Edward J. Strafaci ~ Academic Blog

Many people hang their success in life on their IQ level. Yet, there is something that can be an even stronger predictor of success. We all know really smart people who are limited in their lives because they just don’t play well with others. They have high IQs, but horribly low EQs. The good news is that while your IQ may be a bit harder to change, anyone can work on developing a better EQ. Why should you care about enhancing your EQ? Because people who have developed their emotional intelligence enjoy more success in every area of life: social, emotional, physical, and financial. This is because life almost always involves interacting in some way with other people, and high EQ people just make each interaction more rewarding for everyone. While EQ isn’t always easy to change quickly, with a bit of effort, most people can improve their emotional intelligence with coaching, self-introspection, and feedback from others. The other good news is that  EQ naturally increases with ...

Negative energy can be found almost everywhere. There are people complaining about life constantly, practicing bad habits and bringing you down. The emotions they spread influence your thoughts and actions in a bad way so avoiding the sources of negative energy is obligatory if you want to be more successful. Everyone can be easily affected by negative emotions and the only exceptions are people who learned how to deal with it. These 14 Ways will show you how positive people handle negativity so you can apply it to your life. 1. They create happiness from within. Happy people don’t base their happiness on external stimulations. They realize once the stimulant is gone, their mood would be ruined. Instead, they look for internal sources of positive energy and practice mindfulness. 2. They practice positive thinking. Thoughts influence your actions, so, if you think negatively, there’s no bright future ahead of you. Positive people don’t believe in the excuses their minds ...

Today is Earth Day and more than one billion people across the globe are expected to celebrate with environmentally friendly events. Among those will be the leaders of 160 countries, who will sign the Paris Climate Agreement today. But what exactly is Earth Day? Here's what you need to know: When did Earth Day start? The first Earth Day celebration took place 46 years ago, in 1970, after a devastating oil spill in America brought environmental issues to the forefront of public consciousness. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 22 million people across the country came out in support of environmental reform. "That day left a permanent impact on the politics of America," wrote Gaylord Nelson in the April 1980 edition of the EPA Journal. "It forcibly thrust the issue of environmental quality and resources conservation into the political dialogue of the nation. "It showed political and opinion leadership of the country that the people c...

We might be repeating the mistakes of the 1999 bubble and crash The stock market may be in danger of repeating some very bad history. The current market environment is looking a whole lot like the 1998-1999 stock market bubble, and the crash of 2000 may not be far behind, said Michael Hartnett of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "It could simply be 1998/99 all over again. After all, a 'speculative blow-off' in asset prices is one logical conclusion to a world dominated by central bank liquidity, technological disruption & wealth inequality," he wrote in a note Sunday. Hartnett, BAML's chief investment strategist, thinks the emerging-market problems and subsequent global response reflect a similar set of circumstances in the late 1990s. Here's the chain of events via Hartnett (emphasis added): Back then, as could be the case today, a bull market & a US-led economic recovery was rudely interrupted by a crisis in Emerging Markets. The cris...

When it comes to the first-quarter earnings season, which is expected to be lousy, it’s not really about what numbers companies report. What matters is what CEOs say about the future prospects for their firms and global economy. It’s all about “guidance,” or the outlook commentary from top executives. The more upbeat and positive the outlook, the better it is for the stock market.  In short, as guidance goes, so goes the market. “Let's hope (CEOs)  aren’t timid,” says  Bob Doll , chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management . First-quarter earnings are expected to be subpar, with analysts projecting profit of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies to contract roughly 8%, which would mark a third straight quarter of negative growth, says Thomson Reuters  I/B/E/S . The earnings recession is being driven by well-known headwinds, ranging from a once-booming U.S. dollar, the steep plunge of oil and slow glo...