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In today’s society, there seems to be great emphasis on achieving ”success.” When we recognize someone as being successful, we tend to offer them more respect and look up to them, and even pay more for their products or services. While working to become successful in our own lives, we are perhaps unconsciously looking to gain more respect, and all the benefits associated with it.
 
Pointing fingers and categorizing people seems to be a common habit our culture has created, fully embraced, and accepted as the norm. Furthermore, not only is this habit accepted, but it is actually promoted and published in the media for everyone in the world to see:  Success is a label we sometimes stamp on people, often unconsciously:

Real Estate Success“Wow, she’s successful!” Or,  “Wow, what a failure he is!”

However, “success” is a slippery, relative, and often hard to define term. I have heard many different expressions for what people believe success to be. The noun itself is defined in the dictionary with two definitions: “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose”, or “the attainment of fame, wealth, or social status.”

We're now more than halfway through a year that everybody knew was going to be brutal.

The winds of a global recession, a tight credit environment, unemployment and cautious consumers have joined forces to cloud the Canadian economy.

As bad as it is, Alberta has still managed to be in just a little better shape than many other parts of the country.

It's that Alberta attitude: Never let them see you sweat. Grin and bear it. That can-do spirit permeates the province's economy --and a big factor, too, is our oil and gas industry.

Sure, there have been victims; plenty of companies who fought the good fight have lost. But it could have been a lot worse.

Early on, economic experts forecast that Alberta wouldn't be hit so dramatically by the downturn and that it would be among the first regions to come out of it.

In case you missed it, here's the link for Peter Kinch's interview on CTV News, Monday, July, 13th about the Market Upswing in June and what's to come:

http://watch.ctv.ca/news/clip192936#clip192936

The Canadian housing market appears to be on the mend, with affordability measures returning to or near long term averages. Aggressive policy action by the Bank of Canada and the Federal Government to create confidence in the financial markets and jump start the economy are generally responsible for the markets improvements. The Bank of Canada has put in place a rate cutting campaign alongside the Federal Government’s active support of the mortgage securities market which have caused meaningfully reductions to the cost of homeownership and resulted in three consecutive quarterly improvements in housing affordability. This has improved the housing affordability measures to near or at long term averages, which is consistent with more solid market fundamentals. These strong discounts have proven to be powerful incentives in drawing buyers back in to the market. 

Monthly mortgage payments in the first quarter had generally decreased by approximately 17% nationally from Canadian payments a year earlier with large major cities such as Calgary and Edmonton seeing decline rates of 24% and 20% respectively. However, property values recently have been showing signs of stabilizing after having been under severe pressure for some time.

The Organization for Economic Coordination and Development (OECD) stated Wednesday June 24th that “the world economy is near the bottom of the worst recession in post war history” and that “it looks like the worst scenario has been avoided”. In fact all OECD countries are expected to see a growth of 0.7% in 2010; with a world growth rate of 2.3%.

The OECD goes on further to explain the worlds recovery from the current recession will be fragile and slow but the fact that the worst case scenario has been avoided  is a major achievement of today’s economic policies. 

Unfortunately, not all countries have promising prospects for the coming year.  The Eurozone, specifically the United Kingdom is predicted to see 0% growth in the economy in 2010. The areas lack of recovery is due to three main factors: the housing bubble; damage to the financial sector; and export set backs. If the United Kingdom expects to recover the government must develop a comprehensive and complete plan to reduce debt and reign in the rising public sector deficit.

Many provincial economies “took it on the chin” late last year and early this year, resulting in 2009 growth being widely revised down. However, recent developments have lent support to our view that growth will return by the second half of this year and be maintained through 2010. The latest available data point to a moderating pace of both job losses and declines in real GDP in Canada, seen as evidence that the worst of the recession is likely behind us.

Improved commodity markets are anticipated to reignite capital expenditures by businesses in Canada. This will be supplemented by relatively aggressive public sector spending on infrastructure. The most recent budget season almost universally brought significant measures to stimulate provincial economies, primarily in the form of increased spending on public infrastructures but also, in some cases, tax cuts and other fiscal incentives – Alberta being the lone exception, preferring to hold the line on spending.

Promoting pleasant environments to shop
David Parker, For The Calgary Herald

Business Revitalization Zones are doing wonderful work in Calgary, but I wonder if newcomers to our city know about them or what they do. Business Revitalization Zones (BRZs) are made up of businesses within nine Calgary areas, each with an executive director working under a volunteer board of directors.

Their job is to promote businesses within their specific zones while striving to enhance the attractiveness and livability of the area. A good example are design improvements to 1st Street S.W. by the Victoria Crossing Business Revitalization Zone, where the patterned sidewalks, lighting and furniture have made it a much more pleasant pedestrian street.

Most zones would classify themselves as being inner city -- Downtown, Fourth Street, Kensington, Marda Loop, Inglewood, Victoria Crossing and Uptown 17 -- but Bowness and International Avenue are just as vibrant.
International Avenue executive director Alison Karim-McSwiney and her board have worked hard to promote and create a more pleasant environment in which to shop and live. New benches and trash receptacles have been installed and trees planted, 300 of which are now in Unity Park under a scheme to "put the forest back in Forest Lawn." It's all being done to lend a new look to the street and encourage development.

I just wanted to remind you to NOT believe a thing I say. This is because I can only come from my own beliefs & my own experiences. I will share my experiences, beliefs, successes and failures with you and this will give you ideas of what has worked for me in my life. If you choose to follow the same path, these strategies can work for you as well.

A fatal flaw you will experience as a real estate investor is that you may choose to believe what others say. The flaw is when you start to beleive those who have minimal Real Estate or 'Real World' experience. By the same token, if I can only come from my own beliefs & my own experiences, the same rings true for your circle of influence including your friends, family and your advisors.

Let me ask you a question. When you want to learn something new or you have a new aspiration about something you would like to accomplish, what do you do?...find people who know nothing about what it is you want to do and talk to them about it? Or do you find somebody who has already done what you intend to do and talk to them about it?

Today Bill Bartman was interviewed on Fox News on two great topics: 

1) How To Overcome Failure
2) How To Make Money During This Recession.

Here is the link to that interview.

http://www.BillBartmann.com/BillInTheNews

Bill will be on Fox News again Next Saturday (June 20th 2009) to be interviewed about President Obama's plan to regulate the Financial Services Industry. Apparently Fox News is still working out the details of the segment, but the plan is to have Bill Bartman go head-to-head with someone from the Federal Reserve as they discuss the Fed's role in this economic crisis.   This segment is scheduled to be aired live at 12:30 Eastern time (11:30 A.M Central Time, 10:30 A.M. Mountain Time and 9:30 A.M. Pacific Time and should be very interesting. 

You'll not want to miss this!

Came across this recent article stating that a recent study finds carbon emissions aren’t extreme. It's an interesting read.

CALGARY — A new report that compares greenhouse gas emissions of domestic and imported crude oils refined in the United States concludes that Canadian oilsands are not much dirtier than competing types of oil.

Eddy Isaacs, managing director of the Alberta-government-created Alberta Energy Research Institute, said one constant of all crudes is that 75 per cent of emissions come when the resulting gasoline is burned in a vehicle.

“What we’re arguing about is the next 25 per cent,” he said, speaking at an investor symposium in Calgary yesterday.

Based on a report by the Jacobs Consultancy to be released at the end of June, Isaacs said the best performance among oil imports to the U.S. came from Saudi Arabian light crudes. He said it rated 98 grams of carbon emissions equivalent per megajoule of gasoline.

U.S. Gulf Coast crudes were rated at about 104 and California thermal-sourced heavy crudes were at 113.4.

Synthetic crude from oilsands tapped using thermal SAGD (steam-assisted gravity drainage) wells rated at 116.1, the highest in the survey due to higher energy use. But the SAGD product that was diluted before being piped to the refinery rated just 102.1 per cent.

Mined synthetic oilsands crude was rated 108.2 and SAGD bitumen rated 111.

“What you see is that there is a range, but it’s not as dramatic as what people have made it out to be,” Isaacs said.