History has been made here in the USA today with the appointment of Barack Obama, the first  ever African-American President and proves that the USA is truly a Country where everyone has equal opportunity to succeed, even becoming President.  Good news for the Franklin family as my son, who was born here on 4 July, is being groomed to be the 52nd American President - he was glued to the television and embraced election fever like a true Presidential entrepreneur.  Look out for Samuel John!

Like in all election campaigns, promises are made and when the battle is won, it's delivery time.  As one of the most influential Countries in the world, the spotlight is always on the USA at election time, and given the global financial crisis that in my opinion, has not even commenced, it is firmly shining on Mr Obama today as it is of course, on all Global leaders.

Turning the attention back to the UK, we have to wait another two years until we can rid ourselves of our current Government, who has managed to fall short on virtually every promise, yet still clings to power.  I think even Mr Blair new when to jump ship!    

The Government nationalized television corporation, known as the British Broadcasting Corporation, the one that manages to successfully show and repeat the same show for twenty years and charge every person who has a television, a fee for owning one, whether they watch the channel or not, may have redeemed it self a little.  They conducted research at the famous Louis Pasteur Institute in France, into a chemical compound found in red wine that can actually trick the body into losing weight!  Fantastic news, but being someone who has total faith in natural products, I am sticking to the natural products found in the Burgundy region of the same Country!  Good news for Mum as well!

~Neil

I have just read an article in a British newspaper about the Chief Executive of failed banking organization Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) being paid a ‘consulting’ fee to help Lloyds TSB, the bank that is taking them over to identify the weaknesses of the company. The fee for this consulting arrangement is a staggering 60:000 pounds per month!

Under his leadership, bad debts have doubled to 5.2 billion over the last five months and although he has forgone a golden goodbye of nearly one million pounds, he has the small consolation of a 2.4 million pension pot and of course the ‘consulting’ relationship, not to mention the potential loss of 20:000 jobs as a result of the Government backed nationalization of high street banks.

There is an argument that it doesn’t really matter if the executive leadership of large, public companies fail, they will probably leave with far more money than most people will see in a lifetime, when of course, the shareholders that back the companies end up losing.

But what about the humble entrepreneurs out there who have huge amounts of desire, ambition and of course, the winning ideas that will ultimately create wealth and jobs? If an entrepreneur fails, he or she will just become another one of many in the statistics of business failures and as most successful entrepreneurs will testify, they are certain to face failure at least once during their journey.

Three good examples of hugely successful entrepreneurs in Britain are Sir Philip Green, Sir Alan Sugar and of course, Sir Richard Branson - did they experience failure? Definitely. What I am saying is that out there is a huge pool of potential and existing entrepreneurial talent and that is the talent that needs nurturing and most of all, Government help.

It is of course election day here in the US and my money is on…

~Neil