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While "April showers bring May Flowers," it also brings up the weeds mingled with the beauty of spring.  In the seasonal battle against yard and garden weeds, string trimmers (aka strimmer, line trimmer, weed whacker, weed whip, weed eater, weedy or whipper snipper) are at the top of the lawncare list alongside the lawnmower.  Research indicates that string trimmers in one form or another have been around for eons and used in many countries around the world for the same length of time, with various implements being devised by folks simply needing a way to get rid of those pesky weeds, but never actually taking their ideas to the next level -- that is, until a Houston, Texas entrepreneur by the name of George Ballas stepped into the picture and changed the way we cut grass.

George was born in Ruston, Lousiana on June 28, 1925 of Greek ancestory.  He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air force (USAAF) when he was 17 years old and served in WWII as a bombardier.  He later served as an Air Forse OSI agent during the Korean War.  After his military service, George worked for both the Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire dance studio franchises.  He was a dance instructor, but also travelled to various cities as a troubleshooter to make the outlets profitable.  Through his love of dance, he built and operated the 43,000 square foot Dance City USA in the 1950s, which employed 120 teachers and was heralded as the largest dance studio in the world, which he sold in 1964.  He served as president of Fred Astaire Dance Studios from 1960 to 1964.  George was a lead developer in 1980 for the 13-story Westchase Hilton Hotel in Houston, and authored two books.  He also worked as an adjunct professor at Rice University (Houston) teaching entrepreneurship.  During his career, he reportedly founded over 100 various companies, but is best known for Weed Eater, Inc.

While sitting in a Houston car wash in 1971 and watching the spinning bristles cleaning his car, he wondered whether the same technique could be applied to trimming grass and weeds in his yard where a lawnmower couldn't reach.  He experimented with fishing wire that poked through holes in a popcorn can attached to the rotary of a lawn edger, and found that the spinning wires easily sliced through grass and weeds.  With this invention, George started Weed Eater, Inc. in Houston in 1971.  Mainly through TV advertising, sales of his product skyrocketed over the subsequent decade.  He later sold his invention to Emerson Electric for an unspecified amount of money.

On August 30, 1952, George married Maria Luisa Marulanda, an instructor at Dance City USA and a well-know Flamenco dancer who studied with famed Spanish dancer, Carmen Amaya, and appeared in several films.  They had five children together.  Their son, Corky Ballas and (former) wife Shirley Ballas were both champion competitive ballroom dancers and dance instructors who started dancing as toddlers at age 3 years.  Corky and Shirley have one son, Mark Ballas, who follows in the Ballas family dance tradition.  Both Corky and Mark have appeared on "Dancing With the Stars."  Corky and Shirley also raised and trained dancers Derek and Julianne Hough, as well as trained Karina Smirnoff, Tony Dovolani, Edyta Sliwinska, Alec Mazo, Brian Fortuna, Jonathan Roberts, Anna Trebunskaya and Jessie DeSoto -- all of "Dancing With the Stars" fame.

George C. Ballas, Sr. passed away on June 25, 2011 at age 85 of natural causes, survived by his wife Maria, three daughters, two sons and seven grandchildren. 

Mazon Associates does not prepare customer invoices for our clients, but we do purchase completed business-to-business invoices and provide same-day funding for clients.  We then mail, e-mail or fax these invoices to customers per each client's individualized handling instructions.  Once client invoices are entered in our accounts receivable system, we are able to follow up quickly and efficiently with customers' requests pertaining to their account. 

If you would like to find out more about our factoring services for your business and/or apply for an account with Mazon Associates, please phone us at 972-554-6967 (toll-free 800-442-2740) or visit our website www.mazon.com.

There are two ways to go through life:  proactive or reactive.  People who use the latter as their philosophy tend to:  Turn the responsibility for their life over to others; complain when life throws them a curve; expect life to be perfect and fair; lose their sense of purpose or vision; give up or give in too easily.

On the other hand, people who live proactively tend to:  Take full responsibility for their life's outcome; see life as a game where you will win some and lose some; see adversity, problems, failure as a tool to get better, wiser and more resourceful; work to create the life they believe is possible; expect life to be a challenge and not easy or fair.

The benefits of proactive living are too numerous to mention, but here are a few for your consideration.  You will:

• Live with less stress.
• Get more done.
• Have more fun.
• Enjoy life more.
• Accomplish more.
• Have wider interests.
• Have clearer goals.
• Have greater wealth.
• Enjoy better relationships.
• Live with more peace and joy.
• Achieve more in your career.
• Have more friends.
• Be better equipped to handle negative circumstances.
• Here's one -- you will live longer!

So, how do you live more proactively?  1) Start.  2) Don't quit or give in.  3) Trust yourself.  4) Believe in yourself.  5) Let go of limitations.  6) Have faith in your future.  Short list? Yes.  Hard to do consistently? Yes.  Necessary?  Yes!

(Reprinted with permission from Tim Connor, CSP World renowned Speaker, Trainer and best selling author of over 80 titles.  Box 397, Davidson, N.C. 28036 USA, 704-895-1230 (voice) tim@timconnor.com (email - www.timconnor.com (website)

May 1: May Day; May 3: National Day of Prayer;  May 5: Cinco de Mayo; Join Hands Day; May 8: National Teachers Day; May 12: Nurses Day; May 13: Mother's Day; May 15: Peace Officers Memorial Day; May 19: Armed Forces Day; May 22: National Maritime Day; May 27: Cellophane Tape Day; May 28: Memorial Day.  May is also Employee Health & Fitness Month and Melanona/Skin Cancer Detection & Prevention Month.

Notice: Mazon offices will be closed on Monday, May 28th in observance of Memorial Day. We will resume normal business hours of 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 29th. You may still submit invoices during our closed hours via fax, e-mail or drop-slot to be processed on Tuesday.

Richard Gurley Drew was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on June 22, 1899.  At 22 years old, he played a banjo, had experience driving a tractor and was taking a correspondence course in machine design through the University of Minnesota --three items he put on his resume for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M).  He was hired to work as a lab technician at 3M, then a sandpaper manufacturer.  A few years later, while delivering trial sandpaper batches to the local auto body shop, he noticed painters having difficulty with the plaster tape they were using because the paint often peeled off when the tape was removed -- he had an idea for an alternative tape.  Back at the 3M lab, he devised a tape of cabinetmaker's glue and treated crepe paper.  He struggled, but persevered through several design, flexibility and adhesive issues, and one by one found solutions.  His resulting invention took the world by storm as the first paper-backed, pressure-sensitive tape -- Scotch masking tape -- that hit the market in 1925.  It was practical and convenient and found applications in homes, medical facilities, construction and business settings worldwide.  Masking tape protected the Goodyear blimp from corrosion; patched cracks in turkey eggs so that chicks could survive until hatching; repaired everything from fingernails to lampshades to dollar bills. Automakers found masking tape ideal for masking off areas during auto body painting,

Five years later, Richard developed transparent Scotch cellophane tape and received his patent for the invention on May 27, 1930.  The invention was a major asset during the Great Depression.  It became a popular tool for repairing ripped, torn, or broken items rather than buying new ones.  Books, window shades, toys, clothing, and even paper currency were mended with cellophane tape.

Richard's tape innovations were the first in what is now a family of 900+ pressure-sensitive tapes used worldwide in office, medical, electrical, construction and other applications. His products served as a classic example of American ingenuity and an opportunity for 3M to re-define itself as a major research and development company, and remains the leading manufacturer of pressure-sensitive tapes in the world.  In 2007, Richard Gurley Drew was inducted into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame for the invention of the first modern pressure sensitive tape.

While your product or service may be beneficial to the vast majority, not every client is worth the effort.  A business filled with clients who are consistently looking for a "better deal" -- or are otherwise causing you to lose sleep at night -- is a clear sign that it's time to redefine your target market.  Start by creating a list of characteristics of your best customers and then research how best to reach them with your company message.  (Source:  www.Manta.com)

Anything's possible if you've got enough nerve.  I was determined to try.  I was determined to try because, frankly, my life was such a mess at this point, what -- what was the worst that could happen?  Everyone turn me down?  Big deal.

-- J.K. Rowling, Author, Harry Potter

Net Smart -- How to Thrive Online, by Howard Rheingold.  Published April 2012 by The MIT Press, Hardcover 272 pages, $24.95. ISBN-10:  0-262-01745-8; ISBN-13: 978-0-262-01745-9.

How can we use digital media so that they help us become empowered participants rather than passive consumers?  In Net Smart, Howard Rheingold shows you how to use social media intelligently, humanely, and, above, all mindfully.  Mindful use of digital media means thinking about what we are doing, cultivating an ongoing inner inquiry into how we want to spend our time. He outlines five fundamental digital literacies, online skills that will help us do this:  attention, participation, collaboration, critical consumption of information, and network smarts.  He explains how attention works, and how we can use our attention to focus on the tiny relevant portion of the incoming tsunami of information.  He describes the quality of participation that empowers the best of the bloggers, netizens, tweeters, and other online community participants. He examines how successful online collaborative enterprises contribute new knowledge to the world in new ways. He presents a lesson on networks and network building.  (http://rheingold.com/netsmart)

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