money, money, money

The Portuguese Prime Minister announced yesterday that in order to balance the budget for next year the State would be taking austerity measures a few of which include: freezing pensions, reducing salaries of state workers (between 3.5% and 10% based on monthly income), and increasing the IVA (sales tax) to 23%.  Looks like we are all headed for the poor house . . .

New life goal

Skinny jeans  . . .

Leadership

Derek Sivers: How to start a movement

Watch video before reading;-)

This is an interesting little video that someone passed on to me last week about leadership with Derek Sivers explaining how to start a movement. I found it really clever and thought provoking. Yesterday I had the opportunity to take this video one step further and try out the theory.

Last night there was a festival called "Endless Nights" in Cascais (which is close to me). There was animation of all sorts: a magic show, pop groups, a Brazillian Carnival show (complete with young girls in skimpy costumes), and stilt-walkers to name a few. Cascais is a touristic area with loads of outdoor restaurants and many of the shops were open to accommodate the crowds.

There was a roving brass band playing typical Portuguese tunes. We met up with them at one point along their circuit and we stood among a crowd of people who encircled the group and formed their audience. When all of a sudden an old guy (yeah, even older than me) jumped into the center and began to dance. It was totally unexpected and he must have been nuts. Well, I thought about the video and decided it was the perfect opportunity to conduct an experiment so I jumped in and started to dance with the nuts guy. I was really curious to see how many others would join us. A couple in their early 50's (tourists I'm sure - lol) were the next to enter. They were really good and showed off their jitterbugging skills. The piece ended too soon and the brass band moved on without us.

It was pretty funny and I wonder if more people would have danced with us if the music had continued . This experiment isn't over yet (lol). . .