BIEBER ENTERPRISES LLP

12/04/2017

Do you have a challenge lurking in the future? Is it keeping you awake at night? Perhaps this anecdote will help. It certainly changed my approach.

When I was attending Officers Candidate School, every day we would march past the confidence course on our way to the mess hall. As the name implies, this was a course of seemingly impossible to negotiate obstacles, designed to test your confidence. I knew that during week five, my platoon was scheduled to run the course.

I obsessed over one particular obstacle. It was called the “A” Frame.

First you climbed a fifteen foot rope, then rolled over an obstacle, precariously crossed horizontally placed logs, climbed a ladder, rolled over another log obstacle, and finally descended a thirty foot rope to the ground. Sometimes the obstacle was negotiated in reverse order.

Through some cruel hoax, the “A” Frame was located immediately next to the road where I could view it in all of its magnitude. Three times a day, while standing in formation at the mess hall, it taunted me. I was filled with self doubt.

Then p**f, a revelation! I thought to myself, this is ridiculous! No matter how much I fret, that obstacle is still there. It’s not going away, and in five weeks, my platoon will be running that course. So I can spend my time fixating or I can mentally and physically prepare myself.

As it turned out, that change in attitude was instrumental. I successfully ran the course. The “A” Frame wasn’t as intimidating as I had once thought. Finally, I learned that a positive attitude does not necessarily make a difficult or undesirable challenge enjoyable but it can make it achievable. Good luck with yours!

05/03/2016

The joke goes “Your money or your life!” The response, “Take my wife, please!” is a great example of miscommunication. On the stage, that’s fine, it produces the desired laugh. In the workplace, it can spell disaster.

In the business world, we need to understand that communication skills make or break us professionally and affect prosperity. No matter what we are attempting to communicate, from explaining a task, describing a product, to delivering a report, if the communication is not concise and easily understood, the risk is great that it will be misunderstood.

Of great importance to this is also the method of communication. While some will laud the use of computers and e-mails in their time saving ability to communicate, I believe much is lost in their use. Consider, for example, that per Webster, the definition of communication is “the imparting or exchanging of information.” To me, the key word there is “exchanging.” While we’re delivering our message, we need also to key on what messages we should be receiving. It is a two way street. So as to not lose that incoming message, I always prefer to communicate in person. As a security officer in a Federal agency, I routinely performed “parish calls.” These were visits to the various offices within our division. Because security was not always the most popular visitor, many times the purpose was to simply show my face, say hello, and ask whether there was anything I could do for the chief or the branch. Other times, the visit was to conduct true business. The process of in- person communication is instantaneous, and I could view expressions and body language to gauge how the message was being received. I emphasized to my co-workers to, walk around, look for business, get to know personally who we’re serving. My second preference is telephonic communication. The process is still quick, but I do lose visual cues and must rely entirely on voice inflections. I least prefer communication via e-mail because both visual and aural input are absent.

So leave the miscommunication to the comedians. When possible, personally deliver your message and see understanding and productivity rise.

12/31/2015

Happy New Year all! As if you don’t have enough to do at the beginning of a new year, it’s also a good time to time to change our passwords and combinations. It always seems difficult to come up with ones that are both strong and easy to remember. I think we tend to drift towards the easy to remember. Here are some tips that will enable you to create passwords and combinations that are both. I’ll start with passwords first.

This is always a challenge because you can't go anywhere online without a password these days. For example, I have passwords to about 35 entities, from Staples, to National Car rental, to Jet Blue, to itunes, to various large corporations to several banking institutions. The problem, though, is that most of us just aren't very password-creative. I’ll tell you right now, I do not have 35 different passwords.

Hackers delight in posting usernames and passwords online when they raid a database. To prove the point -- and to help us all make better password decisions -- a company called SplashData compiles an annual list of the most common (and therefore, the worst) passwords from those listings.

The top three passwords last year were "password," "123456," and "12345678." Some new additions to the list, included "welcome, " "jesus," "ninja," and "mustang."
In order to satisfy providers who required the inclusion of a number in the password, many users chose, yeah you guessed it, “password1.”

We all know that the longer or more complex a password, the stronger it is. But John, longer is more difficult. So, simplify! Use memory aids to simplify remembering passwords. BUT, be judicious in your selection. Nothing in the public record should be used without being doctored.

Stay away from yours, your spouses, your children, your parent’s birthdates. You could use your cousins’. I know about 15 of my cousins’ birthdates. Don’t overdo it. Use this method once or twice, then switch to another memory aid.

For almost unbeatable passwords, Use the first letter from each word in a favorite phrase or line from a song. For example, My favorite song is Hey Jude. So it would be “HJDMIBTASSAMIB. That’s fourteen characters!

It is increasingly a requirement to create passwords containing upper case, lower case, symbols and numbers. The above example might be
HJDM1bta$$am1B. No one is breaking that password.

Some of my friends are responsible for storing information in a safe/security container. Now is also a good time to change the combination. Normally, combinations consist of three numbers. I’ve used all of the following as memory aids: highway route numbers, firearm calibers, and uniform numbers from my favorite sports stars. The key is it works!

So have a Happy New Year, and do yourself a favor, keep your information safe! Change your passwords and combinations.

12/18/2015

Howdy everyone! I wanted to include a promotion video to my first leadership course on team building. Take care and Merry Christmas!

https://youtu.be/FbFcJ8w51SY

An invitation to Bieber Enterprises' web instruction leadership class titled "That Great Team Environment, How Do We Get There?"

12/18/2015

Here is a $15.00 coupon to my first leadership course on Team Building. If your work has slowed down a little, and you want to take some training, please check this course out.
The coupon expires on New Years Eve.

https://www.udemy.com/that-great-team-environment-how-do-we-get-there/?couponCode=SFV656

Thanks for your interest. Merry Christmas to all!

Learn how to create the atmospherics that foster and nurture productive team building and maintain that environment.

12/18/2015

Here is a $15.00 coupon to my latest leadership course on Problem Solving, Decision Making and Proaction. If your work has slowed down a little, and you want to take some training, please check this course out. https://www.udemy.com/that-hat-trick-of-leadership-success/?couponCode=R1200rt02

Thanks for your interest. Merry Christmas to all!

Problem Solving, Decision Making, and Proaction - Free Course

11/10/2015

https://youtu.be/7PANhe6LUDs

I've just published my second online course with UDEMY titled "That Hat Trick of Success: Problem Solving, Decision Making, and Proaction."

This video promotes my second on-line leadership course titled "That Hat Trick of Success: Problem Solving, Decision Making, and Proaction. What separates th...

03/25/2015

Thanks to the Realtor Association of Greater Ft. Myers and the Beach for inviting me to present "Staying Alive!!!" The group was fun and very receptive. Stay safe!

02/10/2015

Great article that is instructive and should be shared with all who carry concealed, or are contemplating it. We all have a right to bear arms, we also have the responsibility to do it safely. Take care!

First rule for off-body carry (carrying a gun in a purse, satchel, briefcase, or any other item not attached to your body): Secure that firearm inside.

01/06/2015

Happy New Year to everyone. May you enjoy good health in 2015. A quick tidbit of information to enhance your security. We all grow tired of the many passwords we have to maintain and continually update. If you find this challenging and are tempted to use easy passwords and maintain the same ones for long periods of time, consider this alternative. The infosec experts advise us to use passwords of 12 or more characters that combine upper case, lower case, numbers, and special characters. It’s enough to cause a migraine. Try this. Pick a favorite song, and use the first letter of each word in one of the lines of one of the verses. For example, if you like “Hey Jude,” the first line of the first verse is “Hey Jude, don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better.” Using the first letters would give us HJDMIBTASSAMIB. If you want to incorporate upper case, lower case etc., you could create HJDM!bta$$am!b. That’s 14 characters that you’ll never forget. Just don’t hum it while your typing. Have a good one!

12/10/2014

http://www.nbc-2.com/clip/10932829/interrogation-report-questions-techniques-but-defended-by-former-agent

NBC2 News and Weather online for Southwest Florida, serving Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Desoto, Glades and Hendry counties

12/09/2014

Special thanks to Ft. Myers, NBC 2, for an extremely fair interview regarding the release of information today by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Very professionally done.