Mountain Views News, Sierra Madre Edition [Pasadena] Saturday, April 21, 2018

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS

Mountain Views-News Saturday, April 21, 2018 

FAMILY MATTERS By Marc Garlett

Jeff’s Book Pics By Jeff Brown


The Confidence Code for 
Girls: Taking Risks, Messing 
Up, and Becoming Your 
Amazingly Imperfect, Totally 
Powerful Self by Katty, Claire 
Shipman, JillEllyn Riley, Nan 
Lawson 

 Girls can rule the world—all 
they need is confidence. This 
empowering, entertaining guide 
from the bestselling authors of 
The Confidence Code gives girls 
the essential yet elusive code to 
becoming bold, brave, and fearless.
It’s a paradox familiar to parents 
everywhere: girls are achieving like 
never before, yet they’re consumed 
with doubt on the inside. Girls 
worry constantly about how they 
look, what people think, whether 
to try out for a sports team or 
school play, why they aren’t getting 
“perfect” grades, and how many 
likes and followers they have online.
Katty Kay and Claire Shipman use 
cutting-edge science and research, 
as well as proven methods of 
behavioral change, to reach girls 
just when they need it the most—
the tween and teen years.Packed 
with graphic novel strips; appealing 
illustrations; fun lists, quizzes, and 
challenges; and true stories from 
tons of real girls.The book teaches 
girls to embrace risk, deal with 
failure, and be their most authentic 
selves.If you or the girl in your 
life loved The Gutsy Girl or Rad 
American Women A-Z, you’ll love 
this.

Home Fire: A Novel by Kamila 
Shamsie

 “Ingenious… Builds to one of the 
most memorable final scenes I’ve 
read in a novel this century.” —The 
New York Times. The suspenseful 
and heartbreaking story of an 
immigrant family driven to pit love 
against loyalty, with devastating 
consequences.Isma is free. After 
years of watching out for her 
younger siblings in the wake of 
their mother’s death, she’s accepted 
an invitation from a mentor in 
America that allows her to resume 
a dream long deferred. But she can’t 
stop worrying about Aneeka, her 
beautiful, headstrong sister back in 
London, or their brother, Parvaiz, 
who’s disappeared in pursuit of his 
own dream, to prove himself to the 
dark legacy of the jihadist father he 
never knew. When he resurfaces 
half a globe away, Isma’s worst fears 
are confirmed.Then Eamonn enters 
the sisters’ lives. Son of a powerful 
political figure, he has his own 
birthright to live up to—or defy. Is 
he to be a chance at love? The means 
of Parvaiz’s salvation? Suddenly, 
two families’ fates are inextricably, 
devastatingly entwined, in this 
searing novel that asks: What 
sacrifices will we make in the name 
of love?

The Blackhouse: The Lewis 
Trilogy by Peter May

 From acclaimed author and 
dramatist Peter May comes the Barry 
Award-winning The Blackhouse, 
the first book in the Lewis Trilogy-
-a riveting mystery series set on the 
Isle of Lewis in Scotland’s Outer 
Hebrides. When a grisly murder 
occurs on the Isle of Lewis that bears 
similarities to a brutal killing on 
the mainland, Edinburgh detective 
and native islander Fin Macleod is 
dispatched to the Outer Hebrides 
to investigate, embarking at the 
same time on a voyage into his own 
troubled past.As Fin reconnects with 
the people and places of his tortured 
childhood, the desolate but beautiful 
island and its ancient customs once 
again begin to assert their grip on his 
psyche. Every step toward solving the 
case brings Fin closer to a dangerous 
confrontation with the dark events 
of the past that shaped--and nearly 
destroyed--his life.The 3 book reviews 
are from Amazon.Com


SUCCESSION 
PLANNING WHEN NOT 
ALL OF YOUR KIDS 
ARE IN THE FAMILY 
BUSINESS

Owning your own business can be a great 
endeavor that takes a lot of passion and drive. 
Many small business owners focus on the day-
to-day management and growth of the business, 
rather than thinking about a time when he or 
she may not be in the business. This is a far 
too common mistake. Future plans for your 
enterprise are even more important when one 
child works in the business but the others do not. 
Keeping the peace among your children after you 
are no longer able to participate in the business 
requires careful balancing of your estate plan. 

Planning Ahead

Before considering whether or not to pass your 
business to the next generation -- as opposed 
to selling it to a third party -- make sure at least 
one of your children is capable of (and willing 
to) running the company. Once that has been 
established, then early planning is the next step 
in ensuring the best outcome. Ideally, succession 
planning should start at least five years before you 
decide to retire. And because life is unpredictable 
-- you may become incapacitated or pass away 
without warning -- the best time to start planning 
is now. There are several things to consider when 
planning for your small business if not all of your 
children are involved. It is important to keep in 
mind that treating your children fairly does not 
necessarily mean you will treat them equally when 
it comes to your estate planning. For this reason, 
being proactive will make sure your desires will 
be followed even after you can no longer run your 
company.

Factors to Consider

First, minimizing the risk of conflict among your 
children once you are gone requires a mindful 
weighing of your estate, your successor trustee, 
and other aspects of your estate plan to ensure 
your wishes are recorded and can be easily 
followed. 

 Second, you must consider the value of the 
business as well as control and management 
issues. This can be done by clearly identifying the 
roles and responsibilities of your successor in a 
written plan. 

 Third, if you have a sizeable estate, there 
are financial strategies that a knowledgeable 
estate planning professional can use to equalize 
distributions. This can also be done with other 
assets such as IRAs, 401(k)s, investment real 
estate, life insurance, as well as stocks, bonds, and/
or mutual funds. 

 Finally, an estate planning professional can 
analyze how the business is capitalized in order 
to ensure your estate plan is fair when it comes to 
your children -- whatever you consider fair to be 
in your particular circumstance. Notably, how a 
person’s business is organized has a direct effect 
on how it is treated, taxed, and administered upon 
his or her death.

Don’t Leave It To Chance

Ignoring or delaying estate planning for your 
small business is not financially prudent. As a 
successful business owner who already has the 
next generation involved in the company, you 
must take charge of the future so that the fruit of 
your hard work can continue on. More important, 
clearly writing down your desires will help keep 
your family from bickering -- a likely result if you 
just leave the business’s future to chance. Give us 
a call today, so we can craft an estate plan that 
will allow your business to continue to thrive for 
generations to come.

A local attorney and father, Marc Garlett is on a 
mission to help parents protect what they love most. 
His office is located at 55 Auburn Avenue, Sierra 
Madre, CA 91024. Schedule an appointment to 
sit down and talk about ensuring a legacy of love 
and financial security for your family by calling 
626.587.3058 or visit www.GarlettLaw.com for 
more information.


All Things By Jeff Brown

2016/ONE STATISTIC

In 2016, gun homicides made up 74.5 percent of all 
homicides in the United States-the highest share 
of any year in the past century,an analysis of the 
federal data reveals.The share of total homicides 
committed by gun was even higher than in the 
early 1920’s, at the start of prohibition,and the early 
1990s ,at the peak of that decade’s crack-fueled 
crime wave.The Washington post.

BUSINESS TODAY

The latest on Business News, Trends and 
Techniques


By La Quetta M. Shamblee, MBA

WHO ARE THE GIVERS & TAKERS IN YOUR LIFE? 

For entrepreneurs it is very helpful to identify 
individuals involved in your life as either a help 
or a hinderance to your progress and success. It 
important to distinguish those who in your circle 
who are truly supportive, in contrast to people who 
are simple involved with you to benefit from what 
they may be able to get from you. Entrepreneurs 
have enough burden to bear without taking on the 
load of providing benefits to people lurking on the 
sidelines to extract what they can for themselves, 
without making some type of reciprocal 
contribution. 

 The ability to distinguish givers from takers is 
a great starting point for entrepreneurs to protect 
themselves from these parasites. Several years ago 
I was introduced to a simple exercise that has made 
it easy for me to identify and categorize the “givers” 
and “takers” in my life. These are the individuals 
who I have some level of personal interaction with 
on an ongoing or routine basis. The nature of the 
relationships or interactions place me in a potential 
position of vulnerability if I am not crystal clear 
about the intentions of those who may have the 
greatest impact on my progress and success.

 I’ll refer to the exercise as the “List of Givers & 
Takers”:

 Step #1: Take a hard copy or digital pad and 
draw two vertical lines down the middle to create 
three columns. Make the first column to the left 
the widest, and the other two need to be large 
enough to place a checkmark (.).

 Step #2: In the first column, list the name of 
everyone in your life with whom you have close 
contact, ongoing involvement or routine affiliation. 
These individuals may be spouses, family, other 
loved ones, friends, business associates or anyone 
you consider to be important in your life due to 
how often or how deeply they are connected to 
you.

 Step #3: Place the following headings in columns 
2 and 3, respectively: Givers, Takers

 Step #4: After completing Step 1 thru 3, starting 
from the top of the list, go through without 
hesitation and being honest with yourself, place 
a checkmark in the “Giver” or “Taker” column 
next to the name of each person on your list. This 
checkmark must be based on the actual dynamic 
that individual has with you, not based on how 
much you love, respect or enjoy the company of 
the person.

 Do they sometimes pick up the tab on a lunch 
outing? … likely a giver. Are they the ones that 
show up at the family potluck with a car full of 
people, yet bring three liters of soda from the 
Dollar Store and empty containers to take leftovers 
home? .. probably a taker. Perhaps it’s a business 
colleague who has benefited professionally or 
financially from your business referrals, but has 
never provided a referral that has resulted in any 
measurable benefit to you … probably a taker.

 Hopefully this exercise will provide a level of 
clarity and awakening for you as it did for me the 
first time I did it. This exercise is now an annual 
ritual with me, and not surprisingly, it helps me to 
identify those with whom I choose to truly have in 
my circle. By identifying the Givers, I am able to 
collaborate, partner and share ideas and resources 
with the relief that it will be reciprocated at some 
point in our dealings with each other. 

 Also, I continue to interact with, be cordial, and 
even spend time socially with some of the Takers 
on my list, but I’ve also quietly and without fanfare, 
eliminated them from involvement in anything 
that has to do with my professional or business 
endeavors – unless of course, it’s clear there is 
something for me to take, up front.

WHAT MAKES YOU AN AMERICAN? Photos by Gina Long

Told with humor and with important resonances to today, The Immigrant is based on a true story of a 
young Jew who fled the pogroms of Czarist Russia in 1909 and pushed his banana cart into the tiny Baptist 
community of Hamilton, Texas. Given shelter by a childless older couple, he sent for his wife, raised a 
family, and made this town his home. A moving story of parents 
and children, newcomers and natives, Christians and Jews, and the 
realization of the American Dream. Learn more and buy tickets at 

http://sierramadreplayhouse.org


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