We take a lot of inventions for granted and never stop to think about how they came about. Barbed wire is a case in point, although I do happen to know that the patent for the barbed wire we are familiar with today, was taken out in the US in 1874.

It was very popular amongst the cattle ranchers who wished to have an efficient way of keeping their herd in. Since then, it’s been put to use in a multitude of situations.

Anyone who has ever tried to climb over a fence made of barbed wire will testify to the difficulties. The only thing you can really do to overcome it is to cut thru it. All the parks authorities in my neighborhood, when I was a kid, put a roll of the wire along the tops of the park walls. That was to stop us kids breaking in after the park gates were shut.

That deterred us, there’s nothing worse than a cut from barbed wire. It doesn’t just cut thru the skin, it rips it too and it necessitates a tetanus shot.

Nothing says keep out quite like barbed wire. It’s a symbol of defense, it’s closest buddies being Alsatian dogs and searchlights. It makes you think of prison and military installations. It conjures up an image in a movie for me. The last scene of the original version of World War I film,  All Quiet On The Western Front is very moving.

The main character, Paul has been wounded in battle and he lies dying in his trench. He sees a pretty butterfly just above him, fluttering on top of the barbed wire. It’s just out of reach, Paul stretches for it but falls back. He has died, and the butterfly on the wire is the last thing he sees.

It’s possible to just see this modern invention in a negative light. It represents ugliness and protectionism. On the other hand, when you think of its original purpose, barbed wire does keep livestock nice and safe. We don’t want cows wandering up and down the highway, after all. It also keeps thieves and vagabonds out of property and keeps them in prison. There is another movie image that springs to mind.

In the Great Escape, Steve McQueen is trying to get away on his motor cycle and ends up entangled in barbed wire. It even managed to stop him!

One of my aunts has always had beautiful skin. She is very pretty in general and dresses well and has great manners. She is one of those people that you want to spend time with.

I remember as a little girl I would always want to sit by her a family gatherings because she had a way of making you feel good about yourself. My mom always said that this aunt had many beauty secrets that she used to keep her skin looking so nice.

One day I asked my mom if she knew any of the beauty secrets that my aunt had. She told me that I would have to ask my aunt.

One Sunday afternoon when I was about thirteen years old we were visiting with this aunt. I had some acne on my chin and forehead. I asked my aunt if she had any beauty secrets that could help me with my complexion.

She laughed and took me in her bedroom and showed me that she washed her face very well every morning and evening with soap and water. Then she would put on face cream. She said that her main beauty secrets were to always keep your skin clean and to have your best smile on your face when you put on your make up each morning. As a thirteen year old I thought this was silly.

This aunt continues to be my favorite. She is getting quite elderly now, but she still has very nice skin and people still enjoy spending time with her. There are many times when I am putting on my make up in the morning that I remember her comment about having your best smile on when you are getting made up for the day.

It took me several years to realize that she is right. Her beauty secrets are being friendly, smiling at everyone and truly listening to others when they are talking. Her beauty comes from within. She genuinely likes people and cares about each person that she is talking to. This is why it is so pleasant to be around her.

The glow to her complexion comes from her inner spirit, not some beauty secrets that you can buy in the store.

When I look at fashion magazines or see advertisements on television about different skin care products or make ups I am rarely convinced to purchase anything. I think the main reason is the lack of personality, warmth or caring that the models portray.

My aunt is not beautiful by most standards, but I think she would be able to sell beauty secrets to anyone by her winning personality.

My life was rather dull. It’s not exactly that I wasn’t happy, at least it wasn’t that there wasn’t anything to be happy about. As a successful entreprenuer, I enjoy life more than most people do.

I put in a little more, pursuing an mba from a prestigious eastern university, worked more than many people would have found humanly possible, and used a professional, outgoing demeanor at all times to ensure that I had plenty of contacts with other successful attractive people. But some how, despite all my hard work and determined success, I was still unhappy.

That’s when I decided that what I needed was a foreign affair.

I flew to Russia the very next weekend. Officially, the purpose was business, but in reality, love was utmost in my mind. You see, I’ve always been a go getter – in my personal life, as well as my professional life. I don’t even draw a distinction because in all things, the most important thing is decide what you want and go for it.

A foreign affair began at a high-powered business meeting. Her name was Tanya, and she was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. Not just her mysterious, slavic features or her lush black hair, but the way she held herself. Everything about her radiated an aura of confidence and mystery.

You see, a foreign affair with a foreign woman is different from one with an American. There are cultural barriers, language barriers, and the matter of a whole different way of looking at the world than you have.

My Russian was poor, and her English was not better, so on our first date at the embassy party, we could only speak with the aid of my manservant and translator, Johann. But our mutual attraction was evident, and the language and cultural differences gave us something to overcome.

By the time she could speek fluent English and I could speak fluent Russian, we felt like we had accomplished something and we both had learned so much about eachother. A foreign affair had become an international love.

If you’re bored with your life, even if you’re as successful as I am, there are many things you can do. A new hobby, such as golf or philanthropy can be a powerful antidote to weltshmerz, and of course there are the pleasures of the written word and of the theatre.

But there are few pleasures as great as the pleasure of a foreign affair.

If you are a part of an accounting or auditing department of any major or even minor company, you would probably have heard of a balanced score card. What is a balanced score card you ask?

Well, if you aren’t aware of the term itself, you would surely be aware of the principle behind it. Remember your SAT scores? Rather than being absolute values like say 95 out of a hundred, they were typically presented in percentiles.

This is one instance of a balanced score card. Another instance could be the percentile rank of your status in a class as compared to a percentage rank.

Confused? Well, it is not exactly an easy concept to explain, but allow me to try. When anything needs to rated, there is usually a criteria for the rating. In the older days, when things were more linear, this happened as a linear calculation.

But, as the business environment and businesses themselves got more and more complex, other variables started influencing business operations. In order to arrive at the true picture, these too needed to be taken into consideration before a proper analysis could be made. This was the concept behind a balanced score card.

To take a real life example let us assume that the sales figures of a particular product are being evaluated across the world. Now the sales would surely not be consistent across the world. But the sales managers would surely have tried.

There could be external business environmental factors influencing the sales in one or more regions. For instance, the business climate in Brazil could have been worse than the climate in the US.

At the same time, the resources available in the US could have been greater than in Latin America. Similarly, the market in China could have been impacted by the presence of low cost me too operators. While the technology incompatibility could have made the product dearer in markets such as Japan.

Now no rational manager (yes! There are a few of them around!) would expect the sales figures from all over the globe to be consistent. Which is why a tool such as a balanced score card comes into the picture.

 A balanced score card weighs the factors influencing an action (in the above case sales) against the availability of factors that help or hinder it. Which is why, when a balanced score card analysis is done, the sales figures for Latin America could prove to be better than those for America due to the weightage awarded to the factors influencing sales.

A balanced score card is just one way to do so. There are others as well. But their objectives are consistent. Think of a balanced score card as some sort of a handicap for resource and opportunity poorer markets.