Douglas Castle: The Business Of Life.

This blog contains a randomly composed collection of audios, images, videos and postings of things which inspire me, provoke me, or which simply get me to perceive life in a new way.

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Letting Others Know Your Value We are all obligated (unless we are extremely well-referred by a very credible third party) to invest some time with a prospective client in explaining precisely what we have to offer him or her, and how it may be of significant benefit.

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In The Grip Of Technocracy Most of us live on the grid, as a matter of social convention, and as a function of a creativity shortfall when it comes to tending to the most mundane features and obligations of our lives.

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Castle's 1st Law Of Entrepreneurship

Castle’s 1st Law Of Entrepreneurship

Simply stated, the Law is very, very basic: “The less capital that you have, the better your decisionmaking processes have to be.”

The reasoning should be obvious, yet it seems to elude many aspiring and even better-established entrepreneurs. If you have less capital, your margin for error is greatly reduced – it stands to reason, that when walking the tightrope (as all entrepreneurs do) without…

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Sunk Costs: Don't Water A Dead Tree

Sunk Costs: Don’t Water A Dead Tree

As Human Beings, we become emotionally attached to the products of our own original thoughts or actions. We coddle them and give them preference. And we often continue to subsidize their beleaguered post-mortem existence by throwing good money after bad. This is a function of the flawed logic that by thowing more money at a dead thing, we can achieve its resurrection, thereby saving our initial…

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Visionaries versus Leaders

Visionaries see fantastic things that few, less imaginative people, every truly see. They make connections between events and objects and derive keenly insightful and futuristic conclusions. They are innately inspired and are, themselves, inspiring to others. They are often blessed with an immensity of intensity and with an unusally sharp and dedicated focus. They picture things as they are to…

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No Capital? Don’t Startup. I believe that lean startups can be successful on rare occasions. But I also believe that without at least a minimum "critical mass" of operating capital, most ultra-lean, idea-based startups are doomed to failure.

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Simple Acts Of Kindness = Good Business Kindness is a powerful business strategy and an amazingly effective tool. Simple acts of kindness and courtesy in the world of business are sufficiently rare that to be perform them is to be exceptional.

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Negotiation: Keep Your Head You cannot negotiate (or even manage, for that matter) if you are feeling and acting desperate, angry, pressured, resentful, inferior, or any of those emotions which can derail objective performance.

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Don't Breathe Your Own Ether!

Don’t Breathe Your Own Ether!

When it comes to ideas about strategies, technology, planning, marketing — you name it — we are, each and every one of us — self-centric. We believe that our own ideas are the best. And generally speaking, we will delude ourselves (if that’s what it takes) in order to defend our positions and opinions about virtually everything. It’s not a matter of conceit — it’s more a matter of how we are…

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Human Assets: Taking Serious Inventory In your personal life and in your business, people are your greatest assets. If you treat them properly and work with them effectively, they produce tremendous returns in a vastness of forms.

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The Bitcoin Supremacy

As I write this, bitcoin is priced at an incredible $1,300+. In the new and rapidly-emerging world of digital currencies, Bitcoin (or bitcoin, with a lower case “b”) reigns supreme. It has been around the longest, is the most valuable per trading unit, and is always held up as the exemplar of crytocurrencies, cyber currencies and “distributed” virtual currencies. Uncontrolled by any central bank…

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Crappy Content Overload

There is a big rucus and a fuss (never try to combine those two words, incidentally, even if the possibilities are hysterical) over the importance of creating and broadcasting “original” content. It seems everyone is doing it. We are inundated with emails and social media messages and curated articles and newsletters and (yes!) blog posts which are a veritable overflowing outhouse of…

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Multitasking? No. Rotational Tasking? Yes.

Multitasking is really a mythical pursuit. No one can effectively multitask – invariably they are unfocused on any single task so that the each of the individual tasks being “addressed” ultimately suffers for lack of a dedicated effort. As Human Beings, we are not wired to multitask. In order to accomplish things, we must utilize a concentrated, intellectually committed effort. The more that you…

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Fear Versus Ambition

It is ever so sad to think that fear of loss (or of pain) is a much more powerful motivator than the opportunity for gain. Nonetheless, bear this truth in mind when engaged in negotiations. But wait (there’s more!)

Going further, it seems that the optimal blend of inducements to action is a combination of fear coupled with an opportunity for gain. This has worked quite well for such successful…

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Learning From Failure: Necessity Or Luxury? It seems that a great many of the business gurus and pundits among us are extolling the virtues of failure as a path to ultimate success.

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Delusions Of Adequacy: Dealing With Clients, Diplomatically

If your profession or business has ever cast you in the role of being a consultant or advisor, you have doubtless experienced the resistance on the part of your potential and existing clients (either within or outside of your organization) to acknowledge or admit to their ignorance or inadequacies – especially to an outsider coming into their businesses (and their lives) to tell them how to do…

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The Power To Destroy

In this life, from both an interpersonal standpoint as well as a business standpoint, the ability to destroy — to disrupt, displace, take away, render unusable, etc. — tends to trump the power to create. The individual with the power to destroy something that is enjoyed or needed by the greater many is feared, and all too often is able to extort whatever he wants from the worried masses. While…

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