Last week’s Speaker, Dave Fitzwilliam gave a talk about “The Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers” and reviewed two books related to the topic, “The Collapse of Lehman Brothers” by Lawrence McDonald (2009) and “the Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure” by John Allison (2012).

Last week’s breakfast speaker was the new (as of last September) Polish Ambassador to the United States, Ryszard Schnept. He pointed out how recently times had changed in Poland. It was not until the election of Lech Walesa in 1989 that everyone could finally say: “We, the people, of FREE POLAND”.

Poland is a small European country. In their past, the country’s Eastern borders had been annexed by Russia—their Western borders by Germany. After World War II, it was a Communist country for over forty years. Poland has the highest community of Catholics of any European country. Many Jews also lived in Poland, making that country the site of the holocaust of half the Jews lost during World War II. The ambassador then told us that Poland is the only European country with a positive (albeit small) financial growth figure. Their largest export is automobile parts to Spain for its car, the Saab—as well for other cars such as the Citroen exported through Spain.

Last week’s breakfast speaker was Mike Easterling, a “Baby Boomer”, one of the millions of babies born between 1946 and 1964. He eventually will be in the ranks of retirees who outnumber the working population—a dramatic shift in all of the world’s communities.

For his livelihood—and for the fun of it —Mike Easterling is a humorist in the corporate world. What can humor do? It helps rapport, gains attention, makes you stand out, makes presentation memorable, and makes people listen. Above all, Mike emphasizes getting people to laugh at themselves and the situation—not at others.

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