THOUGHTS FOR  YEAR-END CONTEMPLATION

  • ‘TIME MANAGEMENT’ IS AN ILLUSION. It passes irrespective of our desire, intention or behavior. So framing efforts to improve productivity or efficiency in the context of the ‘clock’ is misdirected. Reality is that the problem in achieving results is “misplaced attention in a distracting world filled with technology designed to persuade us to engage with it, and constantly conspiring to steal time.” [FORBES] In the face of this factor, DCG have developed a succinct one-hour ‘Lunch & Learn’ program, presented as a courtesy to clients & contacts, which is focused on optimizing efficiency, effectiveness, prioritization and job performance as critical factors for job satisfaction & life balance, and impacting business productivity, profitability & continuity.
  • “UP TO 50% OF MANAGEMENT ARTICLES HAVE INCONSISTENCIES OR ERRORS; one study found 70% of ‘papers’ disclosed too little data to permit independent verification of findings… Too much modern management research is a mess of inconsequential jargon tailor-made to appear in leading journals, as academics are judged on their ability to get papers published (generally by selective use of statistics in search of headline grabbing results), while business schools are ranked on their ability to employ the most prolific of these academics.” The point is that basing strategies on theories reported in journals often isn’t the best or most appropriate’ strategy, and certainly with regard to early stage or emerging businesses.  DCG have decades of experience in optimal management techniques. Let us guide you.  [ECONOMIST – 11/30/19]
  • THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA IS 169 YEARS OLD but increasingly “struggling with anxieties and debates over whether its future remains golden or is inexorably in eclipse.” Most populous & prosperous state in America and fifth largest economy on the planet, California has “incredible diversity of geography, population & culture… but also the chaos of wildfires & blackouts amid the backdrop of a housing affordability crisis fueling one of homelessness, with cities seeing double-digit increases in the number of indigents sleeping on sidewalks/doorways/vehicles/parks/under bridges & highway overpasses” – a result of ‘Sanctuary’ policies which have further allowed Rats to thrive statewide (while policies restrict rat poison to protect coyotes/raccoons/skunks/etc. from ‘secondary poisoning’ in case they come into contact until slow-acting poison takes effect) and “rodents in Los Angeles are estimated to have grown by 50% in five years.”  Beyond natural disasters, citizens and illegals “have endured one self-inflicted mess after another throughout the past two decades” – widespread blackouts, tripled energy bills, a liberal unicameral legislature unparalleled in activism against federal regulation, with half the tax revenue provided by only the top 1%. “More nation-state than U.S. state, California is a land of plenty” but at a crossroad, as emigration now outpaces immigration with increasing distrust and dismay of citizens.  [BUSINESSWEEK – 11/11/19 and ECONOMIST – 11/23/19]
  • ‘RACISM’ IS A WORD WHICH HAS TODAY LOST ALL MEANING, due to “duplicity of the accusers, and their relentless invocations of the word in a political game frontloaded against Republicans.” An MSNBC host called talking about Food Stamps racist; Daily Beast accused Romney of being ‘race-mongering’ for using the word Obamacare; a presidential candidate boasts opposition to ‘environmental racism’; a Baltimore reporter called Trump a racist for saying the city is a ‘rodent-infested mess’; Megan Kelly was branded a racist for recalling that blackface on Halloween used to be okay; calling Kamala Harris ‘overconfident’ branded Ellen Pompeo as a racist; GOP leaders complaining about IRS abuses against conservative organizations were labeled racists; Walmart was charged with racism when it marked down the price of unsold black dolls for sale purposes; ‘proof’ of Trumps racism was his calling the impeachment fiasco a ‘lynching’ (Biden’s exact word when Clinton was being impeached); and on and on. “The devaluing of racism began from teachings of ‘racial micro-aggressions’ in our nation’s leading colleges & universities; Asking someone ‘where are you from’ or an Asian person to help with a math or science problem; Saying ‘the most qualified person should get the job’; Opining ‘there is only one race – the human race’… Our winner of 2019s Stupidest Media P.C. Award goes to British Broadcasting (BBC) which is “teaching young children in a series of ‘educational’ videos that there are at least 100 genders for human beings, and that they may gender-identify” as they see fit.   [LBN EXAMINER – 11/20 and 12/15/19]
  • A NEW YEAR – A TIME TO FOCUS

When your focus on existence is about the things you own, and pleasure of the moment gets pre-empted by your phone; when you recognize your world of colors turning monotone, do you ponder the unknown?  When pattern keeps repeating and becomes your life routine, so everything seems yin or yang with nothing in between; when you recognize the world around you having turned obscene, are you following your dream?

When novels, art or music are pre-empted by remote control, and the more you try to change your life, the deeper looks your hole; when you sense the way you’re headed doesn’t lead to any goal, do you wonder of your soul?  When your focus of attention is immediate in need and the cause of present tension stems from pursuing greed; when you recognize selfishness as the priority you heed, is it time to intercede?

When your focus on the HERE and NOW is all that you envision versus WHERE you wish to get to and how every next decision almost certainly impacts your eventual position, is your path toward any mission?  Reality is just a collective hunch–not black or white, but gray. It’s time to get a focus where you wish to be some day, or a time will come when you may find it impossible to say if you’ve ever found your way.                    [DENNIS GRAY]