May 2016
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The Silver Fox Advisor
Advising, Consulting And Mentoring Greater Houston Area Business Since 1986
From the Editor...

Richard Hendee

Each year for the past seven years I have participated in the judging of the Rice Business Plan Competition, billed by The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship as the World's Largest Business Plan Competition. Annually for the past 15 years teams from around the World come to the Campus of Rice University for three days in mid-April to compete for cash prizes and to be judged by potential investors, mentors, and advisors.
Each of the 42 teams has to be made up of students from the University they are representing. Teams can also have outside advisors from the business or academic worlds.
What is so rewarding about participating as a judge in this competition is not only reviewing superior business plans, but also having an opportunity to hear in detail what each team has created, invented or developed that in many cases is a game- changer in the field in which they are participating.

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Life Insurance For Persons Living With HIV

By Melvin Maltz, a Silver Fox Advisor
Just a few decades ago, a person diagnosed with HIV faced an uncertain future. Today, due to the availability of highly effective antiretroviral therapies, a person living with HIV can enjoy a normal healthy life while living with a manageable medical condition, not unlike many other chronic illnesses. In fact, many people have seen the virus reduced to undetectable levels. It is now conceivable that AIDS may be eradicated in our lifetimes.
Strangely enough though, until December 2015, people living with HIV could not buy term life insurance, outside of employer group policies. But like people with other chronic medical conditions, people living with HIV need to protect their families and businesses too.
In 2011, two financial services executives each had an otherwise healthy family member unable to buy key man life insurance for their businesses because of their HIV status. Faced with what they viewed as inaccurate assumptions and stigma within the life insurance industry, these men accepted the mission to change how the industry viewed people living with HIV. AEQUALIS was founded to prove that people living with HIV posed no greater mortality risk than many of their other customers. They believed this was a market well worth serving for the life insurance industry.

Mentoring Guides Your Success
 
Smart Leaders Don't Have To Be Lonely At The Top
 
By Hank Moore
Corporate Strategist™
Professionals who succeed the most are the products of mentoring. The mentor is a resource for business trends, societal issues and opportunities. The mentor becomes a role model, offering insights about their own life-career. This reflection shows the mentee levels of thinking and perception which were not previously available. The mentor is an advocate for progress and change. Such work empowers the mentee to hear, accept, believe and get results. The sharing of trust and ideas leads to developing business philosophies.
The mentor endorses the mentee, messages ways to approach issues, helps draw distinctions and paints pictures of success. The mentor opens doors for the mentee. The mentor requests pro-active changes of mentee, evaluates realism of goals and offers truths about path to success and shortcomings of mentee's approaches. This is a bonded collaboration toward each other's success. The mentor stands for mentees throughout their careers and celebrates their successes. This is a lifelong dedication toward mentorship...in all aspects of one's life.
The most significant lessons that I learned in my business life from mentors, verified with experience, are shared here:

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Silver Fox Advisors
 Silver Fox Advisors are current and former business owners, entrepreneurs and executives dedicated to assisting business owners to improve their enterprises through mentoring and consulting. Advisors have been sharing their knowledge, experience and skills since 1986. To work with a Sliver Fox Advisor, please visit our website at www.silverfox.org and select your advisor.
Upcoming Events
Lunch & Learn

May 26, 2016

Topic: "How Company Culture Drives Business Success"

Presented by: Brian Fielkow, CEO Jeto Delivery

Time: 11:00 am - 1:15 pm

Location: The Houston Racquet Club
1079 Memorial Drive
Houston, TX 77024
This Month's Featured Book
by a Silver Fox Advisor

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