After an introduction by the caliph of capitalism himself, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ John Doerr, Harmon takes us through the steps of acquiring venture capital, from getting the VC’s attention to how to negotiate your company’s valuation. In between, Harmon offers helpful Q&A interviews with VC decisionmakers such as Doerr, Hummer Winblad’s Ann Winblad, VC/Business 2.0 contributor J. Neil Weintraut, and others. But what makes the book most useful is that it tells you what VCs want to hear, in the language in which they want to hear it. Problem is, six months from now they’ll probably want to hear something completely different. Maybe Harmon should keep his book updated on the Web.

Forbes ASAP editor Karen Southwick just keeps pounding ‘em out. In May, Southwick brought out Silicon Gold Rush, a short, sharp look at some of Silicon Valley’s movers and shakers (see “Silicon Prospecting,” May ’99, p148). Now, less than six months later, the erstwhile Upside magazine and Upside Books editor tosses off High Noon. As its subtitle implies, High Noon follows in-depth the tremulous nascence, pimply adolescence, and surging adulthood of one of the most religiously contrarian companies in computing and its charismatic CEO. In exchange for unprecedented access, Southwick gives Sun — the company that brought us SPARC, Java, and Jini; tackled Microsoft head-on; and is, by most accounts, poised to redefine concepts of network computing — the royal treatment. If anything, the book is too gung-ho for the company, as Southwick seems to have soaked up a few of Sun PR’s own reality-distortion rays. But it’s a solid history nevertheless.

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Use this information (articles, media clippings, medical research reports) and include it in your newsletters. Have “take-ones” available for your members to pick up and read. Invite athletes to give guest lectures.

Have your fitness staff talk about how to adapt a cross-training program to achieve personal goals and how this type of training is not just for elite athletes but can help weekend athletes and those trying to develop leaner, more toned bodies in less time.

Remind people that this type of training means that they should never have to wait in line for a piece of equipment because there is always another workout option.

This kind of information and seed planting will begin to open client’s minds to new things without being intimidating or scary.

It is not critical for instructors to be intimately familiar with the commercial club environment. Although you should invite your existing group exercise instructors and personal trainers to learn about Pilates-based exercise, many of the people who earn these certifications come from the world of yoga, dance and physical therapy. Many Pilates instructors may, in fact, come with a fine arts background in dance or movement rather than a degree in physical education.

Whether you hire an outside instructor or pay for someone at your facility to complete the training depends on your expected demand. If members have been flooding you with requests after reading about celebrities using Pilates-based exercise or seeing it demonstrated on TV, you’ll probably have a large enough base of support to make training and certifying at least one of your current employees worthwhile; if you haven’t had many requests and are just interested in measuring member interest, consider hiring an instructor to teach an introductory course twice a week. Don’t be shocked at the price, though; certified freelance instructors can cost a bit more than other trainers due to the lengthy training program they are required to complete, often at their own expense, combined with the demands on their time.

That said, another factor to consider when you’re deciding whether to hire from the outside or to train someone on your staff is the length and cost of the certification program. Certification courses can take anywhere from 15 to 800 hours, depending on the level of certification, the program (mat- or equipment-based) and the instructor’s educational background. Programs that require prior certification as a personal trainer and completion of a college-level anatomy course before admission are more intensive, yet may be completed more quickly. Other programs cover these prerequisites and can be considerably longer. Some Pilates-based companies offer programs at different locations and can even offer on-site training at your facility.

And if you aren’t trying to be the only club in your area to offer this exercise method, opening up the registration to instructors outside of your club will help you recoup some of your investment. Or, you might require instructors to complete “apprenticeship” teaching hours in exchange for subsidizing their training.

There are many different certification courses, and it is important to find out how much training each one offers before deciding on one. Some of the very short courses may offer certification but do not equip instructors to deal with an increasingly varied clientele. Also, some certifying organizations have incorporated modern principles of rehabilitation and exercise science into Pilates’ original repertoire, making it safer, more effective and adaptable. Others have not.

The depth of this training and the value it offers your club members create opportunities for premium pricing. Many clubs, in fact, offer Pilates-based programming as a separate fee-based program in addition to monthly membership dues.

“The Congress must act on a patients’ bill of rights, a good patients’ bill of rights, one that recognizes patients are important, not lawyers,” Bush said, addressing a group of young volunteers in the White House Rose Garden.

“We’ve got the makings for a good bill,” Bush added.

But the White House said Bush remained opposed to legislation that passed the Democratic-controlled Senate in June despite a veto threat over provisions allowing patients to sue health maintenance organizations.

Supporters of the Senate measure in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives say they can pass a similar bill, but House leaders hoped to pass a measure backed by Bush with stricter limits on lawsuits.

With Americans favoring a patient protections bill by a ratio of 5-to-1 according to a Gallup poll released earlier this month, and Democratic leaders in the Senate making the legislation a top priority, Bush is eager to be seen as supporting some form of protection.

He was later to visit patients at a hospital in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia.

Outlining his other priorities for the month between Congress’s Independence Day break, which ends this week, and its summer recess in August, Bush also urged passage of education reforms and his proposal to provide government backing for social services provided by religious organizations.

“Those are the three items that the president thinks are on America’s front burner,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Bush omitted from the list his proposed energy plan to stimulate domestic production and promote conservation and his call for “fast track” authority to negotiate expedited trade agreements, as aides said the other items had better prospects for quick passage.

“The three that he focused on today are the ones that are nearest passage…further down the process,” Bush aide Dan Bartlett said.

After Democrats took control of the Senate in June, party leaders vowed to make the healthcare legislation a top priority, along with an increase in the minimum wage and a prescription drug benefit under Medicare.

They pushed Bush’s aims to pass his energy plan, missile defense strategy and possible corporate tax breaks to the back burner.

But the White House spokesman described as “nonsense” charges that the president had lost control of the political agenda. “The president is doing very, very well, and his agenda is being very well received,” Fleischer said.

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“So I did — and it was fun and totally unexpected,” she says. “It wasn’t particularly businesslike, but things don’t always have to be businesslike.”

A very good point. There is a lot to be said for getting to know the men you work with outside the office setting. It can add a welcome feminine touch to business.

Murphy-Baran is married and has two sons. As a function of her job, she frequently comfortably entertains male clients and colleagues. She says she never has had a problem with a business date getting the wrong idea.

“But if you don’t feel comfortable inviting a man for drinks or dinner, there are lots of ways to handle it,” she says. “Bring along a colleague or invite him to bring a colleague. Make it a business date that includes spouses. Make reservations in a restaurant in a highly visible locale or visit a bar near your office. Don’t choose an out-of-the-way place.”

She adds, “I also talk a little about my husband and kids and ask about theirs, too. You often find out you have more in common than just your job. The conversation doesn’t always have to be strictly business to be business.”

Grey agrees. A little socializing can go a long way toward forging bonds with colleagues. “It’s occasionally a good thing to go out with male — and female — colleagues for a drink before heading home,” she says. “Or to invite several colleagues to have lunch together. It puts a different perspective on things and provides another setting for communication.”

That kind of setting just may offer what may be a woman’s best resource in a male-dominated workplace — a mentor.

“I think women make wonderful mentors and are better suited for mentoring than men,” says Grey. “We’re more compassionate and caring and more likely to think about others when making big decisions. And we’re better team players than men, who tend to be loners.”

Wait a minute. What about Eve Harrington in “All About Eve”? She made high-heel footprints all over Margo Channing’s back — and that was before she stuck the knife in.

“Things are different in the business world today,” says Grey. “Back when companies only hired or promoted one woman, the competition was fierce. Now that there are more and better opportunities for women, we can share the wealth, learn from each other and sort of hitchhike along through the business world.”

She adds, “We’re our own advantage in the business world.”

You might first want to know why you can get cheap tramadol online. Is there a catch that will trip you up if you order online? Relax in the knowledge that there is no trick to it, and nothing bad will happen. Getting low cost tramadol online is just a good idea for people who are using this popular medication to manage pain.

Tramadol is inexpensive to purchase at online pharmacies. It is one of several drugs that can be obtained cheaply and easily online. You may be wondering why it is possible to cut the costs so dramatically. The reason is that online pharmacies don’t have the high overhead costs of brick and mortar pharmacies. It costs less to process all prescriptions online. There is no scam to the low cost tramadol you will find online. It is simply a good deal.

Again, there is nothing tricky about it. Online pharmacies can buy in bulk, so they are able to sell cheaply. They pass their savings on to their customers. In this way, they know they will attract more customers and will make up for the low prices in volume sold.

Low cost, online tramadol is just as high quality as the product you would purchase at your corner drug store. Online pharmacies have exactly the same drugs as brick and mortar stores. The only difference is the way in which they obtain their medications. They buy huge amounts and stock large quantities of exactly the same drugs you will find in your local drug store. They look the same and are created in exactly the same way; however, they are much, much cheaper. So have no fear. You can buy tramadol online and enjoy exactly the same benefits you would find with the product you can purchase at your local store – complete relief from chronic pain.

“No way,” says Murphy-Baran, senior vice president of market development at NFL Enterprises (the new business and new technology arm of the National Football League).

“There’s no way I’m going to start throwing a ball around. I’d look foolish,” she says. “I will, however, hang out to watch. And I’ll make comments like ‘Great throw!’ But that’s it. They didn’t hire me because I’m a football expert or because I’m a die-hard football fan. They hired me because of my expertise in business.”

She adds, “I think the way to gain the respect of all your colleagues — not just the guys — is to be yourself. Don’t try to be what you think they want or expect.”

Let’s face it, sometimes we can be our own worst enemy. By trying so hard to fit in or by trying to meet our own perceptions of what is expected of us, we wind up shooting ourselves in our own pump-shod feet.

Like Jane (not her real name), a private banker with a very prominent and very male-dominated financial institution. Last spring, Jane’s boss invited her to join a team of male banking colleagues attending a convention in Jamaica for professional athletes. The plan: Schmooze with the athletes and their wives and add some names to the bank’s client list.

“It sounded great,” Jane recalls. “I figured I’d hang out with potential clients at the hotel pool sipping umbrella drinks during the day and entertain them over dinner at night. No problem.”

What Jane never counted on was her male boss signing all of them up to play in a pro-am golf tournament. “I’d never hit a golf ball in my life — unless you count the balls in miniature golf,” she says.

“All the guys I work with play, and my boss just assumed I played, too. He never asked and I never brought it up — we’re not big on personal chitchat here. I was in a panic. I should have just told him I didn’t play, but I guess I was too proud — or stubborn,” she says. “As a woman in a male-dominated field I always feel like I have to work twice as hard to prove I belong. So I tried to become a golfer in three days.”

She took lessons, hit bucket after bucket of balls and agonized. The day of the tournament she got a “fine-tuning” from the hotel course pro, then teed off with the seasoned male golfers in her foursome.

“I was terrible,” she recalls. “Really, just awful. I don’t know what I expected. But they were very nice and very amused when I told them what was up with my game. They all agreed that I was a good sport and a real trouper — which I am. Add in that I’m also an excellent private banker and that’s a winning combination.”

That’s true enough. The problem is, most of us have trouble saying that about ourselves — even when we deserve it. We just hope others will notice. As girls, we’re taught to be modest and demure — to keep our heads down. Boys, on the other hand, get to beat their chests and play Tarzan. Well, it’s time to beat our chests, too.

“In addition to doing excellent work, you must make sure that your work is recognized,” says Deborah Tannen, Ph.D., author of “Talking From 9 to 5″ (Avon Books, 1995, $12.50). “This may consist of making a point to tell your boss, or your boss’s boss, what you have done — either orally or by sending reports or copies of pertinent correspondence.

When lunchtime comes, the one who eats lunch with the boss may be doing more to get ahead than the one who stays in the office, eating a sandwich and working.

“All of these dynamics could be derisively dismissed as ‘office politics’ but they are simply a matter of human nature,” says Tannen.

How else are the bosses going to know who has done what? We’ve got to speak up — even if it means interrupting one of the guys.

“There’s value in interrupting,” advises Grey. “If you’re always polite and waiting for your shot, you might wait forever. And don’t be afraid to shake things up a little.”

Even the language can throw you. In business-speak, men are assertive and women are aggressive. Men are proactive. Women are bitchy. And men are confidently determined while women are ball busters.

More and more women are taking ownership of jobs and careers traditionally owned by men — in effect, blasting off to that alien planet. Currently, women hold 46 percent of all middle management positions in the U.S. workplace. That’s up significantly from 7 percent 20 years ago.

By contrast, only 12 percent of all corporate officers are women. So in most cases it’s still the guys who run the show, call the shots and hold the home-court advantage. They have been around long enough to know their way around what was once their own private planet.

So where do we get directions? We asked women who have “been there and done that” for tips, advice and a war story or two. Here’s what they had to say:

“Women must learn how to go that extra distance to stand out in the competitive career market,” says Karen Salmansohn, the best-selling author of “How to Succeed in Business Without a Penis” (Crown Publishers, 1996, $12). In fact, Salmansohn says, many of a businesswoman’s perceived disadvantages — like innate empathy and maternalistic people skills — can actually serve as career advantages.

The first step is to figure out what unique perspective or skill you — as a smart, savvy woman — bring to the party, and work it.

Bernadette Grey is the editor-in-chief of Working Woman magazine. She began her career in the business and technical area of publishing working with — and for — men, for years. During that time, she says, she honed her communication skills. That’s a real knack when you are dealing with men — who, scientists say, think differently than women.

“I’ve learned to be very direct,” Grey says. “I’ve learned to say exactly what I mean and to mean what I say. I didn’t try to fit in with my colleagues by being one of the guys — by talking sports or making sports analogies. I don’t watch sports, so I’d just sound ridiculous. Instead, I found my place in the group — my niche — and that’s how I fit in,” she says. “I became the facilitator for communication.

I made sure we all understood each other and what we were doing workwise — even if it meant stopping a meeting to make sure everyone was on the same page. And I think they really liked having me around because I brought something different to the work environment.”

Different can be good — for everyone. At Tola Murphy-Baran’s workplace, some of the guys like to toss a football around the office a little. They throw long, low-arc passes down the corridors to each other. It’s a fun, guy-thing they do — call it office male bonding.

As developing economies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America enter the Digital Age, they’re going to need networks that carry data and voice. Just don’t expect land lines to bear the load. According to Mike Jensen, an independent telecommunications consultant in Port St. Johns, South Africa, there are just forteen million phone lines serving Africa’s population of eight hundred million. (By contrast, the US has 169 million lines.) Most of Africa’s telecom coverage is concentrated in the national and regional capitals of the more developed countries. Even there don’t count on getting a dial tone. “The telecom infrastructure is just downright abysmal,” says Michael R. Littenberg, a partner at the New York law firm Schulte Roth&Zabel, which brokers deals in Africa.

Peter Horvath
Which is why in Africa, as in other developing regions, something remarkable is happening. Telecom providers are leapfrogging traditional fiber- and copper-based land lines and going directly to wireless. “It’s ironic that many places that have had the worst technology in general are about to get the best,” says Ellen Agler, medical missions coordinator with the international nonprofit relief agency Operation Smile.

Major telcos are building big network projects in many parts of the world. In May, Siemens won 260 million (nearly $140 million) in contracts to build four mobile communications networks in China, adding to previous deals struck with China Unicom for development in Shanghai and Fujian. Also in May, Lucent Technologies announced a wireless broadband system for Comsat, in Peru, to offer high-speed wireless Internet and multimedia services to Lima. Nortel Networks, Ericsson, AT&T, Alcatel, and others are all involved in building up segments of international networks in places like the Indonesia, Ethiopia and Balkans.

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When I started this article, I had no idea just writing about these trees would bring profound thoughts and yet here I sit, awestruck. Like Bobby Lake-Thom so eloquently put it, “I have learned from my elder mentors that a closer relationship to Nature does indeed bring meaning to our lives.”

I am beginning to understand the significance of Lake-Thom’s words, “If things in society get to the extreme that Nature can no longer communicate to us, or if it gets to the point that we, as human beings, can no longer recognize and understand the symbolic communication, then we will no longer thrive as a species.”

Is it any wonder that Runners flock to the grove to run in the Avenue of the Giants marathon in the spring and the Humboldt Redwoods in the fall and 10K, relay and half-marathons held under these significant trees.

Perhaps Dr. Zinke said it best, “It may be an object of mystery. It may represent discovery to us. It may represent knowledge, or just physical exercise and play. But the opportunity to enjoy the forest and the trees first hand is of course, a primary necessity of many people.”

For more information about this year’s marathons or to register online go to Avenue of the Giants and Humboldt Marathon.