had records of 15-3, 12-4, and 16-2. The Varsity team with most of those kids I coached on the JV were struggling big time. They lost their last seven games of the 1973-74 season and then went 0-18 in 74-75. I guess the administration had had enough after the 25-game losing streak and hired me for the 1975-76 season from a pool of quality applicants.

So obviously going into my first season I had nothing to lose, and we went 8-10 and became fairly competitive. Our starters on that first team were led by: Co-Captain Edwin Keith Ridgeway and “Buckwheat” Harris at the guards, Kevin Downey and Keith Taylor at the forwards, and Wayne Gould at center. Co-Captain Mike Roberts was the ‘sixth man’ and became the starter with Ridgeway when we lost Harris to grades. The rest of the squad was comprised of: Chris Hyla, Ricky Williams, Dan Ciszek, Mike Amato, Dan Coombs, and Alan Valentine!

We went 8-10 that first season and almost made the Sectionals under the leadership of seniors Ridgeway and Roberts – two very solid players and really great kids who almost immediately bought into what I was trying to accomplish with the program. With Downey and Taylor, two outstanding very strong forwards returning and many of the returning players who were juniors that first year, we went 9-8 the following season including going 8-7 in the regular season, and then winning in an upset at Amherst – the first sectional win for a LaSalle team in many years! Back then you had to qualify for Sectionals with a 0.500 or better record! We beat Amherst on the road in that 1976-77 season on a buzzer beater from Alan Valentine on a great pass from Billy Clingersmith who had come over from Niagara Falls High School that year.

It was a HUGE upset and the kids went crazy it was as if we won the Sectional Title instead of simply a first-round game! Well that was the start of it all, and the players the following years started understanding that it was all about: fundamentals, no nonsense and structure. Things at LaSalle turned around and by the 1979-80, and the 1980-81 Michael Freeney-teams, we won consecutive Niagara Frontier League (NFL) titles – the first and second of our 13 league championships. LaSalle High School basketball had arrived on the scene in Western New York after many years of mediocrity!

LaSalle’s Late 1980s matchups with Christian Laettner and The Nichols School

During Christian Laettner’s (pictured) junior year which was 1986-87 – they beat us twice – both times were single digits – six to seven points, and we hung right there with them. After not losing a game his junior year, they won the Class C state title. The next year 1987-88 was his senior year. We went to Nichols’ little dingy gym in late December and I don’t know if they took us for granted which would’ve been crazy because we had everyone back, and they lost their point guard, even though they still had Laettner.

You can look back at my teams, especially when we got really good starting in the early 1980s all of the way up until the school closed – my teams were really run and dominated by guard play. We never had any size to speak of, and that year Eric Gore was probably our best player. I had to use him inside at 6’4” though he ended up playing the two-guard position in college down in Texas. We went down to their gym and blew them out. We turned their guards over and took Laettner out of the equation because their guys couldn’t get him the ball the way they needed to and I think we beat them by 17 points.

We then went on a run where we were 19-0 and they were 18-1 – we were ranked the top ‘Large School’ and they were ranked the top ‘Small School’ in the Buffalo News, and they came into our gym for the last regular season game in the Niagara Frontier League. It was unbelievable – a zoo. If you were a Junior Varsity (JV) player, you had to be crapping in your pants. The JV game started at 6 pm, and if you didn’t get into the gym at quarter to five, you didn’t get a seat – our gym held well over 2,000 people.

Everyone was there – Mike Kryzewski (Duke) and Digger Phelps (Notre Dame) – all the bigtime coaches. It was a game for the ages. I can still see it as if it was yesterday, and it was 1988. Nobody led by more than four – they didn’t take us for granted this time – they were very well coached.

It was back and forth, back and forth – just an incredible high school basketball game. I think that with about a minute or so left, we might’ve been up four. They came down, scored, called time out and cut it to two. I only had one time out left and I’ve always taught my young coaches to save your time outs for the fourth quarter. If you know, you’re going to be in a tight ballgame, don’t waste time outs. It’s amazing how simple it sounds and how important it is in coaching.

They obviously knew us inside and out, and I should have been smart enough to change our ‘press-breaker’ but I didn’t, and they pressed us. They double teamed my point guard Michael Starks – great player – 6’1” or 6’2” – really smart with the ball – a good decision maker. His brother Frank was a 6’2” 210 lb. rebounding machine but didn’t handle or shoot the ball very well. They took Michael away and Frank had the ball coming up the right side of the court across from the benches. I couldn’t get my timeout fast enough and it was so loud that the referees couldn’t hear me. I could see it coming but it was too late.

Laettner left Gore and Frank Starks is dribbling the ball above his waist – it looked like he was dribbling a beach ball. Laettner stripped him clean and went in for what would have been a thunderous dunk which would have sent the game into overtime – there were 20 seconds left at the time. He was the only guy across half court now. He looked up just as he crossed near the foul line – I think to see where he was with relation to the basket, and he kicked the ball out of bounds believe it or not.

So, I called my final timeout and drew up a different press-breaker. At the time I didn’t give it a name, but since then I called it my “One-Breaker” where my point guard takes the ball out of bounds. Because we’re leading the game, they must go trap the ball. We got the ball back into Michael Starks’ hands. He got fouled and made both shots – we beat them by four 61-57 – we went on and went 20-0, we won the Class B Sectional pretty easily, went to Rochester and won that pretty easily, and then we went to Glens Falls and beat some really, really good teams – the state’s ‘Public School’ part of it.

The 27-0 1988 Class B State and Federation Championship Team

We beat a local team out of Gloversville that had two brothers – stars and both great basketball players – one was a quarterback who I think went on to play at Boston College – one of the Boston schools for football. But they were local – right outside of Albany in the Glens Falls area. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Glens Falls to watch basketball, but the Civic Center is a beautiful venue for watching basketball – very unencumbered, no pillars in your way. It holds about 7,000 people and the place was a sea of red – Gloversville fans galore and the game went back and forth, back and forth. We ended up beating them in a tightly fought contest in overtime.

It was funny because we used to play the semifinals on Friday nights and the finals on Sunday – later in my career it was Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, our kids would go and watch the Cs, the Ds and the As, and the talk all over the Civic Center, and even the local newspapers was, “How is little LaSalle going to handle this Nottingham team out of Syracuse with Dorsey Levens?” – the great running back who would go on to star for the Green Bay Packers. He was a tremendous basketball player.

Jason Buchanan went on to star at St. John’s as a point guard. They had won something like 45 straight games, they were the defending state champions, and they were undefeated as we were so you had two great teams. We ended up beating them and people were talking as though they were going to blow us out of the gym by 30 because we barely beat Gloversville 61-60 who was good, and they crushed a team from Section XI on Long Island by 35 points.

But what they didn’t see was the real Eric Gore because he was scoring 27 points a game, and I hate to say it but against Gloversville it was a ‘home job’ – a setup, and the poor kid couldn’t breathe without being called for a foul – it was ridiculous. He finished the semifinal game zero points. He got his third foul at the start of the second quarter. I joke with my old assistant coach who is still works in the Niagara Falls school system Frank Rotundo, who coached for a while at Niagara County Community College.

Frank came down to me with about five minutes left in the game and we were up by six against this great Nottingham team out of Syracuse coached by the legendary Jim McGrath. Coach Rotundo said, “Look at Eric. His head is down at the end of the bench.” I said, “We’re doing okay.” We had Elon McCraken who played at Niagara who stepped in as a junior at Eric’s spot for me and we were handling them with no problem.

Coach Rotundo asked, “Would we be here without Eric?” It gnawed at me and gnawed at me, so I put him in. We had the game basically won. We had no shot clock back then and I ran a really good “delay and strike” game back then where we could kill the clock and surprise you with a back-door layup every once and a while.

I shouldn’t have put him back in, but I listened to my assistant whom to this day I jokingly say to Frank, “You know that’s the last time I ever listen to an assistant.” Eric having such a bad performance got in the game, turned it over, took a couple of bad shots and before you know it, here we are tied in a game that never should have been like that. It ended up going into overtime and Eric fouled out in regulation anyway.

We were down three to Nottingham with ten seconds play in regulation. We had just fouled Dorsey Levens. It was a ‘one and one’, and I called one of my timeouts. I told my players, “Okay remember the power of positive thinking,” hoping it happens but never expecting it to.

They had just instituted the three-point line. If Dorsey missed his shot, we’ll fire up the court and if we don’t get a good shot, we’ll call a time out, draw up a play and get the ball in Michael Starks’ hands. He misses it, and Frank Starks his brother gets the rebound – the player who turned it over against Laettner and Nichols. We never let him shoot it beyond eight feet because he has no touch at all. He pulls up right in front of our bench – it was almost an NBA three – nothing but net, we go into overtime and we win the game going away. It was an incredible game.

That week after we won the State Championship for the public schools, we had to go back and play for the Federation Championship. We played two really good teams out of the Public School Athletic League in New York City – Samuel Gompers and then Nazareth out of Brooklyn who had Robert Phelps who went on and started at Arizona. We beat both of them and ended up 27-0 and I still think that’s a Western New York record. We had successes before then but nothing like that.

The Closing of LaSalle Senior High School and Retiring

Don’t get me wrong, Niagara Falls High School was built in the 1920s and it needed to be replaced, but if it were up to me, I would’ve built Niagara Falls a new high school downtown somewhere on Main Street to try to revitalize the inner-city area there. Leave us alone and let us have the 1,200-1,250 kids like we had. That was another amazing thing in New York State – you had some of these Class A schools who had 3,000 to 4,000 students, and we had 1,250 kids when we would go to Glens Falls and play some of these schools from around the state, and some of the New York City schools.

To me building that one big mega-school with the four towers was crazy. You had teachers who didn’t like each other. You had students who didn’t like each other because of the rivalry and that’s when I retired. Niagara Falls High School has only won one New York State title in 18 years with twice the enrollment since the two schools combined in 2001. That was the year they had Paul Harris and Jonny Flynn amongst other Division I players.

Coaching at Niagara Catholic after the closing of LaSalle Senior High School

“Coach I know you’re not going to the new high school. Would you be interested in helping us out at Niagara-Catholic?” When they tore LaSalle down in 2000, that was it for me, and because my wife was still working, the President of the Board of Trustees at Niagara Catholic Judge Bobby Restino reached out to me. I was down here vacationing in my condo in Naples, FL at the time during Easter when LaSalle was closing.

“You just hired a young guy who graduated from Niagara last year, and he did an okay job for the amount of talent that he had,” I said.

“Well if we can get a Pat Monti, we’d love to have you come in,” he replied.

“You know what, when I get back from Naples Judge, I’ll sit down and talk with you,” I said.

“Your gym is atrocious. You have to renovate it,” I told him – I had some demands.

“It’s in the budget for next year,” he said.

“Well if it can be done this year, I might consider it. Plus, I’d have to bring my assistant Frank Rotundo with me, and Modie Cox,” who was helping us at the time I continued.

“Let me bring it up to the board’s attention,” he said and did, and they agreed.

We were the little guy and I’ll never forget our first time playing St. Joe’s. We had some great run ins with St. Joe’s when I was at LaSalle, but I didn’t have that kind of talent when I was at Niagara Catholic. The year before I want to say that St. Joe’s beat Niagara-Catholic by 54 points. My first year at Niagara Catholic, we lost by two and it was like we had won the freaking NCAA championship and we lost the game.

I coached there three years while my wife was still working and had a lot of fun building up the Niagara Catholic program. Matty Clingersmith who is the really good Baseball Coach at Niagara Community College now. He’s taken them to the National Junior College Tournament just about every year – last year they lost in the National Championships. He was a junior the year before I arrived and sitting the bench at Niagara Catholic. We turned him into an All-Western New Yorker his senior year – he led us in points and rebounds and I want to say that we probably went 15-5 – the year before they might’ve gone 6-14.

The only schools we lost to were the big schools. That was the last head coaching I ever did. Even though in name I’m not the Head Coach, I’ve really called a lot of the shots most of the years I’ve been coaching down here. My system is in place – a lot of the ‘gimmick’ defenses I used to use to shut down big-time scorers, we still use down here. So, I did that at Niagara Catholic and I see this year they had a really good year.

Coach Monti on what should’ve been his first State Final Four team

I’ll be honest with you, what I thought should’ve been our first Final Four team in Glens Falls was our 1983-84 LaSalle team. I had an unbelievable team I thought – no tremendous size. Joe Etopio played at the University at Buffalo (UB) – a 6’4” kid with monster hands (pictured to the left in the middle). If you got him the ball inside, he either got a layup and got fouled, or he just got fouled. I had a really good point guard, “Rockin” Rodney Ingram (pictured above to Joe Etopio’s right). That should’ve been a Final Four team but unfortunately, we just had a bad break.

We played in “The Aud’” (Buffalo Memorial Auditorium) and we were leading South Park who was heavily favored by 15 points in the third quarter. Joe Etopio goes down with a horrendous “charley horse” cramp where he couldn’t even bend his leg so obviously I couldn’t play him. So, they worked on him, and worked on him, and little by little, South Park whittled the down the lead and towards the end they started fouling us – we missed so any freaking front ends of one and ones. It ended up becoming a one-point game with 15 seconds to go. I called a time out, and I asked Joe, “Do you think you can go back in and just throw a pass?” He said, “Yeah Coach I can do that.”

So just inside half court, I drew up an unbelievable ‘big box’ play with some ‘misdirects’. One of our non-scorers was Darnell Bones – a tremendous rebounder on that team and the least likely scorer out of the five starters. I ran a middle misdirect where they thought my guard was going to get the ball, but my guard basically threw a screen while my two big guys cleared out underneath. I had Joe Etopio throw a baseball pass from half court right to the rim to Darnell Bones.

To this day I can see this because there was no three-point shot at the time and I knew that if we got the ball in the backcourt they would foul us, and I didn’t want that the way we were shooting one and ones. I decided to get the three-point lead and the game would be over. With about 15 seconds to go, Joe threw a beautiful pass, the lane was totally cleared out – Rodney threw a beautiful screen on Bones who curls around, catches the ball and goes up.

Back in the day the expansions came off the floor – they’re not bolted to the ceilings the way we do it high school – they’re a little ‘loosey-goosey’. Darnell goes up and who knows why to this day – he was a strong kid at 6’2” – but instead of just laying the ball up, he slaps the backboard and the ball rolls arooound the rim and comes out. One of South Park’s many big guys – they had a big team, threw a full court pass down the left side, and this kid from South Park, their best player catches the ball on the left corner, fires it up on the buzzer and it freaking banks in and we lost by one! That should’ve been the first team to go.

On when the program became successful and point guard Tim Winn

Little by little each year, the persona of the team changed – everything was built around all of our point guards, and it culminated in the last two with Timmy Winn – he’s one of the kids we brought up as a seventh grader, an eighth grader, and then halfway through his ninth-grade season he was on the Varsity team. We went to Glens Falls all four years he played Varsity ball – I don’t know if anybody has ever done that. He played in Glens Falls four years in a row, and he was the MVP of the state tournament his junior and senior years.

He was a tremendous ‘lock down’ defender, and a scorer. His scoring was overshadowed by his defense, and he had a phenomenal career at St. Bonaventure. People think that he went to a little school – St. Bonaventure was a big-time basketball school. He was recruited by a lot of big schools. Bobby Cremins from Georgia Tech at the time which I called ‘Point Guard U’, they wanted him badly and that’s where I wanted him to go because I thought it would give him a better opportunity to play at the next level. He opted to go to St. Bonaventure because of Rob Lanier who played back in the day in Buffalo – Bob Lanier’s cousin – he’s the top assistant for Rick Barnes at Tennessee now.

He used to be with him at Texas, and I think Rob might’ve had a little coaching stint at Siena, but Timmy fell in love with him after he recruited him for Jim Barron who ended up going to Rhode Island. Timmy just like the proximity and being close to home – people could come and see him play in the “Atlantic 10 Conference” which is a good league, and Tim is now in their St. Bonaventure Hall of Fame. He played overseas, and in the old Continental Basketball Association and now he’s in Charlotte with a nice job at Wells-Fargo he’s got a nice family and is doing well.

As a matter of fact, I got inducted in my sixth Hall of Fame last December. I never even knew that Section VI had started a Hall of Fame, but somebody contacted me and said, “You know you’ve been nominated for the Section VI Hall of Fame.” I said, “What the hell are you talking about?” The person replied, “Oh about two to three years ago, they started a sports Hall of Fame and you’re going to be inducted on December 8, 2017.”

I couldn’t believe it, but Timmy drove up that morning from Charlotte to be there. Several of my former players showed up. The last year before the school closed, Dewitt Doss who starred at Canisius – a former gym teacher and now the Athletic Director in the Baltimore Public School System now – he also drove up from Baltimore to be there.

If I had my choice, I’d say give me a great point guard over a big man any day of the week at the high school level and you’ll win. That’s your coach on the floor. Point guards just step up and do the job! I saw in your article with Jason Rowe that we played Buffalo Traditional, but Timmy came up with a severely sprained ankle, and we still gave Traditional a heck of a game because of Jody Crymes and Terry Rich. I think they ended up beating us by three. At that time, those two kids were by far the two premier point guards in the area – Tim and Jason.

On Coaching and Teaching

There’s so much talent down here in Florida and I watch it and there’s no shot clock, but you can put in a 10 second shot clock the way that some of these teams play. It’s like being at the YMCA, it’s crazy – there’s hardly any real coaching going on – they just let them do what they want to do. I never allowed that. We did drills every day in practice – drill, drill, drill and drill again.

Whatever offenses or defenses we ran, we did it again, again, again and again until it became second nature. It was homework and I’d tell the kids, ‘This is what you need for tomorrow. This is your homework.’ I always used to say, ‘This is my classroom – the classroom after the classroom!’

I teared up at one of the hall of fames I got into – it might’ve been the Niagara Falls Sports Hall of Fame – one of my buddies who has since passed away, he was my presenter and the last thing he said before he called me up for my award was, ‘People probably don’t know this, but Coach Monti is a better classroom teacher than he is a basketball coach.’ That really resonated with me – it gave me goosebumps honest to God.

That’s probably why I never went to coach at college where I had some other coaching opportunities – nothing to blow your socks off, but I enjoyed the class room as much as I did the court from a teaching standpoint and that’s why I’m still doing it 50 years later – because I really enjoy sharing what I’ve learned and what I’ve been taught with these young coaches and these young players – teaching them the right way to play the game.

A special thank you is extended to Coach Pat Monti for taking the time out to discuss his story and the LaSalle basketball program. I’d also like to thank Coach Monti’s Wife Kathleen for proofreading this three-part series and polishing it up for us. In case you’ve missed them, see parts one and two of my interview with Coach Monti. Also see my interviews with legendary LaSalle point guard Tim Winn, legendary Buffalo Traditional point guard Jason Rowe, some of my personal basketball stories surrounding my book project, and a piece I wrote up regarding former college and professional basketball player Chris Herren who now tours and speaks about substance abuse and wellness for teens:

• Tim Winn discusses playing point guard in the LaSalle basketball dynasty and beyond part one
• Tim Winn discusses playing point guard in the LaSalle basketball dynasty and beyond part two
• Jason Rowe discusses Buffalo Traditional Basketball, the Yale Cup, and State Tournaments
• Buffalo Traditional’s Jason Rowe discusses his college and professional basketball careers and coaching
• Lasting lessons basketball taught me: Reflections on basketball camp
• Chris Herren discusses his journey, drug addiction, substance abuse and wellness

Closing Thoughts

I intend to create more promotional/teaser pieces for The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story, both via print and video as I journey through the final steps of completing the book. I created a page on Big Words Authors for the purpose of giving a background of the book and grouping all the promotional pieces, such as this in one, for interested readers.

The Big Words LLC Newsletter

For the next phase of my writing journey, I’m starting a monthly newsletter for my writing and video content creation company, the Big Words LLC. In it, I plan to share inspirational words, pieces from this blog and my first blog, and select videos from my four YouTube channels. Finally, I will share updates for my book project The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story. Your personal information and privacy will be protected. Click this link and register using the sign-up button at the bottom of the announcement. If there is some issue signing up using the link provided, you can also email me at [email protected] . Best Regards.

What Henry Ford Can Teach Us About Being An Entrepreneur

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and Business and Entrepreneurship. Henry Ford was one of the great ‘Industrial Titans’ whose visions laid the groundwork for the modern automobile industry and literally helped shape modern America. A lot can be learned from how he built is empire. The following contributed post is thus entitled; What Henry Ford Can Teach Us About Being An Entrepreneur.

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Everyone should know who Henry Ford is and why he’s famous. He was the mastermind behind the giant corporation Ford, and his legacy lives on to this day. But, what a lot of people don’t know is that his journey was extremely rough. It’s certainly not a story of some young buck having a bright idea and shooting to success right away.

No, Ford went through plenty of hard times, which is why he’s the perfect person to study as an upcoming entrepreneur. If you’re thinking of starting a business – or have started one that’s failed – then you should pay attention to Ford’s story. Here are a few things you can learn from what happened to him:

Persistence Is Key

Unbeknownst to many, but Ford actually failed twice before he managed to successfully launch his Ford Motor Company. The two previous times, he struggled with juggling finances and promoting the business. Both times, he ended up losing money and had to file for bankruptcy.

Did this stop him? No! He came back a third time and look at what happened. The moral of the story is that persistence is vital. If you have an idea that you believe in, then don’t give up. Don’t let your failings take over and make you feel like you can’t succeed. Try again, learn from your errors, and you may end up getting it right.

Bankruptcy Offers A Second Chance

There’s a stigma surrounding the concept of bankruptcy, and it’s been around for years. Personally, I blame Monopoly! When you’re made bankrupt in that game, you lose all your money and are out of the game. So, we grow up assuming that this holds true for real life; file for bankruptcy, and that’s it, game over.

In reality, as Henry Ford has shown, bankruptcy can be helpful in some situations. As it explains on NY-Bankruptcy.com, it’s a debt solution to help you pay off creditors and get them off your back. Yes, there are plenty of hard times that come when you’re bankrupt. However, it doesn’t mean you’re left with no money and no home/job. A lot of the time, it can be used to give you a second chance. So, if your business ever fails and you’re made bankrupt, don’t take this to mean your chances of success are over in life!

Marketing A Business Is Essential

During his second attempt at starting a company, Ford had most things nailed down pretty well. He managed to balance the finances well, and the actual product was excellent. The issue was that people didn’t understand what it was, because he hadn’t marketed it correctly.

So, we need to learn from his mistakes and ensure we always market our businesses as effectively as possible. Ensure the consumer knows what you offer, and how it can benefit them. There is some handy advice on entrepreneur.com that can help you improve your marketing skills and promote your company.

The overall thing to take from Henry Ford’s success story is that good things don’t happen overnight. It will be a grind, and you may fail more than once. But, learn from your failures and don’t let them dictate your passage in life. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again.

Guaranteeing Customers’ Security When They Shop Online With You

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Business and Entrepreneurship and Technology. With so much business being conducted online these days, it’s important to understand how to best to protect your customers during online transactions. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Guaranteeing Customers’ Security When They Shop Online With You.

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Online security used to only really apply to big-time businesses, as small businesses tended to operate through brick and mortar stores. They could simply accept cash payments and not worry about the technological world. But nowadays, increasing numbers of small business owners are taking to the web and operating online. No matter how small your business may be, if you are operating online, you really need to take customer safety seriously when it comes to taking payments. There are all sorts of individuals out there with bad intentions who would happily take a customer’s payment details and use them to purchase goods for themselves, or sell them on to others. However, if this is unfamiliar territory for you, you may feel a little bit lost when it comes to guaranteeing customer safety when processing sales and transactions online. But not to worry. Here are the basics that you need to know when it comes to protecting the individuals who choose to shop with you!

Using a Reliable Payment Gateway

One of the areas where customer information is most commonly leaked, or most commonly hacked into, is through a payment gateway. A payment gateway is a service that authorises credit and debit card payments, deducting funds from a customers’ account and depositing them into your account. In order to authorise this transaction, customers have to input their personal details (including name and address) and banking details (such as a card number, an expiry date, and a security number) into the payment gateway. By using a secure gateway, you can ensure that this information is safely collected without interference. Consider using a reliable service like BlueSnap. BlueSnap can work through both online and mobile devices, guaranteeing a positive experience for all of your customers. BlueSnap also keeps customers within your webpage when taking payments. This removes the need to redirect customers from your page to a separate payment page, reducing the risk of interference from cyber criminals along the way.

Accept Credit Card Payments

Many small businesses are reluctant to accept credit card payments, as you are likely to be charged more in order to process this transaction. This, of course, dips into your overall profits. However, many customers feel a lot more secure paying via credit card, as many credit companies offer to reverse charges for fraudulent transactions without a quibble. If you value making your customers feel safe and secure, it’s worth fronting the extra costs that come hand in hand with accepting credit card payments. Alternatively, you could pass the charge on to the customer (adding a set fee to credit card transactions). This means that you don’t make any loss, but the customer still has the choice to use this kind of payment method.

These are just a couple of different ways to guarantee your customers’ safety when they choose to shop online with you. Keep them at the forefront of your mind at all times and consider implementing them into your business plan in the near future!

3 Simple Methods Of Protecting Your Business

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and Business and Entrepreneurship. Once your business is up and running there are several keys to keep it successfully afloat. The following contributed post is thus entitled; 3 Simple Methods Of Protecting Your Business.

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What would you consider to be one of the most important, life-long activity a business can participate in? Raising profitability for shareholders? Exercising staff comfort and working satisfaction? Having a positive impact on the world? Valid answers all. However, there’s one essentially vital activity missing from this list, something that should be shouted from the rafters. A firm should desire to protect itself. It should know how to conduct security. Not only for its own preservation, but for the health and protection of its employees, customers, and general processes.

Protecting your business can be done, but it can feel dizzying to do, particularly if you’re a small firm. Thankfully, all you need to do is keep yourself updated and knowledgeable in modern requirements, and you’ll be golden. Consider these tips:

Forwarded Address

Sometimes, especially in small business, you aren’t interested in making your business address public. This might be because you haven’t any front-facing customer support and it would be functionally useless to offer your address online or on your contact firms, or because the business is the same residence as your home, and you’re keen on protecting the living space of your family. There may be more reasons than these that you wish to use an alternate address to pick up your mail, and they are all valid. Thankfully, it’s possible to make use of cheap mail forwarding addresses in countries across the world, and you can find that functionality at yourvirtualofficelondon.co.uk/mail-forwarding-address. Remember, sometimes privacy is key for the protection of business assets, and this can serve as a wise first step towards that goal.

Web Hosting

Using web hosting services with a solid track record of confidentiality, privacy, DDOS protection ability, and trustworthy technicians can help the flow of your online traffic stay sustained well in the early months, at least before you are able to structure your own website via an in-house professional timeline of development. Be sure to research testimonials and the business practices of the firms used before you give them your money, even those that seem to be dominating the industry – it’s a good habit to get into. This goes for VPN’s, email and business administrative suites also.

Staff Practices

Staff practices are important to consider when it comes to protecting your business. Staying ahead of the curve means training your staff in your best security policies, in the requirements of the legal bounds you find yourself in. It might be expertly training and qualifying your staff in the matters of food hygiene each year, or perhaps teaching your staff how to properly handle and confidentially transmit important business files to the correct end recipients. Of course, none of this will work without the ability to vet your staff, to ensure they wish to perform the best and most appropriate job possible. After all, you are nothing without your staff, and your staff are nothing without the training your firm provides (at least legally speaking.)

With these simple tips, protecting your business is sure to be a daily task managed well.

Ecommerce Mistakes That Most People Make In Their First Year

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Business and Entrepreneurship and Technology. With so much business being conducted online these days, its important to understand how to best to do business in our new digital world in terms of ecommerce. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Ecommerce Mistakes That Most People Make In Their First Year.

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If you are launching your own ecommerce store then you will know how exciting this can be. At times you may feel as though the world is your oyster and you may even feel as though there is just so much for you to try and do in the day as well. If you want your ecommerce store to succeed however then you have to make sure that you are putting the work in to understand your industry and you also have to make sure that you are trying not to make any mistakes along the way as well. If you want to find out more then you can take a look below.

Not Doing Any Market Research

When you first launch your store, you will probably have a few products that you plan on selling. You will probably be very optimistic about this and you may even have so much fun creating them as well. The main mistake that people make is that they get so excited about creating their product that they fail to do any reliable market research. This can make it very hard for you to generate a profit and it can also make it hard for you to know who you are trying to market to as well. If you want to get around this, you need to spend a few weeks trying to research your competition, what you plan on selling and even how you plan on importing or shipping them.

Trying to Handle Absolutely Everything Yourself

The last thing that you want to do is try and handle everything yourself. You may save money by doing this but it is not good for business at all. When you start your own online store, you need to try and do everything you can to find experts who can help you along the way and you also need to get their help when reaching your goals. If you don’t then you will never end up achieving as much as you’d like.

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Not Focusing on your Business Development

The best part of running a business is being able to turn any ideas that you have into a service or product. If you enjoy what you do then you may end up focusing on a single aspect of your business, such as getting new products in or even choosing colour variations. This is all very well, but if you are not careful then you may find that you spend so much time trying to market your products and your business without really taking the time to know if you are in a position to fulfil the orders when you receive them. You need to focus on developing your business as much as you do developing your products, and this is a very important factor for you to take into
consideration.

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So there are many ways that you can avoid making these top eCommerce mistakes, and when
you do, you will experience way more success than ever before.

Keywords: 3 Essentials For Online Entrepreneurs

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Business and Entrepreneurship and Technology. With so much business being conducted online these days, an important consideration is how potential customers will you find your business and your products. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Keywords: 3 Essentials For Online Entrepreneurs.

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It is impossible to say that there is a magic formula when it comes to business. Some businesses appear, on the surface, to break all the established rules of what constitutes a “good” business – but they seem to succeed anyway. Other companies seemingly do everything right and make all the smart decisions, but for some reason, the business never quite thrives.

However, there are some aspects of business that greatly lend themselves towards success, and enjoy a far higher level of importance than other areas. While these elements alone cannot guarantee success, it could certainly be said that the absence of these elements can make success incredibly difficult to achieve.

Keywords are a business element that fit this description to a T; while your business could succeed without understanding and utilizing keywords effectively, it’s going to be a very tough road without their assistance. In an effort to enhance your understanding of this element – and particularly how their usage has changed over recent years – we’ve put together three simple facts that all business owners should know about keywords.

#1 – Keyword stuffing is obsolete (and potentially harmful)

SEO is a young industry, but even in its short time as a factor for businesses, it has changed hugely. Perhaps the biggest change has happened to a technique known as “keyword stuffing”. Where keyword stuffing was once the way to get your business noticed online, it’s now more likely to earn a violation from Google – from an essential tactic to a substantial detriment, keyword stuffing is a technique that burned bright and fell fast.

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs don’t quite seem to have gotten the memo, and keyword stuffing is still found across a variety of business websites. If you’re still using this technique, it’s time for a change.

#2 – Keywords are changing due to voice search

Long tail keywords are nothing new, but they are becoming far more important due to the advent of voice search. When people use voice search on mobile devices or smart speakers, they tend to phrase their search as a question, for example: “what are the best restaurants in New York?”. This is very different to how people search when typing – which would usually be more along the lines of “best restaurants New York” – and has opened up a new form of keyword usage that focuses more on natural speech patterns rather than the more abbreviated short tail keywords that have reigned supreme for the last 10 years.

#3 – The power of keywords extends far beyond SEO

Thus far, as is common, we’ve talked about keywords in relation to SEO, but keywords have an importance far beyond appearing in search terms. From using tools such as WordTree to ensure your products appear high in results on Amazon, to keyword research helping to shape social media posts, a modern business owner has to appreciate the importance of keywords across almost every area of their business’ online presence.

In conclusion

Keywords may have changed somewhat over the 20+ years the internet has been a force for businesses, but their importance cannot be overlooked. By using keywords correctly, and avoiding outdated techniques, you can be sure to benefit from their incredible power, and your business should hugely benefit as a result.

5 Steps to Give Yourself The Best Possible Chance In Life

The first principle of my blog is “Creating Ecosystems of Success”. In addition to understanding the technical aspects of whichever craft you choose to pursue, the are also other personal and behavioral aspects that can impact your success in that arena and life in general. The following contributed post is thus entitled; 5 Steps to Give Yourself The Best Possible Chance In Life.

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When you take a step back at look at everything you have achieved in life so far, you are pretty darn proud of yourself. Against all the odds you have been able to secure a career that you love; you never thought this would be possible for you, due to your family history and heritage, but you have come a long way over the years. You must admit that earning a degree as a minority is certainly an achievement to be celebrated and you want to share your secrets with other ethnic minorities out there who are struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel. You can make a positive start to your life as long as you leave your demons behind you and stay motivated at all times.

1. Defend Yourself

It’s inevitable that you’re going to land into some sort of trouble in your life, from serious mishaps to minor bumps in the road; you need to learn to defend yourself fairly. Whether you need to seek out a reputable dui lawyer after a road incident or you have been accused of a crime you haven’t committed, clearing your name and moving on with your life is the only way to give yourself the best possible start.

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2. Be Persistent

You consider yourself to be a driven and career minded person, who will stick to their goals no matter what. When you are fighting to be heard and seen in a particular job industry you have to stay persistent. There will be people who try to discourage you and deter you from achieving your dreams, but you need to stay focused and remember why you are pursuing this education, career or life goal.

3. Stay Loyal

You want to be the type of person that everybody can trust, no matter what. If you become disappointed with the results of a certain situation, don’t turn your back on your friends, family or your employer; burning bridges can become a huge mistake that you will soon regret. Try to stay loyal to everybody you cross paths with and you will soon see that you can get much further in life.

4. Kindness is Key

Being humble and kind will make your life easier, believe it or not. If you can carry out any small favour or act of kindness, it certainly won’t go unnoticed. Break away from your stereotype and embrace the kind hearted personality that you have inside. People around you will praise you, respect you and look to you for guidance. Being kind is completely free of charge, so even in your darkest moments you can dig down deep and still keep that smile upon your face.

5. Know Your Goals

Only you know where you want to end up in your life, so it’s important that you affirm this to yourself on a regular basis. This will give you a direction to follow when times get rough. Remain positive, stick to your goals and you will always have the best possible chance in life.
Whatever cards you have been dealt in life, there is a chance to change them, as long as you are willing to take the first step.

Everything You Need to Know About Taxes

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and Business and Entrepreneurship. Whether it’s your personal finances or a business venture, understanding taxes is critical. Furthermore, having a tax-strategy can be a critical component to building wealth. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Everything You Need To Know About Taxes.

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As the old saying goes, the only certainties in life are death and paying taxes. All working citizens pay a percentage of their earnings to the government in order to contribute to the functioning of the country. The government spends these taxes on maintaining and improving the country, investing in technology and education, as well as purchasing products that benefit citizens in general. Main areas of expenditure include Major Health Programs (including Medicare and Medicaid), social security, and defense and security for the country as a whole. Tax payments are also used on transport and infrastructure. But it’s not so much how taxes are spent that you need to worry about personally. It’s how much tax you have to pay the government and how to make sure that you cough up the correct amounts on time. So, to help you along the way, here’s everything that you need to know on the subject!

The Importance of Paying Taxes

Besides the importance of paying taxes in regards to keeping the country ticking over, it’s also extremely important that you pay taxes in order to avoid huge fines and potential jail time. Here are some of the potential consequences of paying late or not paying at all.

● Late returns – if you file your return late, you will be charged five percent of your unpaid taxes for every month that your tax return is late on top of the total that you owed anyway.

● Failure to pay – if you file your return, but fail to pay the amount that you owe, you will be charged a failure-to-pay penalty. This amounts to 0.5 percent of the taxes that you owe per month you fail to pay. You will also begin to accrue interest rates on your unpaid tax.

Making the Process as Simple as Possible

As we have established, it’s extremely important that you not only file your tax assessment on time, but that you also make a payment on time. The percentages that you are charged may sound relatively small, but when you keep in mind the amount that you earn in an entire fiscal year, this sum can become pretty large and it can mount up over the months. But not to worry. There are steps that you can take to seriously simplify your tax paying process. The first step that you can take is to hire an accountant. This individual will take all of your financial information for the tax year and determine exactly how much you owe out in taxes. They may also be able to minimize this figure by deducting any work-related expenses that you may have incurred. Another option is to use tax software yourself. This is specially designed software that will help you to complete your return as quickly and conveniently as possible. If this sounds good to you, take a look at this Professional Tax Software Comparison Chart to determine which software will best suit your needs.

Corporation Taxes

Now, we have dealt with personal taxes, let’s take a moment to focus on corporate taxes. If you own a corporation, you’re going to have to pay corporate tax from your business’ profits. You can generally choose your own tax year, so you choose two dates within the year that you operate within – this makes paying taxes better suited to your professional schedule. If you know you have a particularly busy time of year where you’re run off your feet, you can arrange your fiscal year to guarantee that you won’t be focused on filing returns at this given time. Instead, you can schedule your tax file to fall during a quieter period. It is generally stated that we have the highest corporation tax in the world. While stated levels of tax may well be the highest amongst the world’s major economies, when you factor in deductions and other expenditures, corporation tax isn’t actually all too high.

Paying Corporation Tax

Almost all corporations are expected to pay the full sum of corporation tax that they owe over four set dates. Payments generally tend to be due on the 15th April, 15th June, 15th September, and 15th December. Paying smaller sums throughout the year lightens the load on businesses, rather than implementing the pressure of one huge payment date. It is highly unlikely that you will be granted an extension on this payment date, so make sure that you have the funds ready and waiting to be paid. If you fail to pay the full sum of your corporation taxes, you may find that civil and criminal penalties may be imposed upon you. These tend to be divided into four categories:

● Delinquency penalties
● Accuracy-related penalties
● Information reporting penalties
● Preparer, promotor, and protestor penalties

While most individual and corporate taxes are reliant on a mere self-assessment, many large and mid-sized businesses are monitored by the IRS and tax state authorities. If you are turning over a lot of money, you may find that you undergo regular audits to ensure that you are complying with the law and sticking to tax rules.

Hopefully, this has helped you out with a whole lot of information that you need to keep in mind when it comes to filing both personal tax and corporation tax. These are by no means minor issues, as failing to comply with tax law can see you receive serious fines and perhaps even face legal action. So, make sure that you are always complicit!

Don’t Be A Mad Scientist: Avoid These Stupid Lab Mistakes

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“Science is about creating answers, not mistakes, but if in your folly you make any of those stupid lab blunders, then you are going to create both chaos to your experiments and put yourself at risk of accident and injury.”

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One of the focuses of my blog is awareness of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields. If you’re in a STEM and are working in a laboratory setting, it’s particularly important for novices to understand how to properly conduct one’s self. The following contributed post is entitled, Don’t Be A Mad Scientist: Avoid These Stupid Lab Mistakes.

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It doesn’t matter which of the basic sciences you are working in; common sense needs to be your number one priority. Science is about creating answers, not mistakes, but if in your folly you make any of those stupid lab blunders, then you are going to create both chaos to your experiments and put yourself at risk of accident and injury. Yikes!

Mistake #1: Mislabeling something

You’re not an idiot; you have trained in your field, so you will know what most things are. You know your rotary vane pumps from your boosters and compressors. But then again, you may have lacked concentration and mislabelled a test tube, or you may not quite know the difference from a certain chemical from another, especially if they look the same. The wrong combination could result in something calamitous, be that a failed experiment, or something far more explosive. Therefore, don’t assume you know what something is without doing some research first, and for goodness sake, concentrate when you’re labelling, for the sake of everybody working with you.

Mistake #2: Not sticking to fire safety protocol

Following proper fire safety protocol is one of the most important things you can do in the lab to stay safe. To that end, you must know the correct protocols and act on them in case of a fire. Indeed, as labs are such specific contexts and the risk of fire is often increased it’s a good idea to find an expert in fire safety and prevention such as Devin Doyle Newport Beach to work with. Such an expert can then provide tailored advice to your particular needs and ensure your fire risk is kept as low as possible.

Mistake #3: Using faulty equipment

You aren’t going to get the desired results if your equipment isn’t up to scratch. Not only can you create a chemical disaster if something is leaking where it shouldn’t be, but you will be forced to start your experiment again if you have used something as simple as an uncalibrated pipette. Always check your equipment beforehand, and if you need to buy something new, or if you need to call on the expertise of someone like this pipette repair service, then do so.

Mistake #4: Wearing your lab coat out of the lab

Who knows what nasty stuff has gathered on your lab coat during your experiments! The last thing you want to do is take that troublesome gook out of the lab and into the cafeteria or the outside world, as you may cause significant harm to another. Remember to wash your coat too, no matter how much you like the pretty colours that have accumulated!

Mistake #5: Not wearing your protective gear

You are dealing with acids, chemicals, and other toxic substances. You are touching them, surrounding yourself with them, and bearing your beady eyes down upon them. We know we shouldn’t have to say this, but we will anyway. Always wear your safety gear! Letting any kind of toxic formula get into your eyes, onto your skin, or into your nasal passageway, could be tantamount to personal disaster. Make it a rule to have what you need to hand as you enter the lab, so you don’t forget to put on what you need to be wearing.

Mistake #6: Having your lunch in the science lab

You may as well be swigging from a test tube! There is a place to eat your lunch, and that’s nowhere near your workbench. In fact, you should be out of the lab and at your designated eating area. You don’t want to poison yourself by letting even the smallest amount of a chemical touch your food, even if you have washed your hands like a good boy after taking off your gloves. And who knows what might happen if you let any of your cheese sandwich fall into your experiment. You could destroy the world! Or, at the very least, your experiment!!

In all things, practice common sense. You might look like a mad scientist, but that doesn’t mean you have to behave like one! Take care if you are in the lab today, and thanks for reading.

Your Credit Report Tells Your Life Story

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money. Building and maintaining a strong credit rating can significantly affect one’s financial health and open certain doors and opportunities. The opposite is also true. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Your Credit Report Tells Your Life Story.

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Over 65% of job applicants admit to embellishing the truth on their resumés. LIttle white lies here and there and optimistic descriptions of their tasks can move your profile from being at the bottom of the list to the top on the recruiter’s desk. If there’s one thing that most adults spend a lot of time improving, it’s their professional profile. So it’s surprising that less than half of the population care about their credit score. Indeed, almost 30% don’t know their credit score and don’t really see how it can affect their everyday lives. The most common interaction with the credit score is to check whether or not you are eligible for a specific loan or credit card agreement. Consequently, it appears crucial to draw a parallel with your professional profile. Indeed, in the same way than your resume can influence your career; your credit score can equally affect your financial situation. More importantly, you can manage what your credit score reveals about you.

Credit score breakdown

It’s a number, but it says a lot about finance management
The scale of the score for your credit report goes from 300 to 850 – although you can find specific credit card scoring systems that start at 250 and runs to 900. Ultimately, while it’s fair to say that a number might be meaningless at first, you need to understand what it means. Potential lenders and employers can ask to see your score and make an informed decision to trust you or not based on the data available. Ultimately, a score in the highest part of the scale, 781 to 850 implies you’re responsible with your money. While a score in the lowest range of the scale, 300 to 600 can put lenders and some employers off, as it shows you’re not managing your finances.

Mistakes remain visible for long
Unfortunately, lenders don’t only check your credit score, but your full report. The report is the equivalent of your financial resume. It shows all the major decisions you’ve made and can highlight some of your issues with debts or the law for several years. However, you can clear up your report gradually. If you’re worried about the time it takes to remove judgment from credit report information; you might need to get in touch with a legal expert to find out more. More judgment items are removed after 7 years from the date the lawsuit was filed, but there are exceptions. Additionally, some credit bureaus and creditors might choose not to report or mention all negative items.

People look at your finances, not your social privileges
Ultimately, there is an essential element that your credit score encourages. While a resume can suffer from stereotypes based on the education you’ve received or your race, a credit score is, as you know, only a number. The report might highlight your financial strategy and preferences, but more importantly, it showcases your priorities and the time you invest in finance management. Where discrimination is still present in the workplace, credit reports focuses on facts. Being only a number saves you from unfair preconceptions.

The bottom line, for many newcomers to the finance world, is that your credit report is not an enemy you should fight. It’s an opportunity for self-improvement – when the score is low – and for unbiased achievements. Your credit report might shut some doors but, in the grand scheme of things, it helps you to access opportunities that social, racial and gender discriminations would have made more difficult to reach.