Monthly Archives: February 2017

HBCU Money™ Business Book Feature – Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living

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LIVE A LIFE OF MEANING AND CONNECTION

Instead of pushing for perfection

A few years ago, I found myself exhausted and isolated, my soul and body sick. I was tired of being tired, burned out on busy. And, it seemed almost everyone I talked with was in the same boat: longing for connection, meaning, depth, but settling for busy.

I am a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, neighbor, writer, and I know all too well that settling feeling. But over the course of the last few years, I’ve learned a way to live, marked by grace, love, rest, and play. And it’s changing everything.

Present Over Perfect is an invitation to this journey that changed my life. I’ll walk this path with you, a path away from frantic pushing and proving, and toward your essential self, the one you were created to be before you began proving and earning for your worth.

Written in Shauna’s warm and vulnerable style, this collection of essays focuses on the most important transformation in her life, and maybe yours too: leaving behind busyness and frantic living and rediscovering the person you were made to be. Present Over Perfect is a hand reaching out, pulling you free from the constant pressure to perform faster, push harder, and produce more, all while maintaining an exhausting image of perfection.

Shauna offers an honest account of what led her to begin this journey, and a compelling vision for an entirely new way to live: soaked in grace, rest, silence, simplicity, prayer, and connection with the people that matter most to us.

In these pages, you’ll be invited to consider the landscape of your own life, and what it might look like to leave behind the pressure to be perfect and begin the life-changing practice of simply being present, in the middle of the mess and the ordinariness of life.

The Finance & Tech Week In Review – 2/25/17

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Every Saturday the HBCU Money staff picks ten articles they were intrigued by and think you will enjoy for some weekend reading impacting finance and tech.

How can #Kenya achieve a sustainable urban future? Video blog / World Bank wrld.bg/zBAq309gUVc

Large gaps exist between the homeownership rates of white households and minority households / St. Louis Fed bit.ly/2liGksY

More than half of #Uganda’s adults now has access to an account at a formal financial institution. / World Bank ow.ly/59ET309lR5F

You can now take a course at the world’s best universities for free. Here’s how that happened / WEF wef.ch/2ktwNAt

Queens in New York has more languages than anywhere in the world / WEF wef.ch/2lA8jEU

Agricultural robot scrutinizes plants so that we don’t have to / New Atlas newatl.as/2kVnJVw

Inside the U.S.’s Only Ocean Exploration Ship / Scientific American ow.ly/VFEX309lPP3

How #bigdata is changing the nature of policing from reactive to proactive / Networkworld ow.ly/TvcW309lPky

#Fraud rises as cybercriminals flock to online lenders / Networkworld ow.ly/w7eN309lP8s

Scientists discovering new coral communities in the Gulf, but they’re already under threat / Pew Environment ow.ly/BX5m309lOYy

Currencies Of The African Diaspora – Equatorial Guinea

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Exploitation of oil and gas deposits, beginning in the 1990s, has driven economic growth in Equatorial Guinea, allowing per capita GDP to rise to over $29,000 in 2014. Forestry and farming are minor components of GDP. Although preindependence Equatorial Guinea counted on cocoa production for hard currency earnings, the neglect of the rural economy since independence has diminished the potential for agriculture-led growth. Subsistence farming is the dominant form of livelihood. Declining revenue from hydrocarbon production, high levels of infrastructure expenditures, lack of economic diversification, and corruption have pushed the economy into decline in recent years and led to limited improvements in the general population’s living conditions.
Foreign assistance programs by the World Bank and the IMF have been cut since 1993 because of corruption and mismanagement, and as a middle income country Equatorial Guinea is now ineligible for most donor assistance. The government has been widely criticized for its lack of transparency and misuse of oil revenues and has attempted to address this issue by working towards compliance with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. US foreign assistance to Equatorial Guinea is limited in part because of US restrictions pursuant to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
Equatorial Guinea hosted two economic diversification symposia in 2014 that focused on attracting investment in five sectors: agriculture and animal ranching, fishing, mining and petrochemicals, tourism, and financial services. Undeveloped mineral resources include gold, zinc, diamonds, columbite-tantalite, and other base metals.

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Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea

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Source: Economy provided by CIA World Factbook Africa

HBCU Money™ Business Book Feature – Quench Your Own Thirst: Business Lessons Learned Over a Beer or Two

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Founder of The Boston Beer Company, brewer of Samuel Adams Boston Lager, and a key catalyst of the American craft beer revolution, Jim Koch offers his unique perspective when it comes to business, beer, and turning your passion into a successful company or career.

In 1984, it looked like an unwinnable David and Goliath struggle: one guy against the mammoth American beer industry. When others scoffed at Jim Koch’s plan to leave his consulting job and start a brewery that would challenge American palates, he chose a nineteenth-century family recipe and launched Samuel Adams. Now one of America’s leading craft breweries, Samuel Adams has redefined the way Americans think about beer and helped spur a craft beer revolution.

In Quench Your Own Thirst, Koch offers unprecedented insights into the whirlwind ride from scrappy start-up to thriving public company. His innovative business model and refreshingly frank stories offer counterintuitive lessons that you can apply to business and to life.

Koch covers everything from finding your own Yoda to his theory on how a piece of string can teach you the most important lesson you’ll ever learn about business. He also has surprising advice on sales, marketing, hiring, and company culture. Koch’s anecdotes, quirky musings, and bits of wisdom go far beyond brewing. A fun, engaging guide for building a career or launching a successful business based on your passions, Quench Your Own Thirst is the key to the ultimate dream: being successful while doing what you love.

The Finance & Tech Week In Review – 2/18/17

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Every Saturday the HBCU Money staff picks ten articles they were intrigued by and think you will enjoy for some weekend reading impacting finance and tech.

Nearly half of current jobs could be automated by 2055, according to a new report / WEF wef.ch/2k6MGrw

Individuals tend to invest in assets that have recently done well. What about institutions? / St. Louis Fed bit.ly/2lnjyAT

Coping with the loss of a spouse? Avoid these mistakes & manage your money through your grief. / FINRA ow.ly/CKeu3094YD3

Want to give your brain a boost? Running may be the answer / WEF wef.ch/2lnje5Z

Here’s why we’re happier as we get older / WEF wef.ch/2kREFv8

Massachusetts Lawmakers Propose Goal of 100 Percent Renewable Energy by 2050 / Renewable Cities buff.ly/2lYSHrZ

Here’s how the US government can bolster cybersecurity / CIOonline ow.ly/9KfO3097BUg

Once, up to 60 million buffalo roamed US. Yellowstone now holds 5000 – and some say it’s too many / New Scientist bit.ly/2kGqrsW

Microsoft app helps people with ALS speak using just their eyes / New Scientist bit.ly/2kHICOS

70% Of Trump Voters Want Clean Energy To Make America Great Again / Clean Technica ow.ly/Fnf33097BzC