In a previous blog I mentioned a new leadership philosophy that I’ve begun to study. It’s an involved process of small processes affecting larger ones.

I’m going to proceed slowly and reveal its entirety over time. In the upcoming months I’ll be able to pull it all together for you.

In that process, here are some basic concepts that I’d like you to think about:

• Don’t take everything so seriously. Laughter is the natural response to truth.
• Know that you are perfect as you are, just as everyone else is. You are right where you need to be.
• When asked to do something or give feedback, it should be up to you to accept or decline the invitation.
• Help to change something that affects someone only if they ask you to. It is fine to offer help, but be prepared for acceptance or rejection.
• Don’t tell others how to do their jobs unless asked. If you decide to, be prepared for the consequences.
• Don’t be judgmental; accept yourself and others as you are.
• Release yourself and others from your own interpretations and perceptions. It is an act of harm to hold an interpreted perception of another, unless it’s been requested.
• Live in the here and now, although it’s fine to dream of the future and rethink the past.
• Listen closely. Be careful of accepting others’ interpretations of you. If you accept the good, you are forced to accept the bad. (Others are projecting their own perceptions on you.)

All of this is simply a hint of the new leadership process that I’ll share in more detail as we get into 2010. For now it is food for thought.

All around us we are witnessing dramatic changes: changes in the domestic economy, changes in the global economy, impending “reform” of the health care system.

The old adage holds true: The one constant in life is change.

Change is, of course, unsettling. We become secure in tried and true ways to doing business and some of the routines of our lives can be comforting.

Nevertheless, there is another adage in which I firmly believe: With change comes opportunity.

So, however government might alter the landscape of our industry, Nueterra Healthcare is nimble enough to find the new opportunities that will undoubtedly emerge. We are going to continue to have opportunities for professionals at every level of our business and we will continue to welcome talented individuals into our corporate family.

Social networking is certainly changing the face of business and especially in the area of recruiting. More and more business people are taking advantage of networks such as Linkedin and Facebook to get directly in front of key audiences. I call your attention to a report that summarizes how social networking is changing the face of corporate recruiting, allowing companies to make direct contacts with qualified candidates rather than going through expensive search firms.

This is just one area where Nueterra can thrive in the changing marketplace. I’d love to hear your thoughts on other areas where we can shine.

I have recently returned from a week-long retreat where I was introduced to some of the newest perspectives on personal and leadership development that can come to play in all aspects of life.

This philosophy merges the arts and sciences, the physical and the metaphysical – ideas that underlie its title: “A Natural Philosophy For Life and Leadership.”

I was with six other men at the retreat, which was held on the Pacific coast of Mexico at an outpost with no electricity. That helped us get back into the natural rhythms of the earth, sunrise and sunset, and helped us to embrace the bare essentials of life.

I plan to discuss some of my ideas that have resulted from the retreat in upcoming blogs. Here is the basis:

We are all similar beings, we share more things in common than we realize. We have different points of view because we are individuals, but the things that seem to separate us the most are illusions.  The universe works in a way that reinforces the similarities of individuals and groups – all are created and do things in basically the same way.  By learning to understand the limits of our personal structures they can be deconstructed, thus releasing a person to live happily in the present at peace in the external world.

This experience has had a big impact on me – I believe this to be the pinnacle of thought regarding leadership philosophy and training. It is not inconsistent with anyone’s religious beliefs. I think that as we mature as a society, this is going to trump all other leadership dogmas.

Not only are its tenets applicable to the business world, but they should help people with their personal goals, with their families and with everything they do.

My intent is to introduce what I have discovered to help others and do all the good I can by all the means I have every opportunity I get the chance.

This way of looking at life has the potential to make life more meaningful within the realm of your existing beliefs.

More to come.

So are we in an economic recovery or not?  It’s hard to judge when you compare the six-month performance of the stock market versus the dismal employment statistics.

Since hitting its bear market closing of 677 last March, the S&P 500 has risen just over 50 percent.  Historically the S&P 500 stock index experienced the strongest bull market in the last 75 years, from 1983 to 2000.

The S&P 500 gained 15 percent from July through September of this year. There’s only one three-month period in the last 10 years that produced a better performance. If you believe the stock market, we are currently seven months into what looks like a turnaround many economists are now saying.

Warren Buffet, one of America’s most trusted entrepreneurs and investors, predicted in September 2005 that in the upcoming 10 years the S&P 500 would return less than 10 percent. So far, in the first four of those years, it has lost about 1.5 percent per year. He’s not incorrect so far.

The national unemployment rate is 9.8 percent, the highest it’s been since 1983. More dismally, in metropolitan Detroit the unemployment rate is 17 percent. Conventional wisdom says employment is a lagging indicator of a recovery, while a surging stock market can be a leading indicator. Which begs the question is a jobless recovery any kind of recovery at all?

In the past, economists have said that the stock market generally anticipates economic conditions by about six months.  Yet, today we have respected pundits who are predicting the demise of capitalism itself.  I’ll let you be the judge.

I wish we could measure the economy on the basis of professional golf winnings. In September Tiger Woods earned $10.8 million. The $800,000 portion was for finishing second in the Tour Championship in Atlanta and the $10 million was for winning the FedEx Cup for his performance over the entire PGA season. That compares pretty favorably to the $7.6 million combined that Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus earned in their entire careers.

The “process” of health care reform is now heading toward a crescendo in Congress. Might I be so bold to point out a few fallacies that our elected representatives have neglected to recognize?

What is so transparent to anyone outside Congress is this business that the reform bill will be budget-neutral. The bill’s sponsors would have us believe that the government can offset the added costs of expanded coverage by cutting fraud and abuse from Medicare.

If those costs are so great why haven’t we gone after them already?  I think the answer is that the size of those savings isn’t as great as President Obama would have us believe. If so, we would have already recovered them.

If a health care bill is passed and it includes expanded coverage and is sold to the American people as budget-neutral, it will hurt the very people that the bill intends to help.

American democracy has had 233 years to evolve, and because of our free-enterprise economy the vast majority of Americans enjoy comfortable lives. Many of them are affluent enough to create an entirely separate health care system, divorced from Medicare and Medicaid regulations. If 40 million to 50 million new people come into the current health care system, do you really believe that the Baby Boomers are going to wait behind them for care?

Of course they won’t. They will become “customers” of the concierge medicine programs that are already coming into being. Providers are already offering well-funded patients places at the head of the line where they have access to the best physicians in the country. The movement has already started and it’s an entirely new business model. Health care will be marketed to affluent patients on the basis of being able to avoid the bottleneck that is sure to develop when 50 million new patients begin knocking on the office doors of primary care physicians. We don’t have enough of them today and tomorrow they will be inundated. The government will, in effect, be creating two separate and unequal health care systems.

Can you say “rationing?” That’s exactly what it will be for the people whose care today in the emergency rooms of American hospitals is of better quality than what they will get under tomorrow’s “reformed” health care system.

I’ve been pondering a few questions lately.

If all elected Democrats and Republicans say that they are opposed to deficits, why do we have such a huge federal budget deficit?

If all of them are opposed to high taxes, why are our taxes so high?

You and I don’t propose and approve the federal budget. We don’t have the constitutional authority to vote on government appropriations. We don’t write the tax code. We don’t set monetary policy, nor do we set fiscal policy.

Most of that is debated, voted and eventually approved by 435 representatives and 100 senators in the U.S. Congress. They consider and approve appointments to the Federal Reserve, which seems to have a virtual free rein in setting our country’s monetary policies.

There is not a single domestic problem that you can’t trace back to those 535 people. If the budget is in the red, the tax code is unfair or we have servicemen in Iraq – it’s all because Congress gave the go-ahead.

Don’t let our congressmen and senators pass the blame off to anybody else; they can’t shift it to bureaucrats because they, in effect, hired them. The responsibility for our economy today rests firmly at their feet. Don’t let them become complacent in their jobs. They work for us. Keep them accountable and vote them out when they turn a deaf ear to our concerns. Just say no to professional politicians.

I find that my enthusiasm for being in business in today’s world growing by the day along with the privilege that I have to be able to help other people attain better lives. I am blessed.

As I travel the country to grow our business and to raise funds for our foundations and draw attention to the people who are living in desperate straits around the world, I am so amazed at what a rich nation we live in and how much we have personally. Even the poorest of the poor in the United States are so much better off than the poor in other parts of the world.

We take for granted the rare privilege it is to be a citizen of the United States in the 21^st century. For example, anyone with a telephone at any time of the day can make a call to get an ambulance to his or her doorstep. Likewise, you can summon the police to your door at any time of day. By contrast, in the developing world where poverty is rampant, such concepts are unheard of.  Americans are in many ways the luckiest people in the world.

Since the middle of the 19^th century every generation of Americans has embraced a new wave of technology that has improved their lives immeasurably. My mother is 95 years old. In her life she has witnessed the development of the automobile and has seen men land on the moon. I asked her recently what advice she would give to young people today.

“Don’t think too small,” was her response.

Our children have such amazing opportunities. They have embraced so many technological leaps in the last 20 years that their parents have a hard time keeping up. It is mind-boggling to imagine what they will be able to contribute to society in a few years.

Likewise, even in today’s economy, there is so much opportunity for a business like Nueterra Healthcare to thrive. We’re operating in a worldwide economy; our vital signs are strong; we’re here and we’re making a difference. That is thrilling.

But to put things in perspective, more than 30,000 children die each day, needlessly, because they live in dire poverty. That’s why those of us who are benefiting from prosperity have an obligation to help the less fortunate. Their numbers are daunting. Yet, I remain encouraged.

We are within one decade of reaching a tipping point where so many people will be aware of the world’s needs, that we will finally make real and lasting progress. The problems are massive, but we are learning how to make a difference.