VIEW POINTE PROPERTIES (2)

Business Description

   View Pointe Properties, LLC began as a service oriented company dedicated to help clients who do not meet conventional requirements, having high FICO scores, excellent credit, clear of bankruptcies, excessive debt, histories of default, and often incapable of raising funds for the customary twenty per cent down. It was structured as a means of solving issues which prevent them from gaining ownership in real estate. We formed the service organization to help people gain equity through a lease option contract which gives them three years to pay towards ownership, accruing equity with each principal payment, which is deducted from their cost after three years, and makes it easier for them to refinance, building up their credit history and gaining ownership of their home. We realized it takes a team of professional people to make this possible, which is part of View Pointe Properties efforts to gather investor partners, which make their profit on the shared interest and initial consideration presented at the beginning of the lease option agreement. Our business is unique in that regard, that we offer a professional collaboration of time, talents, funds, and guidance to help them overcome past errors and mistakes. We formed View Pointe Properties as a 401K LLC, which is set up to reinvest profits into real estate acquisition, to establish a retirement fund for the members. Dr. Fredric Cook and his wife, Debra Cook have successfully built Park City Music for the last fifteen years, which brings in income day to day, but does not create a retirement income. View Pointe Properties 401K, LLC is the vehicle which will gain equity, income properties, and funds for retirement.   Although we live in Park City, where the average income is higher than our neighboring Salt Lake County populace, there are still individuals who need to overcome challenges, and as far as we know, there is no other group set up to help them at this point in time. This is our mission, to make it possible for more people to gain home ownership, gain self-esteem and confidence in their ability to be responsible for their condition, and not rely on government hand outs or bail outs. This is our way of assisting our clients gaining worthwhile values in their lives, and setting an example to their families, friends, and neighbors that it is possible. It is our dream that within the next five to ten years, we will have a strong, vibrant company serving less fortunate people, helping them to increase their self-worth, their innate abilities, as well as providing them opportunities to become self-reliant, self-sufficient and somewhat free of fears that crop up when we are subject to the will of others, employers, family members, and those of us who thrive by taking advantage of their weaknesses and naïveté.

Services

   Initially, we hold an interview with the client, gathering a brief history of their situation, how they came to be where they are, and what their current state of mind, health, and wealth is. This is not an interview designed to be critical of their situation, but rather gathering a view of what they understand, what challenges they are having, and what they’ve done to confront those challenges. We ask what resources they have, a job, an income source, some savings, some credit available, and if they have family members who can help them in whatever capacity they are able to. It is meant to produce insight into their predicament, not directed to making them feel bad, angry or in any way hostile to themselves or others. It is not an indictment, but an indication of what available solutions exist. We are not here to make anyone wrong, or blame anyone for their condition, but rather focus on positive choices which can help them recover, gain stability, and prosper in life. We are not psychologists, just interested, compassionate people who offer help, without draining their current resources. 
    Secondly, we offer assistance to landlords, investors, and private lenders by establishing a screening process suitable to their needs, guiding people to adjust to each individual’s situation. We have resources to set up rent collection services to collect monthly rents automatically from either a client’s bank account or credit card. The service we currently use guarantees protection against credit card fraud, and is accepted by major credit card companies.

The Market

Park City:    Demand is greater in a ski resort community for suitable housing, and therefore, there is less flexibility with market values, however, there are occasional owners who may have purchased properties before the 2008, 2009 bust in real estate values, who are interested in selling, even less than market rates. There are also distressed properties that come available which can be purchased at a discount. Investors are attracted to Park City real estate, but know they will ultimately pay more per square foot than Salt Lake County properties. The question is, “how much rent is customary?” We have sources to clarify and resolve that question. The best news is Park City has a wealth of industry professionals who are interested in helping one another understand and create solutions. Park City has been a magnet attracting innovative and creative people to our mountain resort, many of which live here year around. Although there are many realtors in Park City, they are limited by a variety of regulations levied by lending institutions, and by clientele who can afford luxury properties. They do not have the time or desire to focus their attention on buyers who cannot qualify for conventional loans. It is estimated that 25-35% of people seeking home ownership fall outside the parameters and will welcome our team to help them gain equity and ownership.
Salt Lake City:
   Supply is greater in Salt Lake County, and investors have been actively purchasing properties there, which make the area more competitive. Because the size of the area is much greater, they have more time to invest in securing and selling properties. As we expand our network of landlords and private lenders to Salt Lake City, we will supply them with resources and vetting services which will save them a major percentage of screening buyers and tenants.
    It may be possible that a greater percentage of people in Salt Lake City fall into the similar plight, not having sufficient means to gain home ownership. We will reach out to community groups to find these people, who like those who have given up the task of seeking work, may have reached a foregone conclusion that it is impossible to work out the problems of securing their own home. What has happened in Park City will eventually happen in Salt Lake City that the word will go out that View Pointe Properties, LLC is here to help you bypass the usual channels and find creative solutions to gaining home ownership. These are the people who make up our targeted market.
   When they come to us, we educate our clients in a variety of ways of overcoming the barriers that have surrounded them in this process.

Competition

   There are property management companies who address some of the issues, but take little time or effort to consult their buyer-clients in available means to that end. Often, the good managers have most of their attention on providing the best service to handle their properties, and so the client is left to his/her own devices. The concept is to place their emphasis on the quality of the work done, and exchanging that service for funds directly. Our concept is to question, collaborate and come to workable solutions. That’s how they get referrals, primarily on the healthy satisfaction from their clients. Their attention is directed to maintaining a viable facility for them to live in. Our attention is on creating a client interested in finding and discovering effective solutions that are exchanged by fees.    It places our clients in a positive mindset to be able to continue making positive solutions. So, in many ways, we have little or no competition, because of the emphasis and importance we place on our services. Unlike a tradesman whose sole attention is on exchanging a product or service, our attention is to help our client gain more certainty, belief and practical knowledge s/he can build upon to confront and solve problems and issues. Unlike the tradesman who collects for products delivered, estimates and fees for labor costs, installation, and finishing services, our service is complementary, and the only payment we require is not hourly, daily, weekly, but the compensation we receive initially, and the monthly interest charged over the three year period. We know we can help people make adjustments in their lives that are intellectual property that they can retain for the rest of their lives, and that, to anyone is priceless.

Operations

   Operations are defined as the processes used to deliver our services to our clients, landlords, and equity partners. At this stage in our development, we have no employees, only independent contractors, who work part-time for us and have other sources of income. We only provide 1099s for our contractors, professionals, attorneys, CPAs, Limited Equity partner investors and members of our LLCs. There are two LLC organizations, View Pointe Properties 401K LLC, which is our retirement organization that reinvests all profits back to the organization, and View Pointe Real Estate, LLC which handles the execution of Lease Option Agreements, Tenant-Landlord contracts, and member acquisitions and distributions of profit. They are separate entities, one for retirement only, the other for profit.    At the start up stage, we work both companies from our home office and Park City Music. We have secured legal representation from Robert Saunders in Park City, Utah for contractual agreements, adjustments to our operating agreements for each entity, and Landlord contracts, tenant contracts, Lease Option Agreements, and creation of distribution agreements between equity partners, landlords, and members of each LLC.

Management Team

   Dr. Fredric Cook has been a businessman since 1975 when he opened, managed and taught at the Los Angeles Academy of Dramatic Art, sharing his knowledge and success as a professional theatre, film, television actor and director. He founded and was the Executive Director of the Alexander Repertory Company from 1977 to 1982.   He taught as an Associate Professor at Hunter College from1982-1985 developing a cross-over curriculum between theatre and film. When his wife gave birth to their two children, they moved back to Los Angeles to raise them, and resumed his film, theatre and television career until 1997 when his family moved to Park City. Upon discovering that there was no music store, he and his wife, Debra, and son, Aaron opened Park City Music that year.   This drew in musicians who wanted to share their knowledge with students. Dr. Cook completed his PhD at Rochville University in Sarasota, Florida and became the Executive Director of Utah Conservatory which was formed in 2000 and has grown with 22 instructors and 350 students. The idea for View Pointe Properties came up in 2010 when students needed help getting their families relocated to Park City. View Pointe Properties, 401K LLC was formed March 11, 2011. 

   Debra Cook has been a teacher and entrepreneur since the mid seventies, and has successful private studios in Provo, Utah and Hollywood, California. Debra co-founded National Realty Counselors, Inc. in 1990 (through 1995) thin Fort Lee, New Jersey. NRC does negotiations to reduce real estate and personal property taxes for commercial, industrial properties throughout the United States. Debra was responsible for office management, initial evaluations of properties, and property analysis. She was involved in some negotiations with clients such as Lever Brothers, Lipton Tea and National Starch & Chemical. As a voice teacher and professional singer, she collaborated with Seth Riggs, a well-known vocal performance coach who has had several Broadway and Hollywood performers as his students. Debra is a member of Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, who has performed on stage, film, television and opera, having completed seven seasons at Utah Opera. She has a master’s degree in music from Brigham Young University and has several of her students who have been given major scholarships at universities coast to coast. 

VIEW POINTE PROPERTIES

Executive Summary

    View Pointe Properties 401K, LLC was established to fill a void in the process of acquiring home ownership for those of us who do not qualify for conventional loans. There are people in trouble these days, with the number of foreclosures, short sales, abandoned properties, loss of jobs, lowered incomes, lowered credit scores, bankruptcies, divorces, and most of all, people who lose a major portion of their retirement because of high medical bills. These people, who have suffered losses and failures, are why we formed our company. We are putting together a team of industry professionals who are driven by the need to help people while they earn a living for themselves and their families. We began just a year ago and currently have a half dozen people who need our help. Word of mouth is getting out, and people are calling us.     Our first priority is to find limited equity partners; people who would like to get a decent return on their investment, currently 7+% and are willing to gain that over time, three to five years, if necessary. There are special people who have a desire to utilize their talents to benefit less fortunate of our neighborhood, who don’t want to give up their dream of pulling themselves out of despair, gaining some equity and being able to grow into a place where they can uplift themselves, and reject government bail outs, and even charity. Why do they have this posture? Because they want to recover what self-esteem they can muster, and they know it’s not by waiting for others to do something, but to find their own solutions and discover the actions they need to take to become whole, healthy and be able to have loving relationships with family and friends. Once we find limited partners, and are able to acquire property that we can either set up a lease option agreement or provide low income housing rentals, we have begun to help them help themselves. The very worst thing we could do, as many others have, is to be critical of them, and ignore the fire and drive they have, even if it is a wavering light, a sign of failure normally. It takes a village to raise a child. It takes good people who believe in people who can turn themselves in a positive direction and overcome the many “nay sayers” who relish in putting others down, so they can inflate their own pride and stature. 
    Our second priority is to find distressed properties, finding ways and means to prevent a homeowner losing his/her home. All too often, because they have fallen into financial delinquency, the system judges them, which causes some of them to just give up, because they are over-whelmed with the sheer number of losses they have sustained.
    Failure causes addictions. When someone cannot confront the many assaults that come with financial disasters, they try to escape from view, wanting to disappear to prevent an onslaught of criticism, negativity, blame and shame. For centuries families have supported one another through trying times. Why? Because of the love they have for each other. It is our goal to care for our clients as if we were family members, who are honest and sincere with each other,
    Not manipulating or controlling for a specific agenda to forward a parent’s, aunt’s, uncle’s needs. At the same time,
    However, we must insist that we don’t fall into traps of diverting our attention to our own needs over the concerns a brother, sister, mother, father, grandparents might have. We must retain our natural values, areas of our lives we cannot compromise. We must encourage each other to be responsible for our condition, our circumstances, and not be tempted to place blame on the weather, bad luck, or any of many distractions from the truth. 
    Our third priority is to find properties on the market which can be purchased at a discount, to provide opportunities to gain equity in the future. View Pointe Properties is set up to get comparable sales within a mile from the subject property, and to make offers which correspond with actual market values. We need to evaluate the length of time the property has been for sale, the condition of the property comparable to neighboring houses, as we need to factor in the cost of rehabilitating properties offered at a discount, and establish a range of recovery that will correspond with our income needs and wants.

TEN REASONS TO STUDY MUSIC

10 Reasons to Study Music

Music study develops the areas of the brain which are responsible for language and reasoning
Students who study music score higher of the SAT and other standardized tests, and receive higher grades in school over non-music students.
With music study, students learn the elements of detailed work towards creating an aesthetic result. Students learn to overcome challenges and to break work down into understandable units.
Discipline: Through music study, students learn the value of sustained effort to reach excellence.
Music provides an important avenue towards self-expression.
Performing music builds self-esteem.
Music study provides a gateway to appreciate, understand, and experience world cultures, traditions, and histories.

Music study and practice encourages creative thinking and artful problem solving, as well as the ability to see a viewpoint other than your own.
Making music is fun and rewarding.
Music amongst family and friends bring precious memories that last a lifetime.

MONOLOGUE INFORMATION

Monologue Information

    Why do monologues? To establish a communication between one viewpoint and another. Any text information falls under the classification of communication, including texts from stories, plays, films, and SONGS. All communication occurs between viewpoints, whether real or imaginary. It is the performer’s job to create identities and points of view, so that communication can occur.

   What is a monologue? It is an imaginary viewpoint creation from a source to a destination, and requires imaginative abilities to create those viewpoints. It is also more of a telling than a reading, as you are telling someone something, usually of increased importance, in order for something else to happen, a desired result of the communication. There is a point to the communication, a reason you are telling it, and a consequence of getting the message across.

What are the steps in a monologue? There are three steps: First, the act of SEEING what is in a text, independent of your own thoughts about it. See all of the thoughts and understand what they mean. Next, there is the step of RELATING the information to what you know about the communication, the situation (which you may have to imagine), the person you’re talking to, and the reason why you are communicating the message. The last step is to SIGNIFY, or to attach a degree of importance to the communication, usually dealing with why you’re delivering the communication. To add significance to the thoughts makes them special to a viewpoint, and to match your viewpoint to an imaginary character’s viewpoint is why you want to monologue your songs. The more you monologue them, the more certainty you receive, and the more you groove into the viewpoint of the character.
   Keep up the good work and be prepared always!

Dr. Fredric Cook

THE BENEFITS OF MUSIC EDUCATION

The Benefits of Music Education

Society / Life

Secondary students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances. – Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse Report.  Reported in Houston Chronicle, January 1998

“…Arts are a compelling solution to teen violence, certainly not the cause of it!” – Michael Greene, Recording Academy President and CEO at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, February 2000

Disruptive behavior of frequent skipping of classes , times in trouble, in-school suspensions, arrests and drop-outs total 12.14% of the school population compared with 8.08% of students involved with music classes. – NELS:88, second follow-up, 1992

“Many colleges view participation in the arts and music as a valuable experience…” according to the U.S. Department of Education.  In addition, one year of Visual and Performing Arts is recommended for college-bound high school students.  – Getting Ready for College Early: A Handbook for Parents of Students in Middle and Junior High School Years, U.S. Department of Education, 1997

The very best engineers and tech designers in the Silicon Valley are almost all practicing musicians.  – Grant Venerable, “The Paradox of the Silicon Savior” as reported in “The Case for Sequential Music Education in the Core Curriculum of the Public Schools,” The Center for the Arts in the Basic Curriculum, New York, 1989

The arts create jobs, increase the tax base, promote tourism and growth in related businesses and the overall quality of life for local cities and towns. This results in $3.4 billion in federal income taxes from nonprofit arts institutions and organizations each year. – American Arts Alliance Fact Sheet, October 1996

School / Developing Intelligence

The “No Child Left Behind Act of 2002” defines 10 core academic subjects including the arts. – Title IX, Part A, Section 91011 (11)

Children receiving piano training scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than students that received computer math training. – Graizano, Amy, Matthew Peterson, and Gordon Shaw, “Enhanced learning of proportional math through music training and spatial-temporal training.” Neurological Research 21 (March 1999)

Math proficiency by 12th graders was significantly higher in students that received consistent high levels of involvement in instrumental music through middle and high school years.  This is true no matter the child’s socio-economic status and is more profound the more they are involved. – Catterall, James S., et al. “Involvement in the Arts and Human Development: General Involvement in Music and Theatre Arts.”  Los Angeles, CA:  The Imagination Project at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, 1999

Students with studies in music performance scored 57 points higher on verbal SATs and 41 points higher in math SATs.  Students with studies in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal SATs and 44 points higher in math SATs than those with no arts courses.  College-Bound Seniors National Report: Profile of SAT Program Test Takers. Princeton, NJ: The College Entrance Examination Board, 2001

Pre-schoolers given eight months of piano lessons had 46% increases in spatial-temporal IQs (important for math-reasoning) – Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Ky, and Wright, “Music and Spatial Task Performance: A Causal Relationship,” University of California, Irvine, 1994

The percentage of music participants receiving academic honors, As, A/Bs, and Bs was higher than that of non participants. – NELS:88 First Follow-up, 1990, National Center For Educational Statistics, Washington DC

66% of music majors that applied for medical school were accepted, the highest percentage of any major.  Only 44% of biochemistry majors were accepted. –  Thomas, Lewis as reported in “The Case for Music in the Schools,” Phi Delta Kappan, February 1994

36% of minority students listed music teachers as their role-models, the highest of any category.  English Teachers  were the closest with 28% and physical education/sports teachers were only listed at 7%. – D.L. Hannan and L.M. Walker, “Music teachers as role models for African-American students,” Journal of Research in Music Education, 41. 1993

Two Rhode Island elementary schools implemented a music program that showed improvement in reading and math skills.  In fact, students that were behind their peer caught up in reading and pulled ahead in math.  – Gardiner, Fox, Jeffrey and Knowles, as reported in Nature, May 23, 1996.

Reading music scores and playing music activates areas in all of the brain’s four regions called “cortex lobes” and parts of  the cerebellum. – Sergent, Zuck, and MacDonall, B. (1992).  Distributed neural network underlying musical sight reading and keyboard performance. Science, 257, 106-109

Students participating in music education had significant increases in self-esteem and thinking skills.  – National Arts Education Research Center, New York University, 1990

Brain scans show musicians have larger planum temporales (a region of the brain related to reading skills) and thicker corpus callosum ( the bundle of fibers that connect the two halves of the brain) than those of non-musicians. This was even more dramatic in those beginning training before the age of 7.  – Schlaug, Jancke. Huang and Steinmetz (1994).  In vivo morphometry of interhem ispheric asymmetry and connectivity in musicians.  In I. Deliege (Ed.) Proceedings of the 3d international conference for music preparation and cognition (pp. 417-418).  Liege, Belgium

Researched & Prepared by Laura Bennett, Intern with Utah Conservatory, July 15, 2004

STORY OF UTAH CONSERVATORY

Utah Conservatory

Our Story

    It began in upstate New York where Dr. Fredric Cook was born, and his mother named him after a famous actor, Fredric March. For seventeen years his father used him, his eldest son, to establish disciplinary standards for his siblings, by beating him almost every day of his teenage life. He discovered drama in High School as a means of escaping the punishment, as he was respected and admired for his performances. He joined the Navy after graduation and spent four years exposed to criticism, hostilities, and jealousies. His solution was to study history and philosophy, which played an important role in his life. He knew as a young man, that the way out of bad situations could be handled by having a definitive philosophy that would provide options from which he could make choices before responding or acting. By the time he went to college, he thought he would major in history/philosophy, again offering solutions to the many problems confronting him. However, the Lord had presented him with the opportunity to act in a play in his freshman year. As a sophomore, he played Mr. Doolittle in My Fair Lady, and the applause in that spacious theatre questioned his decision to become a history or philosophy teacher. He changed his major to theatre and went on to do several plays and musicals before he graduated. He approached one of his revered professors at the University of North Carolina, asking if he thought he was good enough to become a professional actor. The instructor said no. Shocked, amazed, angry and in tears he went back to confront his professor, asking why he had that opinion. Smiling, he said, “If you don’t know yourself, the answer is always no.” That was the first time he realized that a performer must be aware of his ability, not dwelling on it or prideful, but humble, grateful and dedicated to the mission of a performer, which, discovered later in life, is to experience joy in the work, and share it with colleagues, teachers, and audiences. He also realized that his mother’s postulate for him to take on the responsibility to be a professional actor came with the name he was given. After graduation, he went to Europe, watched student artists at the Louvre in Paris, studied improvisation as well, toured London, and watched British actors perform with ease and clarity, much of which he put together years later. Returning to California, he was a founding member of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and performed in several productions, where a young director saw him and offered the lead role in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest at the Little Fox Theatre in San Francisco.
     That was his first professional role as he joined Actors Equity Association in 1970 and later performed in the Off-Broadway production, while studying with Uta Hagen, Mira Rostova from the Moscow Arts Theatre, and Bobby Lewis from Yale Drama School. He attended Hunter College studying under Harold Clurman, Joseph Anthony, Lillian Hellman, and playwright, Arthur Miller, completing his master’s degree in directing, while continuing to perform in film, theatre and television. He had joined Screen Actors Guild and The American Federation of TV and Radio Artists. After that, he worked at the Long Wharf Theatre with E.G. Marshall in Ibsen’s Masterbuilder. After that he auditioned for the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art.
     He went up to the Headmaster at the Academy, explaining he had been a professional actor for four years, was a member of all three unions, and had performed over two dozen roles in theatre, film and television, yet did not know the basic fundamentals of acting. That was why he accepted their invitation. He asked; “Please tell me, what the essential truth about acting is?” The headmaster smiled and replied, “It’s simple actually, it’s knowing what your attention is on, moment to moment, from the viewpoint of the character.” He said that none of his mentors in New York ever said anything like that, and wanted to know why? The Headmaster again smiled, and said; “They probably don’t know.” At that moment he recalled seeing and understanding what he had seen on his first visit to London, after college. It all came together. It transformed his ability, gave him higher self-esteem, and awareness of what he needed to know, which helped him in later years to formulate his own special technique-a patterned approach in sequence which produces a definitive, unique, and desirable result. When he returned to the states, he flipped a coin; “New York or LA?” Three weeks after arriving in Hollywood, he secured his first agent, and within three months had his first lead role in a film, with Yvette Mimieux and Tommy Lee Jones (his first film). When he had shared what he had learned in London, actors wanted to study with him, and the Los Angeles Academy of Dramatic Art was created in 1975. It took him eight years to understand how to approach actors through the perils of navigating toward a character’s viewpoint, seeing images through his/her eyes, and the proper gradients he had to use to maintain the actor’s self-esteem and confidence.
     It wasn’t until Dr. Cook and his wife, Debra Cook moved to Park City, Utah in 1997 that he realized that he needed to research educational methods to teach performers what they need to focus on without offering his personal opinions, or criticism, because he knew that a performer’s natural self-esteem is reduced when subjected to criticism. He began a seven year program in Educational Studies, before completing his PhD in 2004. He had studied, and recalled what he saw at the Louvre many years earlier. He realized that, as an instructor, his attention must be 100% on the student, and as Socrates’ philosophy dictated, only questions are viable in discovering the truth from the student. Statements and opinions of others are outside the realm of a student’s reality and understanding. Also, he had witnessed several teachers over the years that had too much attention on themselves, almost justifying why they were teaching, rather than guiding and leading the student to having his/her own recognition of what they liked about what they did, and subsequently, what they would like to change! That was what he witnessed in Paris, looking at the artists’ eyes that had not an ounce of criticism, only evaluation of what they liked and what they wanted to change.
This is the solution! This is how a student can appear to be natural, effortless, and passionate from the viewpoint of the character. We have one of our students, Talon Ackerman, who has been in three Broadway musicals, for which the Director of Mary Poppins remarked in a newspaper interview, that his “Focus is beyond his years.” Talon is 12 years old. Another reviewer from his most recent performance of Leap of Faith said he’s a natural talent, yet “Just a kid” without the pretensions of being an actor. What appears to be an “Inborn talent” is actually the result of a non-critical pedagogy and years of being asked those two important questions; “What did you like about what you did?” and “What would you like to change?” This philosophy pervades Utah Conservatory, and several students have received major scholarships, paid performance work, invitations to perform in regional theatre and opera productions, and received kudos in the Classical Singers Competitions. Comments at the recent competitions were extremely positive, although they assumed that the students were all born talented, which removes the tribute that should be paid to them for years of dedicated work acquiring their abilities to perform effortlessly, all the while appearing to be “Natural.” It is the goal of the performer to have audiences assume that, but is disappointing to have professionals, who know how difficult the preparation can be, to assume they were born talented, discounting the countless hours of monologuing, rehearsing, singing and performing.
So, in conclusion, artists need to develop early a collaborative approach with colleagues, performers, directors, instructors and others. Asking questions with a positive intention engenders more artistic collaboration than do opinions, criticisms, evaluations and negative assessments. Positive questions which search for solutions increase the performer’s ability to be responsible for their condition and their original creations. This philosophy protects and prepares the student against any abuse, from often well-meaning instructors and colleagues. We also encourage our students to be gracious, and acknowledge well-meaning contributors with a simple “Thank you.” Thus, the student maintains the right to accept or let go of another’s evaluation of their work, which strengthens their ability to make choices and decisions on their own.
     Over these past twelve years, our students have become more compassionate and understanding of how a person’s viewpoint directs their decisions and choices. Most of all, students become non-critical, non-judgmental, and are devoid of cynicism. Basically, they improve their abilities to confront and handle any situation they are presented with, which is very important in their later years. It has been said that, when a person can master his/her attention over the distractions presented, their employers, producers, and decision makers will pay much more money to them, than to those who are unable to focus their attention completely on the tasks they perform.

THE MULTIPLE EFFECTS OF CRITICISM

The Multiple Effects of Criticism

Does this look familiar? How do we get confused and frustrated? How does criticism affect our ability to produce results? What actually occurs?
There is a question of our point of view that pops up when we are distracted by critical thoughts, usually coming from others, parents, teachers, “friends”, and foes alike, especially when we adopt the practice and become critical of ourselves. It throws us into doubts of our abilities, our choices, the decisions we make, and how we respond to problems, adversity, difficulties, and challenges. Primarily, it reduces our SELF ESTEEM.     It could be assumed that our agreement with critical thoughts make such uncertainty a reality. So, how can we disagree? Especially when we create the criticism ourselves? Take, for example, you’re on a date with a friend, who can’t help telling you that what you’re doing is wrong, lame, ineffective, stupid, crude, and generally wrong. And, because it’s your friend, you accept the judgment and go into agreement with his or her viewpoint, because you don’t want to create a scene or an argument over it, because it’s not that important. Or is it? Well, we have to be socially acceptable, or the word will get out that we are losers and negative and no fun to be around. So, we take it away with us, and like a virus, our minds are affected, and our productivity is reduced. We mull over the critical thoughts and get down on ourselves as an inevitable conclusion surfaces: “I’m not very smart, or popular, and how can I live knowing other people know that about me?     Criticism is prevalent in our world, in school our teachers tell us what to do and not do, they chide us for our mistakes, our foibles, our idiosyncrasies and screw ups! We should know better to recognize critical thoughts for what they are… other peoples’ problems! And if we “catch what they throw at us” we take on the illness as well. Why should we “catch” them? Because if we can recognize critical thoughts, we are ahead of the game, we are not affected adversely, and can maintain our own knowledge, security and sanity in spite of wild attacks. Consider yourself as a steel plated battleship and the critical thoughts are pebbles which naturally bounce off us unharmed, and we survive, we stay afloat despite the assaults.    Okay. Now that we assume that viewpoint, we have to rise above the unknowing, unwittingly attempts to put us down, because our friends usually don’t mean to hurt us, or minimize our ability to handle life’s many challenges. No. Albert Einstein believed: “In the Middle of Difficulty Lies Opportunity.” Often, we experience traumatic events, which throw us into despair at the time as we are hit unaware and are surprised by the incident. And how long does that take to get over it? It depends upon our constitutions, our stamina, and our ability to recover and find joy in life. And what happens? We find ourselves sharing it with a friend or family member, finding irony (the opposite of a literal meaning, marked by such a deliberate contrast between the actual incident’s meaning and another intended consequence which we can see as humorous! In that understanding is it not possible to realize the critical thought as it is uttered, and responds immediately with a humorous response?    One very effective response is a sincere, honest “thank you!” When it is genuinely offered, the offender who shared the criticism has an opportunity to acknowledge the act as somewhat foolish or uncharitable. It can be socially approved method to deal with the situation. Why? Because you see what’s actually transpiring, and can, without criticism, but with unconditional love for the person, respond positively with the intention that you like or even love them and understand that we all have moments that move from positive to negative, like the terminals on a battery, with no malice intended.     Now, that is a tall order, isn’t it? But, consider the consequences. You come home from a hard day at school, or work, and your spouse has had a more difficult day, and is upset and angry, even frustrated and lashes out at you. You have two choices: mirror the hostility, or show how much you love him or her. It takes a lot of confidence to do that, and a great deal of unconditional love. You have to evaluate the importance of each moment in your life, as your tendency to yield to emotional trauma can multiply so many times that you drive that friend or lover away from you, which both of you must justify as “s/he doesn’t really love me.”   Why would people succumb to such temptation? “I think, therefore I am!” Surely, criticism is not powerful to give, and is easy to adopt, and is a “hidden standard” (which is not welcome in any relationship we desire to create) yet we take it on,
without an understanding of the consequences that evolve.    This ability, to instantly evaluate your reaction to critical thoughts to provide a warm, genuine response often of a humorous, joyful manner takes years of constant awareness and sincere, unconditional love for mankind. It is far from easy to say, but exceedingly difficult to achieve, much like a wide receiver’s opportunities to field a long pass which produces a touchdown and victory. The joy is not just in winning, but playing the best we can each and every time.