DOUGLAS CASTLE RANTS: Getting ANYTHING Done: Breaking Big Issues Down Into Little Components

GETTING ANYTHING DONE:

BREAKING BIG ISSUES DOWN INTO LITTLE COMPONENTS

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

Your perspective (i.e., your "grand view" of the situation and your emotional response to it) of every important undertaking in your life leading toward your personal and professional success is either a deal-killer or a deal-maker. If your perspective is that a task is impossible, you will likely fail. When you are intimidated or paralyzed with anxiety and inertia over a project that is in your best interest to accomplish or complete, you probably will either avoid it entirely, or commence with a half-hearted effort, with the expectation of disappointment. While we must, of necessity look at every major project macroscopically at the start, we have to find a way to avoid being overwhelmed by its seeming distance from us and its immensity. There's a trick -- every organism is made of cells; every mountain is made of clods of earth; every grand building is made of individual blocks or bricks -- in brief, every big thing is comprised of smaller, less intimidating components. Every large task is really a series of incremental steps.

With the power of your mind, take every large structure and break in down into its bit-sized pieces. With the power of your mind, take every large project and break it down into a series of easily achievable steps or increments toward completion. When you combine the two approaches, you will subconsciously re-configure the "monster" into small components, each of which can be handled individually in a incremental step. With each step, you will feel progress. With each step you will be closer to finishing. With each step, your perceptual, tactical and strategic skills improve, and your efficiency in executing each of successive step increases. At some critical point in the process, you will closer to completion than to starting -- and at that point, the drive to complete the work will practically pull you, like a giant magnet, toward completion.

Anything which you may wish to achieve can be accomplished through this approach.

1. Get the big picture;


2. Steady yourself;


3. Look a the picture in pieces, in components, in cells or steps - break it down into a large number of smaller things...every large object or system is made of smaller objects or systems. Identify them, and choose the one you'd like to get to first;


4. Progress by increments -- occasionally look ahead at the goal, but remember to look back at what you have already accomplished, too;


5. Feel the rush of power, motivation and momentum which grows inside of you as you progress and the cumulative amount of accomplishment grows. Taste, smell and feel the victory as if you had already won.

We accomplish everything important in life by increments. when we are intimidated and rendered overwhelmed by a major task, or a mountainous pile of errands, the best thing to do is to break the monsterous thing into pieces, and do at least one of them. The results are incredible:

1. Your inertia is gone.


2. Your fear goes into retreat.


3. You experience a taste of the joy of progress and accomplishment.


4. You have reduced your burden by several kilos.


5. You now perceive what had seemed as impossible to indeed be increasingly possible.

We succeed in increments. Every path or task is comprised of increments. Assuredly, if you do each increment, the major task is chipped away until it has fully evaporated.

Even writing a "TO DO" list and crossing out the first item is a major step. And don't forget...when you write a list, it is as if you are pouring the burden and negativity out of your brain, and onto a piece of paper. Just like journaling, writing lists can be very therapeutic. Writing things down not only reinforces memory, but it takes away feelings of "Am I forgetting something?" and "Where do I start?"

In the words of folk singer James Taylor, let's "break our neuroses into doable doses."

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

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DOUGLAS CASTLE RANTS: Getting ANYTHING Done: Breaking Big Issues Down Into Little Components

DOUGLAS CASTLE RANTS: Make Money Taking Surveys? - Wishful Thinking

Make Money Taking Surveys? – Wishful Thinking.

(But a wonderful study in suggestion and subliminal marketing, nonetheless)

Dear Friends:

Please take a look at the seemingly wonderful business opportunity presented in the ad above. I pulled it from my spam box just for you. The above ad “header” was culled from the website of the “sponsor” of this “make unlimited money from the comfort of your home” claptrap. The site (actually a slickly-prepared sales landing page), which exploits: 1) the ever-popular dream of making money from home (no selling!), 2) financial desperation in a difficult economy and 3) the gullibility of a great many persons can be found at http://www.pbsurveys.com/ . The pitch is very compelling.

The truth of the matter is that you are being asked to pay a fee for something which you could obtain for free (if it were worth obtaining), and which will prove hideously disappointing.

What actually happens is that you get a list of intermediary companies (not any of the famous ones appearing in the header above – those name brand companies don’t ever pay for you to take a survey) who are either looking to build their mailing lists, or to sell some promotional merchandise to you under the ruse of being willing to pay you for your expert opinion as a consumer.

You sign up to take a survey (sometimes you even pay to participate), which invariably ends up being a very time-consuming labyrinthine batch of inane questions, hyperlinks (deluxe with tracking cookies to adorn your hard drive), and screens, and repeated requirements that you continue to do ridiculous and irrelevant things, like “before you go further with this the survey [to get your pay either in cash or in the form of something exciting like a laptop computer, dining out coupons, a ‘free” service that you do not need and which will eventually default to a setting that actually bills you monthly] subscribe to one of the following ten magazines, or click on the following five websites, or give us some information about yourself, or just sign up for something on a ‘trial basis with no obligation,’ …” and all of the time requiring that you look at more and more irrelevant junk. Douglas Castle calls this the “bring me the witch’s broomstick” ploy. The more time that you invest in being lead about with a ring through your nostril, the more you are emotionally invested in getting to the end of the survey so that you may get your payment.

Few if any of these surveys are ever used for anything more than getting you to buy things, try things, give out information, or click on other websites…the name brand companies you see presented above generally have nothing to do with these “surveys” and never even get to see your responses.

In sum, it is a way to make you work very hard (I once did one of these surveys, and spent 45 minutes before I realized that it wasn’t worth the $10.00 that the sponsor promised), and subscribe to various other things under the guise of it being an opportunity for you to generate a wonderful income (“work as little or as much as you’d like”). Since I did not continue to do what I was being told to do, which involved viewing a never-ending series of screens with products to preview, lists to sign up for, and collection of data about myself), I was not eligible for the payment. That part hurt a bit, but the rules, as they say, are the rules (even if you have no idea of what they are at the beginning), and I resigned myself to other income-producing opportunities.

The bonus that I hadn’t expected was a thunderous, dam-breaking deluge of spam about virtually every kind of useless product or service ever created in Ron Popeil (bold inventor of Veg-O-Matic, Pocket Fisherman, and a Rustoleum-like compound that you spray on your head to give you “the look of a full-head of hair”) Laboratories… wonder mops, slap chops, CD sets, magazines…in fact, I had to actually cancel a number of free trail offers that I had been bamboozled into signing in order to keep my credit card from being charged.

Question: How are these slippery little companies able to convince so many people to participate in these time-consuming exercises in frustration?

Answer: Great selling techniques. To name a few:

1. The header above boasts name brands, nice-looking people, gold-colored lettering, currency in piles, and the notion of freedom. This is so obvious I won’t call it subliminal messaging.

2. The ad copy promises a believable amount of income in return for a seemingly necessary service to be performed at home, at your leisure. Plausibility (no special tools, weapons, talents, or far-fetched and physically-challenging actives are called for) and the chance to earn some money.

3. The notion of being your own boss and investing your time as you see fit. No special qualifications are required to perform this work, but you have a “guaranteed” payday – this appeals to the common folks who are neither corporate executives nor true entrepreneurs.

4. The notion that “thousands” of other people are already doing it and making a fortune within hours of their first mouse click.

5. Some testimonials from “regular” folks who are taking advantage of this wonderful new way to earn honest money.

6. A silken, syrupy voice (the “hostess” actually gives you her name) and video on the website to hypnotize you into a stupor of ambition and positive expectations, and some “real people” talking about how simple and profitable it is. What you do not consciously notice are all of the high-velocity audio and visual subliminal cues relating to wealth, independence, sex and other themes which are embedded into the video, and the site itself.

7. The cost of entry is affordable to most anyone, and it seems as if you are purchasing (at an incredibly low price!) a “license” to begin a little-known, legitimate, money-making career.

And Now, Folks…The purpose in my writing this article is not to debunk moneymaking schemes or to malign anyone at all. My intention is to increase your awareness of selling tools and approaches, subliminal and otherwise. If you are vigilant, you can avoid being ensnared. But better than this – if you have a good product or service and wish to market it, following the above example (with some exceptions, of course) can work to your benefit. In fact, it will work to the benefit of those people who eventually are fortunate enough to become your customers.

Can we learn about marketing from a cheap gimmick?

Yes. Absolutely.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

Douglas Castle

Career Profile: http://bit.ly/DouglasCastle

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DOUGLAS CASTLE RANTS: Make Money Taking Surveys? - Wishful Thinking

DOUGLAS CASTLE RANTS: We Are No Longer Customers. WE ARE VICTIMS.

WE ARE NO LONGER CUSTOMERS. WE ARE VICTIMS.

-- When Critics, Destroyers and Corporate Clones Take Over, and Entrepreneurship and Productivity are Allowed to Languish and Atrophy

This article by Douglas Castle (http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com and http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/douglascastle) was originally published in the The National Networker Newsletter on 05.23.2010

Q: What is even more frightening than a combination of deplorable service, inferior quality, arbitrary fee increases, random charges (pure thievery), dishonored guarantees, de-humanized telephone “help” menus (that run you in circles and keep you on the telephone for hours) flagrant corporate lawlessness (i.e., regulators asleep at their posts, or sleeping with those whom they are supposed to regulate), fewer choices (i.e., more monopolies controlling more territory across more industrial sectors)… a rape of rights… and a lack of any practical means to obtain some relief or redress – and the expectation of the situation to worsen?

A: Acceptance and inaction by an entire population of increasingly willing victims… giving our freedoms and power away in larger and larger increments, and never even trying to regain them.

My third-grade gym teacher would have called this type of attitude and conduct “pathetic.” Today, however, in the interest of being *Politically Correct*, we would substitute the gentle euphemism “accommodating.”

To my unsophisticated understanding, lying down and allowing one’s self to be repeatedly trounced upon (kind of like a college fraternity “hazing”) is not being accommodating – it’s being a voluntary casualty. When you do not fight back, when you do not resist, you are giving the other party implicit license to continue a policy or pattern of abuse. When you actually praise it, subsidize it or reward it (as the US Federal Reserve did in bailing out failing banking institutions), you are encouraging its growth, like a rapidly-metastasizing cancer.

Do you need some real-life examples of this disarray and malodorous decay? Rest assured that you won’t have to look far:

· Go to your bank and ask about getting your mortgage restructured or about getting any type of home loan for a refinance or new purchase (for some genuine fun, clip out an ad which shows their “new low mortgage rate,” and ask if you’re eligible for it);

· Try to telephone your cable services provider to register a complaint with a human;

· Try to decipher all of the “miscellaneous” and mysterious charges on your cellular telephone bill or your credit card statement;

· Watch your health insurance premiums increase year after year;

· Call the Internal Revenue Service and politely ask to speak with someone about a tax question that you’d like answered;

· Have a surgical procedure (of your choice) done in any hospital and prance about in the avalanche of bills that will be waiting for you when you get home, or arriving shortly thereafter…. A pile of separate bills in exorbitant amounts from all types of professionals whom you can’t recall ever having had any interaction with at all. [You’ll want to take a $2.00 Extra-Strength Tylenol to relieve your headache];

· Try to withdraw $10,000.00 of your own funds in cash from your own bank – where you might even know the vice-president or branch manager on a friendly basis;

· Try to get your own candidate on the presidential ballot, or to even elect a president directly by popular vote (majority decision);

· Go through security clearance at an airport;

· Find a lawyer who will take your $10,000 personal injury case on a contingency basis, and will not charge you any “expenses.”

· Visit a Wal-Mart (Adam J. Kovitz finds this endlessly entertaining) and witness ‘enthusiastic consumerism’ and ‘responsive service’ [sarcasm intended].

· Ask the average person on the street for: the name of the Vice-President, the name of the Secretary of State, the meanings of the First or the Second Amendment, or about anything having to do with domestic or international governance or interaction… - best of luck! -

You may ask, “How did this happen?” If you are a bit more introspective and perhaps have an eerie feeling of complicity in this massive, accelerating unraveling of civilization, you might even ask, “How could we have let this happen?”

There are several variables that fuel a successful organization, system or economy. When any of these variables is missing, problems ensue, and the results are ultimately catastrophic if the situation is allowed to continue with an uncorrected defect. By rough analogy, it is similar to what happens when you continue to drive your automobile with a flattened tire. As the situation progresses, through sheer neglect, there will be increasingly expensive damage to your automobile, with collateral damage to your wallet, as well.

The variables that I’ve identified through my work in organizational strategic planning and as an economist which I believe are elements common to the growth and sustenance of any enterprise:

1. Clear objectives, and a consensus among all participants as to what these are. In a true democracy, a consensus is based upon an agreement by all parties that they are willing to be subject to the vote of the majority;

2. Clear priorities. In certain cases, energies and resources have to be taken from one task and reallocated to another. This requires that every specialist at every level of government and society be fully informed (at his or her own effort) of all of the factors affecting the economy, and not just those that pertain immediately and directly to his or her specialty. This requires that every participant have a constantly updated worldview – it does not allow for inertia, blinders, or non-cooperation where the good of the entire civilization is at risk. Conflicts and partisanship must be set aside in order to act effectively in emergencies;

3. Positive incentives (applicable to all participants) for attaining objectives, recognizing and addressing priorities;

4. Negative consequences (applicable to all participants) associated with dereliction of duty, with some allowance, as may be reasonable for mitigating and extenuating circumstances;

5. An inexpensive and rapid system for moderation, arbitration and redress of valid grievances;

6. An open forum for discussion, debate and decision making;

7. The active and informed participation of all constituents in the process of organizational governance, and in the dissemination and analysis of information, which should flow freely;

8. Recognition and fostering of creativity, innovation and imagination – this requires a good education and communications system; and –

9. The entrepreneurial drive – the constant striving for improvement and betterment.

AHA! MOMENT

The entrepreneurial sector, throughout history, has driven all technological and social advances, all productive capacity and all employment. The spark is required to start the fire is entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are almost always the creators, and almost never the destroyers. They are disruptive, just like the grain of sand that irritates the oyster to form a beautiful, smooth pearl.

What do we get when the entrepreneurs are robbed of their innovations and incentives and a bunch of “stuffed shirts” are put in to take them over? Stagnant, conformist culture…an atrophy of problem-solving skills…a proliferation of non-creative, robotic administrators…an entrenchment in the status quo…the transfer of resources and power from the entrepreneurs into the hands of fat cat managers and their conglomerates (parasites), regulators (needing something to regulate, by definition), prosecutors (because everybody loves a sheriff, and only a handful of outlaws are admired), and other species at the great watering hole of the economy. Ah yes – inefficiency, gluttony, and a resistance to change and new ideas.

You probably have figured it out:

We are where we are because…

1. We stopped aggressively fostering and rewarding entrepreneurship, innovation and originality;

2. We began to see profits (at any cost) as both the means and the end for everything, and forgot about the notions of cooperation, collaboration, giving value and the Greater Good;

3. We started become paper-traders and paper-pushers and stopped becoming producers and jobs creators. All of the latest and most celebrated innovations were involved in ways to generate faster, bigger profits while produce the least benefit or service to the consumer and customer;

4. We abdicated our role as activists and became spectators, allowing other power-driven and ambitious people to make all of our decisions for us. What a frightful loss of power and dignity! ;

5. We surrendered all of our freedoms in the interest of safety, and the national security. The end result has been the irretrievable loss of vital freedoms with no real increase in safety or security at all. We chose to be slaves to stronger masters instead of being master of our own fates and champions of our own passions;

6. We accepted the unacceptable and assumed it was inevitable. By just complaining about it and never acting upon our disgust, we condoned abominable indignities, inhumanities and permitted an ever-declining level of social responsibility and service to flourish;

7. We forgot that we were once Human Beings, and we viewed instinct, intuition and the notions of conscience and thoughtfulness as weaknesses instead of as fundamental gifts and focal points of strength.

I ask you, as I often do…Does anyone hear a bell tolling or see clouds gathering on the horizon?

Now I will ask you…Do you want to be a victim when you do not have to be, or have you become so institutionalized that you dare not dream of peace, prosperity and success?

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

*****

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DOUGLAS CASTLE RANTS: We Are No Longer Customers. WE ARE VICTIMS.

DOUGLAS CASTLE RANTS: Sorting Through "Extreme News" From Left, Right and Center

Sorting Through "Extreme News" From Left, Right and Center - A Crucial Skill-Builder At Trend-Spotting and for Strategic Planning.

Author's Note: Every entrepreneur, and every single emerging enterprise requires management, market research, marketing, publicity, branding and a constant re-evaluation of potential future trends. If you are so biased that you deliberately exclude (adversely select against) "radical" or "extremist" publications which don't conform to your pre-existing views, you will merely be recycling your own brand of stupidity -- some call this "the kindling of circular intelligence." Get outside the coffin of comfort and look at what extremist, activist and super-partisan organizations are up to.

The key is to be open to information which comes from any and all sources...to be able to detach yourself emotionally from the political or other agendas of their writers, publishers and promoters, and to gather intelligence which may be actionable.

Every leader, manager, marketing director, financial officer, planning officer, product or service developer must be as an objective Information Hound, to the greatest extent possible.

If you limit your total news intake, you limit your knowledge base, thinking, insight, intellectual growth, analytic ability and efficacy, and ability to survive and thrive. I can read the SPECTATOR, MOTHER JONES, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, BUZZFLASH BULLETIN and THE ROLLING STONE in one sitting. I can listen to NPR as well as a series of Sunday morning sermons, deluxe with sulfur and brimstone. I've watched Limbaugh and Bill Maher (but then again, I've also watched Dexter and Everyone Loves Raymond...)

When it comes to the necessary job of futurism, more information is always better. Learn to expose your yourself to more input, while trusting that your character and judgment will not be hurt in the process. In fact, this testing will get you more in tune with who you truly are -- and that is a wonderful thing. - DC

---------------

Dear Readers:

Some interesting headlines and brief articles from some of the more "extreme" news sources (actually, in many cases these are more appropriately called conjecture sources) may prove to be a fountain of some useful information. Understand that in every article, there is a grain of truth (an initiating spark, fear, or observation which inspired the writer) and a large element of propaganda. The trick is to separate the elements of truth from the surrounding rhetoric. One of the means of doing this is by rudimentary correlative analysis....for example, if two politically opposed groups speak of the same subject and make similar observations about its implications, you might have unearthed a piece of truth.

If two adversaries agree on a common problem or a common trend -- it is invariably one worth watching. Finding these areas of informational intersection is one of a true intelligence analyst or Global Futurist's most important skills. I'll admit that sometimes it is a bit of a stomach-turner to read through the accusations, recriminations, bigotry and hate-speak. But the gold which you will pan from this stream of compost is still gold.

This is a great skill, and a great exercise. Use this analysis tool often, and your abilities to see through the smoke to the spark will increase appreciably.

Visit LEFT, RIGHT AND CENTER at: http://leftrightandcenterwidget.blogspot.com/ , and acquire the widget.

More Info + More sources + Rudimentary Correlative Analysis = Better planning for your life and your business.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle,

Vice Chairman
THE NATIONAL NETWORKER COMPANIES

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DOUGLAS CASTLE RANTS: Sorting Through "Extreme News" From Left, Right and Center

DOUGLAS CASTLE RANTS: Two Keys to Success - 1) Persist and 2) Maintain Momentum

TWO KEYS TO SUCCESS - 1) PERSIST and 2) MAINTAIN MOMENTUM.

Dear Readers:

I was a terrible student, especially when it came to math and physics (college calculus probably caused me some permanent brain damage).

Having said that, I remember a bit about the concept of INERTIA ("...an object at rest tends to remain at rest; similarly, an object in motion tends to remain in motion...") and a bit of wisdom from DRIVER EDUCATION TIPS ( "...when heading uphill, if you take your foot off of the accelerator, not only will you stop going forward, but you'll wind up rolling backward...").

These two principles combine to either make us successful, or to keep us trapped in failure. If we visualize a goal ( i.e., subscribing 1,000 readers, bench pressing 305 pounds, owning a brand new home, mastering a foreign language), we are merely initiating the process. When we take our first action steps (i.e., clicking on a website 100 times per day, calling 15 contacts every morning, working out 4 times per week, writing a paragraph per day), we are merely activating the process.

While it is wonderful to initiate and to activate, we must persist and maintain our momentum in order to actually achieve our goal. It is human nature to get lazy, or to lose enthusiasm after doing something for a short period. This tendency not only causes us not to succeed, but it causes us to fail...to slide backwards and to fall harder... to become disillusioned and to give up our dreams…. to gain 20 pounds after having lost 10.

PERSIST and MAINTAIN YOUR MOMENTUM.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com

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DOUGLAS CASTLE RANTS: Two Keys to Success - 1) Persist and 2) Maintain Momentum

DOUGLAS CASTLE RANTS: Increase Your Productivity

Increase Your Productivity.


Dear Friends, Colleagues and Worthy Adversaries:

I constantly strive to increase my productivity. For whatever reason (refer to the DSM IV), I am compelled to try to attain greater quality and quantity in my efforts at almost everything.. Many of us contend with this same frustration -- to try to accomplish more while using less. My engineering friend, Robert Fried, would term this "efficiency." A good psychotherapist might call it something else.

Many of us suffer from this same conundrum -- in fact, if you are reading this, I rest my case.

At first, I thought it might be a great deal of fun to just come of with a whole bunch of "mock" suggestions. These were such brilliant innovations as:

1. pretending to be incompetent or incapacitated so other people will either avoid you or help you; and,

2. lowering your standard for productivity (so as to increase your productivity in the same manner as that by which our government reduces the deficit, .i.e., semantically, by changing the method of calculation and disguising a lack of accomplishment) so that your current level of productivity is "better than average."

But I believe that it would better serve my readers (and the rest of Humankind) if I were to provide some serious methods for increasing your personal and managerial efficiency.

The methods set forth below are time-tested (not only by me, but by many others in search of better ways through which to accomplish more), and are derived from a number of sources, none of whom I've properly referenced or given attribution -- that would require research and more writing.
---------------

Here is a list of suggested actions (or inactions) for increasing your productivity:

1. COMMUNICATE - When you ask questions, word them precisely; when you instruct others, be certain that your directives are absolutely clear, and that you truly have the other individual's attention; don't assume or surmise -- ask and investigate. A failure to simply stay in touch at regular intervals for brief moments as a matter of social routine can cause your stock to fall with those people most important to you. If others try to communicate with you and you are unresponsive, you will either be perceived as extremely busy or rude. A prompt, succinct statement in response to a question is what we come have come to expect (and to respect) in our leaders.

2. DELEGATE - To the greatest extent possible, assign as much of your responsibilities as possible to other persons who are competent, willing and trustworthy. Delegation of some tasks is difficult because of their personalized nature -- but other tasks merely cause you to lose additional time and opportunity.

3. AUTOMATE - If a task or a process lends itself to automation, then automate it to the greatest extent possible. Don't waste Human time and talent on something which can be accomplished by machine. Learn about technology and leverage it.

4. CONCENTRATE - Focus intently on the tasks which remain for you to perform. Efficient multitasking is generally a myth...usually the "multitasker" (he or she will be text-messaging right across from you at the table while you are talking) does a whole bunch of things very sloppily or poorly, and winds up having to "fix them" or to apologize. Inattention and divided focus are the enemies of achievement, Concentration works best for brief intervals, with breaks to relax and recharge your psychic batteries in-between. If you are stuck at a point in a process, or in reasoning through a problem, it could be because your mind is in need of a rest and is rebelling against you by playing a vindictive game of "hide and seek" with your recall and associative intelligence. As they say at the gym, catch you breath and loosen up between sets of exercise.

5. RECREATE - When you take a rest from intense focus, truly relax by entering into an activity or state that has nothing to do with the project on which you were working. Getting up, going out, walking, listening to music, playing with a Slinky, tai-chi, bending and stretching, meditating, or just having a brief, friendly conversational exchange with someone lets you relax while your subconscious and your instincts continue working on the problem without your forced conscious application of pressure. Interdisperse work and play (or rest) frequently.

On a final note, increased productivity produces envy (and a propensity on the part of some disgruntled underachivers to sabotage your efforts) amongst people who are personally insecure or lazy, but it potentiates increased productivity in the more ambitous and industrious people around you. Yes indeed; productivity is contagious. Lead by example.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle




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DOUGLAS CASTLE RANTS: Increase Your Productivity