Today, and unlike most weeks, I’ve decided to give you a lot of variety, but at a limited depth.

I do this because the ideas for columns are backing up like five o’clock air traffic over La Guardia, and if I don’t “dump” these now, they’ll never see the light of day.

So, here are three columns that I think you’ll enjoy and that I know can help you in your business. As always I’d appreciate your thoughts:

I don’t know that I’ve ever said this on my radio show, and neither is it in my Immutable Laws, but it is as true as true can be. In all my years as President/CEO/Founder of a dozen different companies, not once has even one employee approached me to say something like, “Ron, you’re doing a terrific job. Please, don’t change.”

Or, “I just love the decision you made last week on the new product features. I think you were right on.”

You get the picture. Now, if that kind of praise is essential to your being, I say, “Find a new way to make a living,” ‘cause it just isn’t gonna happen. And frankly, I could not care less. I really mean that …. I’ve come to the following conclusions:

The other day I took a phone call from a reporter who happened to be with the Chronicle of Higher Education. The COHE happens to be one of the oldest and most venerable trade publications for academicians and administrators.

The lady was very nice and obviously quite bright. She asked really great questions.

Her interest was in entrepreneurism. In fact, the only place where she, and in my opinion, missed the mark was when she said, "It seems as if entrepreneurism is now becoming a rather hot topic among college curricula."

I gently disagreed with her, saying, "I agree that it's hot, but I see it more in its maturation, rather than growth stage." (But then again, who am I to judge academic trends?) I personally believe that a lot of students are taking this path because they are tired of feeling the pain that their parents must endure when they are summarily terminated by large and less personal corporations.

I took her through our program and what we did and how we did it. As I said before, her questions were insightful and penetrating. She was either a very quick study or she had put in a lot of time looking at the topic of entrepreneurism on college campuses.

So I said to her, "You're the only reporter I've ever spoken to who really gets it. Congratulations."

To which she replied, "Well, you're the only person I've ever interviewed who emphasizes raising the money one needs to start a business in a way other than by selling off equity. Tell me, why do you seem to avoid this topic altogether?"

I told her at that point that she was knocking on the door of my singularly most vexing topic here at Duquesne University --- the whole emphasis by academia on generating start-up money by selling off ownership stakes.

"I tell my students that there are certainly other ways to find the start-up capital you need and that I in fact have never taken a single dime up-front for any of my start-ups. And that includes a lot of start-ups," I said.

"So, what do you recommend to your students?" she asked.

It’s a Friday afternoon and you just got fired.

This is a scenario that no one wants to live. Yet, it is a scenario that is repeating itself more and more --- especially with baby boomers.

Why? The answer is clear: Boomers have priced themselves out of existence! They have done so by staying with one or a handful of companies far too long. So while their salaries and benefits have always increased with each way stop and/or salary review, so too have the odds that they will be terminated.

This isn’t news --- this has been the case forever. But a few things have changed; and, in so changing, we see the dilemma.

First, everyone is living longer. Over the past century, longevity in the U.S. has increased by more than a decade. Hell, in the year 1900, a 45 year-old was just about ready for the grave.

Why is this a problem? You know why – the nest egg has to stretch far enough to cover the non-earning years beyond retirement.

Secondly, companies have done away with pension and defined benefit programs. Couple this with the fact that Social Security is going broke and Medicare is on its last legs, and you have a potential “sea of gray hairs” wandering the streets, selling apples.

Hey, I’m not making this up, and I hate to paint such a grim picture. But if you’re age 50 and still have nothing put away, you are in one hell of a race for survival.

Now given just these two phenomena, then, the employer’s penchant for terminating expensive executives stings even more. You see, they know full well that they can terminate a 50 year old making $80,000-$100,000 and replace him or her more than adequately with two 30 year-olds and probably have leftover change in their pockets. Furthermore, these young people don’t get sick as often and when they do, it’s a hell of a lot less complex and thus time-consuming.

Businesses don’t care. In fact, and by definition, they can’t. Their mission is to make a profit. For without profit, there is no business. And without a business, no one is employed.