Creativity

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Bush and the Psychology of Incompetent Decisions
By John P. Briggs, MD, and J.P. Briggs II, PhD

Thursday 18 January 2007
President George W. Bush prides himself on "making tough
decisions." But many are sensing something seriously troubling, even
psychologically unbalanced, about the president as a decision-maker.
They are right.
Because of a psychological dynamic swirling around deeply hidden
feelings of inadequacy, the president has been driven to make
increasingly incompetent and risky decisions. This dynamic makes the
psychological stakes for him now unimaginably high. The words
"success" and "failure" have seized his rhetoric like metaphors for
his psyche’s survival.
The president’s swirling dynamic lies "hidden in plain sight" in
his personal history. From the time he was a boy until his religious
awakening in his early 40s, Bush had every reason to feel he was a
failure. His continued, almost obsessive, attempts through the years
to emulate his father, obtain his approval, and escape from his
influence are extensively recorded.
His biography is peppered with remarks and behavior that allude to
this inner struggle. In an exuberant moment during his second campaign
for Texas governor, Bush told a reporter, "It’s hard to believe, but
… I don’t have time to worry about being George Bush’s son. Maybe
it’s a result of being confident. I’m not sure how the psychoanalysts
will analyze it, but I’m not worried about it. I’m really not. I’m a
free guy."
A psychoanalyst would note that he is revealing here that he has
been worrying about being his father’s son quite a lot.
Resentment naturally contaminated Bush’s efforts to prove himself
to his father and receive his father’s approval. The contradictory mix
showed up in his compulsion to re-fight his father’s war against Iraq,
but this time winning the duel some thought his father failed to win
with Saddam. He could at once emulate his father, show his contempt
for him, and redeem him. But beneath this son-father struggle lies a
far more significant issue for Bush – a question about his own
competence, adequacy and autonomy as a human being.
We have seen this inner question surface repeatedly, and we have
largely conspired with him to deny it.
• On September 11, 2001, we saw (and suppressed) the image
of him sitting stunned for seven minutes in a crowd of school children
after learning that the second plane had hit the Twin Towers, and then
the lack of image of him when he vanished from public view for the
rest of the day. Instead, we bought the cover-up image, three days
after the attack, of the strong leader, grabbing the bullhorn in New
York City and issuing bellicose statements.

• In 2004, we saw and denied the insecurity displayed when
the president refused to face the 9/11 Commission alone and needed
Vice President Cheney to go with him.

• In 2003, we saw and suppressed the dark side of the
"Mission Accomplished" aircraft carrier landing, in which a man who
had ducked out on his generation’s war and dribbled away his service
in the Texas Air National Guard dressed up like Top Gun and pretended
that he was a combat pilot like his father.

• Asked by a reporter if he would accept responsibility for
any mistakes, Bush answered, "I hope I don’t want to sound like I’ve
made no mistakes. I’m confident I have. I just haven’t – you just put
me under the spot here, and maybe I’m not quick – as quick on my feet
as I should be in coming up with one." What we heard, and yet didn’t
hear, was a confession of his feelings of inadequacy and an arrogant
denial those feelings all at once.

• In early 2006, when his father moved behind the scenes to
replace Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the son responded,
"I’m the decider and I decide what’s best" – and when he clenched his
fist at a question about his father’s influence, proclaiming, "I’m the
Commander in Chief" – we glimpsed what was going on.

To cover up and defend himself against his feelings of his
inadequacy and incompetence, Bush developed a number of psychological
defenses. In his school years he played the clown. (His ability to
joke about his verbal slip-ups is an endearing adult application of
this defense to public life.) His heavy drinking was a classic way to
anesthetize feelings of inadequacy. Indeed, drinking typically makes
the alcoholic grandiose, which has led some commentators to argue that
Bush has the "dry drunk" syndrome, where the individual has stopped
drinking but retains the brittle psychology of the alcoholic. Other
defenses now play especially powerful roles to protect the president
against his internal feelings of insufficiency.
The Christian Defense
Bush has carefully let it be known that he believes the decisions
he makes in office are directed by God. His famous claim to make
decisions by "gut" ("I’m a gut player," he told Bob Woodward) equates
with his claim of the spiritual inspiration he receives through
prayer, his own and the prayers of others. Whatever else it is, this
equation of his own choices with God’s will has unparalleled
advantages. It creates the perfect defense against any doubts he or
anyone else might have that he can’t make the right decision. The need
to engage in analysis and explore alternatives to get there comes off
the table. Instead, he has his gut; he has his God.
Being "born again" also allows the president to present himself as
having relegated to the past all those previously inadequate behaviors
of his younger days: the poor academic performance, the drinking, the
failed businesses. He’s a new man, no longer incompetent but now
supremely competent as a result of his faith.
When Woodward asked Bush if he had consulted his father before
invading Iraq, he replied, "He is the wrong father to appeal to in
terms of strength. There is a higher father that I appeal to." How
wonderfully that appeal must seem to resolve the internal conflict
about adequacy we have described above.
The Bully Defense
Bush’s mother, Barbara (sarcastic, mean, disciplinarian, always
with an acid-tongued retort), is probably the model for another major
defense Bush deploys to defend himself against feelings of inadequacy.
A friend at the time described her as "sort of the leader bully."
That bullies are insecure people is well known and fairly obvious.
A bully covers insecurity with bluster and intimidation so that others
won’t find an opening to see how weak he feels.
Much of the world outside the US considers Bush a bully. "You’re
either with us or against us" is a bully’s threat that anyone can
recognize. The Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strikes is a bully’s
doctrine.
For his intimates and those closer to home, Bush appears to be
what is called an emotional bully. An emotional bully gains control
using sarcasm, teasing, mocking, name calling, threatening, ignoring,
lying, or angering the other and forcing him to back down. Bush
administration insider accounts describe this sort of behavior from
the president. He’s well known for his dismissive remarks. His
penchant for giving nicknames to everyone has its dark, bully’s side.
Naming people is a way to control them.
In report by Gail Sheehy in 2000, recalled recently by New York
Times columnist Maureen Dowd, we get a glimpse of how Bush’s pervasive
fear of failure (his absolute refusal to consider "failure as an
option") and his bully defense go together. Sheehy interviewed friends
from his teenage years and college years. In basketball or tennis
games he would insist points be played over because he wasn’t ready;
he would force opponents who had beaten him to continue playing until
he beat them. At Yale he would interrupt his fellow students’ studying
for exams (helping them fail) to compete in a popular board game, "The
Game of Global Domination," at which he was the player noted for
taking the most risks, being the most aggressive.
It’s likely that speculations about Vice President Cheney, Donald
Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice functioning as Bush’s puppet-masters are
180 (or at least 160) degrees off. Bush is the president; he gets his
way, and they know it. Chances are they have learned to channel his
"gut" and give him policy advice that matches it. They may even
imagine they are steering him, not clear about the ways that he has
bullied them, elicited in them "The Stockholm Syndrome," in which
hostages come to identify with and even defend the very person who is
threatening them. This is the same dynamic evident in the behavior of
battered spouses and members of gangs.
Ron Suskind described the small group around the president: "A
disdain for contemplation or deliberation, an embrace of decisiveness
– a sometimes bullying impatience with doubters and even friendly
questioners."
Biographical reports tell us that Bush’s parents taught him to
keep his inner feelings to himself. As psychiatrist Justin A. Frank
noted in Bush on the Couch, this results in a "self-protective
indifference to the pain of others." This is another aspect of his
bully defense, projecting his inner pain onto others. Bush’s
remarkable drive for the power to torture terrorist suspects and his
reported glorying in Texas executions during his terms as governor
testify to his lack of compassion, despite his recent statement of
qualms about seeing Saddam Hussein drop through the trap.
The Man of Splits and Oppositions
Being in the world, for all of us, involves the challenge to
somehow integrate the opposites of our nature and to select our way
through the many opposing choices presented us in life. The bully
polarizes the natural ambivalence (the internal opposition) anyone
feels about whether he is strong or weak, safe or vulnerable. A person
who needs to feel invulnerable and completely adequate all the time,
or who always feels helpless and inadequate, has polarized these
emotions and leads a deformed life. The degree of internal
polarization in President Bush appears to be serious – and widespread.
Commentators have made lists of the president’s polarities: the
proclaimed uniter who is a relentless divider, the habit of "saying
one thing and doing another," as Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords put it.
The list is long and growing. It should include the oppositions that
show up in his famous Bushisms, such as:
There is no doubt in my mind that we should allow the world worst
leaders to hold America hostage, to threaten our peace, to threaten
our friends and allies with the world’s worst weapons.

They [the terrorists] never stop thinking of ways to harm our
country and our people – and neither do we.

To a psychiatrist, these are not mere malapropisms and mistakes in
speech. They suggest ambivalence oscillating violently between poles.
They suggest a desperate uncertainty about everything that the
president reflexively seeks to hide by taking absolutist, rigid
positions about "victory," "success," "mission accomplished," "stay
the course," "compassion," "tax cuts," "no child left behind," and a
host of other issues.
The Presidential Defense
Once Bush took the bullhorn at ground zero, he found perhaps the
ultimate defense for his secret fears of inadequacy. As he told Bob
Woodward, in Bush at War, "I’m the commander – see, I don’t need to
explain – I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the
interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to
explain to me why they say something, but I don’t feel like I owe
anybody an explanation." As commander in chief, as a war president, he
could assemble his other psychological defenses around him. He could
split the world into good and evil and the country would follow. His
internal oppositions could be projected without much resistance from
the populace or his adversaries. He could be the gut-led, divinely
inspired "Decider," to save the country. He could project own internal
fears of being "discovered as a fraud" into a threat "out there"
waiting to happen. He could surround himself with loyalists whom he
could emotionally bully, creating a new family that would admire him
and that he could control. Meanwhile the ambiguities of political
decisions that can always be rationalized offer a safe haven. Until
history judges me (and that’s a long way off, maybe never) I can’t be
definitively seen as incompetent.
But as much as the presidency is a perfect defense for disguising
incompetence, it’s also the perfect trap. It accelerates the positive
feedback loop that was set in motion when he "changed his heart"
around age 40 (committing himself to God) and presumably put his
failures, and his feelings of failure behind him.
In recent weeks, anyone following the news must have intuitively
sensed from watching and hearing the president that he would reject
the Iraq Study Group’s report, co-authored by a person he must have
felt was the emissary of his father come to tell him that he had
failed again. He chose escalation, the one solution most knowledgeable
people agree cannot succeed, in order to keep alive the fiction that
success still lies in the future.
The dynamic is becoming obvious to almost everybody.
But how much is Bush aware of this psychological dynamic and of
the secret he’s keeping? Not aware enough. That’s the problem.
Psychotherapists use the term "unconscious," but it isn’t quite an
accurate descriptor. We are aware of feelings, sensations and scripts
that occur when one of our unseen psychic mechanisms is triggered. So,
when an interviewer asked about the generals who demanded Rumsfeld be
removed, and the president knew his father had been working behind the
scenes to replace Rumsfeld, the question would not have triggered the
conscious thought: there goes dad again trying to make me feel
incompetent. Instead, the president may have felt a hollow sensation
or a flush of anger, an urge to form a clownish grin to cover his
watery feelings, and a script that would come out of his mouth as "I’m
the decider." Beneath that would be the inadequacy and cover-up
dynamic outlined here.
A president’s psychology and his inner secrets are his or her own
business, except in one important area. That is area covered by the
question, "Does the psychology of this individual interfere with his
or her ability to make sound decisions in the best interest of the
nation?" Recent history has certainly been witness to presidents with
psychodynamics that have damaged their historical legacies. Bill
Clinton and Richard Nixon come to mind. But in neither case was the
very ability to make sound decisions compromised to the extent we
believe it is with this president.
A Failed Process
Many accounts of the president suggest that his decision-making
process is a failed one; in an important sense, it is no process at
all.
Ambivalent feelings are normal at certain stages of
decision-making, and the ability to tolerate ambivalence has been
shown to be the hallmark of creative thinkers. The inability to
tolerate uncertainty because you think that may imply incapacity
brings decision-making to an end.
Thus, instead of focusing on the process needed to arrive at a
decision, Bush marshals his defenses in order not to feel incompetent.
That doesn’t leave much room for exploring the alternatives required
of competent decision-making. Not interested in discussion or detail
(where the devil often lies), he seeks something minimal, just enough
so he can let the decision come to him; it’s his "gut" (read "God")
that will provide the answer. But these gut feelings are the very
feelings associated with his deep sense of inadequacy and his defenses
against those feelings. So while he brags that he makes the "tough
decisions," psychologically, he’s defending himself against the very
feelings of uncertainty that are the necessary concomitant to making
tough decisions. His tough decision-making is a sham.
In the recent maneuvering toward the "new strategy" in Iraq, we
have witnessed a great pretense of normal decision-making. But the
president clearly made up his mind almost as soon as the "surge"
alternative appeared, and apparently moved to cow others, including
his new secretary of defense Robert Gates (his father’s man) in the
process. "Success" is the only alternative for him. "Failure" and
disintegration of Iraq is unthinkable because it would be synonymous
with his own internal disintegration.
As his decisions go awry, he exudes a troubling, uncanny aura of
certitude (though some find it reassuring). He seems to expect to feel
despised and alone (and probably has always felt that), as he has
always secretly expected to fail. That expectation of failure leads to
sloppy, risky, incompetent decisions, which in turn compel him to
swerve from his fears of incompetence.
At this point, the president seems to have entered a place in his
psyche where he is discounting all external criticism and
unpopularity, and fixing stubbornly on his illusion of vindication,
because he’s still "The Decider," who can just keep deciding until he
gets to success. It’s hard not to feel something heroic in this
position – but it’s a recipe for bad, if not catastrophic, decisions.
Psychologically, President Bush has received support for so long
because many have thought of him as "one of us." Most of us feel
inadequate in some way, and watching him we can feel his inadequacies
and sense his uncertainties, so we admire him for "pulling it off."
His model tells us, "If you act like you’re confident and competent,
then you are." We are the culture that values the power of positive
thinking and seeks assertiveness training. We believe that the right
attitude can sometimes be more important than brains or hard work.
He’s bullied us, too. We don’t dare to really confront the scale of
his incompetent behavior, because then we would have to face what it
means to have such an incompetent and psychologically disabled
decision-maker as our president. It raises everyone’s uncertainty. And
that is, in fact, happening now.
———-
John P. Briggs, MD, is retired from over 40 years of private
practice in psychotherapy in Westchester County, New York. He was on
the faculty in psychiatry at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center
in New York City for 23 years and was a long-time member of the
American Academy of Psychoanalysis. He trained at the William Alanson
White Institute in New York. J.P. Briggs II, PhD, is a Distinguished
CSU professor at Western Connecticut State University and is the
senior editor of the intellectual journal The Connecticut Review. He
is author and co-author of books on creativity and chaos, including
Fire in the Crucible (St. Martin’s Press); Fractals, the Patterns of
Chaos (Simon and Schuster); and Seven Life Lessons of Chaos
(HarperCollins), among others. He is currently at work with
Philadelphia psychologist John Amoroso on a book about the power of
ambivalence in the creative process.
This is propaganda, FYI. If it were not, it would mention the elitist families who are telling Bush what to do. Bush is a puppet and I never did like puppet shows and I friggin’ HATE puppet masters.

That’s just a bunch of crap. Strung together by some old hippie that probably voted for Dukakis as well.

I’m sure I could pay someone to write an analysis that shows consistency and strength in Bush’s decision making abilities if I chose to.

I’m not saying Bush is perfect, and is a great speaker, or that I have always agreed with every decision. It’s just that everything I read above is used to prove some failing or deficiency in Bush. Remember that what some people see as negative, such as being arrogant, others will interpret as self-confidence. When some say he isn’t listening to other opinions, others will say he is decisive. One thing’s for sure, he doesn’t want to take a poll and base his decision on only the popular way to go.

The auto industry has always been known to be a dynamic industry. Year in and year out, car makers look for ways to improve their production vehicles. They focus not only on the performance of their car but also in the looks of these automobiles.

That is why car designers have always played a key role in the auto industry. In connection with this, car makers are always on the lookout for promising students. Lately, the industry has found a new spot where talented car design students thrive: South Korea.

While the country has only a short time of car making history compared to Japanese and Western countries, students from the country are touted to be one of the best in the world. Koreans have been employed by car manufacturers like Nissan and Mercedes-Benz. Some attributes that these South Korean designers have that impressed chief designers from the aforementioned car makers are their technical skills, work ethic, and creativity.

Shiro Nakamura, the chief Creative Officer and Head of Design for Nissan, said that: “When I first saw the sketches that Korean students were drawing, I was utterly shocked. Their design is very emotional and powerful. I hate to say it, but they are miles ahead of Japanese students, both in terms of design sense and technique. There’s no comparison”. He further said that Nissan will probably hire more Korean designers this year than Japanese ones.

The most known school where South Korean designers come from is the Hongik University which is located in the country’s capital. The university is the country’s top fine arts school. The Seoul-based school only offered the transportation design course in 1990, last year the number of students accommodated is doubled to 120.

Aside from homegrown talents, South Korea also produced some of the best young designers in the world. On of them is Jae Chung. He did not study in South Korea but out in the West. He graduated from the Art Center in California. Today he is now working for Dodge and the interesting fact is that he penned the Dodge Demon sports coupe currently on display at the 77th Geneva International Auto Show.

Ralph Gilles, the Vice President of Design for Chrysler, has this to say about Chung: “He was born in Korea and went to school in Pasadena. And it’s just like anything -you get exposed to the school, you get exposed to Chrysler and Dodge and out comes this new aesthetic.”

Another Korean, and also an alumnus of the Art Center, Han Seung Lee landed a job at Honda. Lee, in turn, penned the Sports 4 Concept shown to the public at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2005. This shows that Koreans have what it takes to take on the world of car designing as sure as a Mercedes H&K air filters are efficient when it comes to doing their job.

Another chief designer which expressed admiration toward Korean design students is Koichi Hayashi, Deputy General Manager of Design for Mazda. He said that: “There’s a real passion among Korean designers to advance and succeed that exceeds what you see in Japanese students.” Currently, he has four Korean designers working for him at their Hiroshima headquarters.

The emergence of South Korea as a source of talented car designers is a good news for Japanese car makers. Due to the similarities in language structure and working culture of Japan and South Korea, Korean designers have an edge over their Western counterparts when applying for a job in any Japanese car company. Furthermore, Koreans are more willing than Westerners to work for relatively low starting salaries offered by Japanese car companies.

According to Nakamura, “all the pieces are in place, right now, young Korean designers are most sought after by Japanese carmakers but they can make it in the West anytime.” But Korean students should not rest on their laurels since in the near future – other countries in the world will also be producing design students at par with them. Countries like China, Russia, and India have all invested in training their car design students to be competitive in the auto industry.

Mike Bartley
http://www.articlesbase.com/automotive-articles/korean-car-designers-set-to-conquer-auto-industry-115655.html

Sir Winston was kicked out of school becuase he was pretty much considered a dunce. Same with Albert Einstien and a few others ……….Sir Winston said that he felt school was a trainging ground for dunces and implied that the education syestem took away the ability of men to think.

Is this true does the mostly memorised scripts of children in classrooms take initiative creativity and thought away ? It really does not get better in University (it doesn;t) it changes but the majority of time is still spent reading and parroting someone elses opinion (source whats your source?)

Have we mistaken training for education? Small children in grade one are curious ask questions non stop ten fifteen years later not one hand in the air to ask anything – What went wrong?
trollhair
Level 3

Listen buddy. You NEED to stay in school and learn how to spell and construct sentences. Forget what others say or do concentrate on YOU.

Grade 13 a BA in theology an MA in pschology a coach’s cert trainers lic.
owner operator of a small bussines and a few other things didn’t teach me to spell – the war for my grammar and spelling is over I’ve come to peace with it now it’s your turn
ElOsoBravo
Level 4
I disagree – he would have said it – no one would have written it down or cared but he still would have said it-my opinion based on watching old farmers reactions to the "educated".

Unfortunately, I believe the task of most undergraduate educational systems is to

1. Squash that bothersome imagination
2. Train students how to take tests
3. Teach there is a right way and a wrong way, with no room for critical thinking

I’m from a family of doctors & engineers. My training under my Govt. officer father’s eye was of a sternly simple life. He was determined that I should not be an exception in the family. And with the help of Almighty I didn’t grow up as an exception. In fact, If I divide life into two parts: “End of the Beginning” and “Beginning of the End”, I’m quite proud for a happy ending of the Beginning by pursuing a Bachelor in Computer Science.

But the story of the second part “Beginning of the End” is quite different. My whole family is settled in USA & I’m also in the pipeline for immigration. But may be the story of my life could be different if I could arrange that hefty amount of money I was asked by a broker to bring to the residence of a PSC (Public Service Commission) member. Thus, a terrible family crisis precipitated with rapidity. At one side, there was not only my strong desire to join cadre service at any cost prompted by the sorrow stories of my BCS (Bangladesh Civil Service) failed brilliant friends living abroad but also my dissatisfaction over private jobs.

On the other hand, all my conservative family members from the USA was against my need to bribe, ridiculed me for being so dumb … saying you wont need to stay in a country where no one is safe and there isn’t any opportunity to explore your true energy, creativity & potentiality …Even now a days the life of an honest govt. official is not safe like our fathers time, cause if you don’t have link with political party high ups you could jeopardize your career and secured personal life. Despite all their heartbreaking teasing, I really wanted a simple living like the hero of my life “My Father” albeit he was single-minded that I should not be a black ship in his family.

Still now after years whenever I think of those crucial hours of my life, I just find myself in a mad rage over that PSC(Public Service Commission) official’s demand, feel so bad about the fighting with all my family members, relatives …begging money to my poor colleagues. Good thing is, now I want to assure them that I’ve totally got those stupid thoughts, angers out of me and I beg apology to them for all those misconducts.

Indeed all together that was a bitter lesson – the bitterest I think so far that really is playing a great role in the second part of my life “Beginning of the End”.

How time flies… All my childhood dreams crushed into real life. … …practicing life in the hardest way…very little energy left for pleasurable family life, friends after looking at all the horrific happenings around me.. this is what life is all about right now in Bangladesh.

Being at the brutal “Beginning of the End” of life is the hardest thing on earth at this moment. However, looking at the political turmoil during the last few months, questions arouse in my mind: does democracy exist in this country? Is it why my father fought for this country, though he didn’t care for a freedom fighter certificate?

In fact the way I see it, after all this episode of political game is over,

BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) or AL (Awami League) whoever is chosen by this ever forgetting/ forgiving nation with mountain of thunderous promises, they will blatant selfishly only uphold and safeguard the interest of their electors by shamelessly ignoring the actuality and will be more concerned about taking bigger bribes and come out with more safety measures to steal even bigger objects.

Same thing is occurring in this part of the world for centuries. Sometimes I wonder, Is it true that the present political situation arouses out of our forefathers mistakes, made one after another without foreseeing the upcoming blow?

Right now the nation is fighting an uphill battle against corruption. In our 36- years history, this is the first time we are seeing such a large number of rich, powerful and untouchable people behind bars. All these are taking place under a caretaker government whose legitimacy is overwhelmingly accepted but credibility is still untested. Time will say whether to congratulate them for their unprecedented, bold and historical move against the corrupt leaders. The people of Bangladesh will remember this CG (Caretaker Government) for a long time if they could wipe out corruptions from every sector of the society by bringing all the criminals behind the bars ensuring justice is done and sending the traditional family oriented political practice into museum who were using Bangladesh as their private business ground ignoring the normal citizens hassle.

Of course they can’t invent any instant remedy to restore decaying social mores of decades prompted by those in the highest seats of power in the country as they repeatedly rewarded widespread fraud over truthful warden ship, commode incompetence over professional competence, personal or party fidelity over merit and all other associates that fly in the face of unfair demeanor, meritocracy and rule of law. We have to give this CG (Caretaker Government) enough time to bring qualitative change in the political culture of the country as a whole so that democracy here starts to learn how and why they should elect the best man to public offices who will set the radar of the country towards the right direction without any fear.

I want to see alternative leaderships in the Bangladesh as all of the ex-ruling parties are seriously suffering from intelligibility, sincerity, answerability, inequity, intra-party democracy….(it wont finish). It’s our pride that despite the mountain of burdens, literacy rate is doubled over the last 35 years. Surely the days of politics with left or right, underworld or family-world are shrinking when I see Dr. Yunus (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 2006) accompanied with different mindset people entering politics. I know they can’t change everything overnight. But definitely they are only hope left for us who can show us the silver lining after the blood baths for the ast 36 years. I’m wishing the best of luck to all the bold efforts taken so far. Definitely someday these will crate better opportunities for happy beginning or ending of every life and bring the best out of this hardworking nation.

Reeaz Uddin
http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/the-present-political-turmoil-in-my-country-135835.html

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Savvy marketing executives and business owners are leading a new business trend. No longer content with being passive participants in networking groups, they are taking charge of their business growth and producing their own events designed to generate more leads and more sales.

The event marketing formula is a simple one. Host an event whereby you create an opportunity for your guests to network. Give away valuable information that helps your guests in their professional and personal life. And then take an opportunity to pitch your wares.

Is it generating more leads and more sales? You bet! Trading valuable information for leads and sales can truly be a rewarding social, financial and business experience. And leveraging that information in the context of producing your own networking events has its benefits. For example, as the event producer, you create the potential to:

Quickly garner trust as a leader in your area of expertise.
Collect attendee information and use it to follow up.
Create opportunity for yourself and others.
Disseminate valuable information that creates real world results for your networking group.
Entertain and educate your clients, suppliers and potential customers which fosters relationships and builds more trust.
Most importantly, you create a built-in opportunity to pitch your wares or upsell your products and services to a specific target market.

When producing networking events, there are few guidelines you want to follow:

No one appreciates a maverick producer. The last maverick event I went to, the leader, a group insurance re-seller by trade, was clearly using his group to scope out potential candidates for something else. The day following his event, I received his multi-level-marketing pitch. Annoyed by my own ignorance, I now interview network group leaders before I find myself attending potential maverick productions.

Avoid being a passive event producer (PEP). A PEP is a business professional with an authentic agenda to help grow local businesses or help charities. However, PEP producers often fall short of creating fruitful networking experiences. For example, one of our local networking groups invites its members to a different local business once a month. The owner gives a very dull speech about the history of the business. Afterwards, there is one hour for us to network with wine and cheese in hand. The unfortunate part is that both the PEP and the business host have completely missed the opportunity to engage the guests and create a critical flow of information. A well produced event might hire an entertaining host and lead networking games and exercises and lead active participation. The whole idea is to raise the energy level in the room and engage your guests. This creative energy usually manifests into opportunity because you have stimulated the flow of information.

Even though the lack of a good networking structure will eventually diminish your audience, rigid rules are almost worst. There is nothing that takes the fun out of networking more than unrealistic rules. While implementing group traditions and guidelines is a positive thing to do, rigid rules will eventually suck the creativity out of the group. A healthy approach is to create realistic goals for your guests while they are present in the room. Avoid setting up future expectations such as being penalized if you miss a meeting, or having to bring two leads before entering the next event. These types of goals may be setting your guests up for failure. The long term effect is that your events will not attract new prospects.

A great networking event engages you from the minute you receive your invitation to when you exit the room. The successful producer has planned every logistical detail and delivers Valuable Information in an Entertaining Context(VIEC). A VIEC producer thought of the perfect room, perfect music, perfect sound system, perfect guest speaker, and perfect set up for food and beverage. They have given away valuable information that helps people, and have implemented networking games that enroll every single person in that room. They implement successful traditions, guidelines and have strategies to keep the group energy up the entire event. They have collected and disseminated information, created opportunity and made the whole experience entertaining. And while people are offering you great testimonials about how much value your event created in their lives, you too will enjoy the leads and sales your VIEC event generated for you.

Copyright Training Business Pros 2006

Nancy Houle
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/trading-valuable-information-for-leads-and-sales-44390.html

Usually first step is to Open the Heart, and on this planet only perhaps 50% of the people have started to think a little about others instead only of themselves.

This means that the other 50% of the people perhaps are entirely selfish so now you can understand all your problems with relationships! Opening the Heart is the First Initiation on the path of Enlightenment and in it the Solar Plexus starts to empower the Heart with its energy. Blockages stopping the flow of Energy include Anger.

Anger is totally removed!

Then Master Relationships. This is the Second Initiation and entails the Second, Abdominal or Relationship chakra starting to power the Throat Chakra, the source of our creativity. And then open the pathway between the Base Chakra and all the Head Chakras. This is commonly called Enlightenment itself. The Crown Chakras purpose is to access the Soul or Higher Self through the Antahkarana or the Energy Connection from the Crown Chakra to the Higher chakras above the head, or The Highest Heart, Prajna Paramita. ENERGIZE!!

Once Relationships have easily been mastered then The Third Initiation, Enlightenment happens in the same Lifetime!

The problems of the World are now so intense that there needs to be a speeding up of evolution to create more evolved and Happy Beings. The problem is that most people are Not Happy!

The problems of the World come from a Lack of Evolution, a Lack of the Opening of the Heart, of Caring, of Sympathy, of wanting to help, Of wanting to reduce the amount of Pain in Humanity. If you have no Heart which is the Case of more than half of Humanity, then Selfishness, Anarchy, War, Revenge, Jealousy, Envy, Torture and Psychopaths will rule! And this has been the case for all the History of this Earth! This speeding up of evolution can only come with a Heart to provide by Right of Being Born, of All Basic Needs to every member of Humanity.

As a Good Family gives its Sons and Daughters Everything for their Evolution. These Basic Needs Are Food, Housing, Money, Education And Meditation Teaching, also Security, And Human Rights.

Meditation will Speed Up all other techniques, Hatha Yoga, working on the health of the body, Pranayama, working on increasing energy and happiness, Dance or Martial arts, for instinctive grace and movement. In Energy Enhancement we start with meditation and move on into The Kundalini Kriyas of the Hindu and Taoist Masters. Then Samyama, working on removing all the problems of: Energy Blockages, Cleaning the Psychic Body, Cleaning the Inner Traumas and Memories, Creating Incredible Relationships.

We need to work first on Meditation and the Grounding of Negative Energies. As Gurdjieff said, “First Mastic. Then Mystic.” Which is the ability to digest all negative energies.

Extra energy comes from outside, from the teachers usually, “Hanbledzoin,” as Gurdjieff said, is the Energy, The Bled, or Blood of the Masters, and is necessary for the integrative process. This is the Buddhafield. This is the origin of Shaktipat. This is the origin of all access to the symptoms of Kundalini Energy.

These specialized energies are available to complete the psychic bodies, to fill them up, to complete them. These energies can only come through properly Authorised Teachers. An Advanced Synthesis of Successful Meditation Techniques is a new Higher Frequency of Energy sent by Ascended Masters and Highly Evolved Devas or Angels to speed up the evolution of this planet.

All Advanced teachers can be judged by all students to have Advanced Meditational Experience after years of Training. It is the first test of the Student to choose the Right Teachers.

Some teachers teach that it is necessary to take energy from other students. They never mention the Opening of the Heart through the Removal of Energy Blockages like Anger and Depression. They Never mention the Purification of the Antahkarana and Connection with the Soul. Energy Vampires only want to steal energy from others and increase Trauma and Pain blockages to do this.

Instead of taking over Twenty years of Meditation, Advanced Techniques allow the process to be speeded up with the Advanced Techniques from a Synthesis of Successful Meditation Techniques taught to all advanced practitioners of Meditation for over 5000 years.

Good Teachers of Meditation must transmit Energies to help the Evolution of their Students. This Uppadesa is sometimes called Shaktipat and can come by word, glance or in Silence.

Good Teachers will always teach Advanced Techniques to Remove Aches and Pains, Negative Emotions and Trauma, Open the Heart, Connect to the Energies of the Higher Self and thus Access Higher Levels of Energy.

As the Ancient Text of the Siva Samhitã, iii, 10-19: says, “Now I shall tell you how easily to attain success in Yoga, by knowing which the Yogis never fail in the practice of Yoga. Only the knowledge imparted by a Competent Teacher through his lips is powerful and useful; otherwise it becomes fruitless, weak and very painful.

Why spend time on techniques which give no results?

As Gautama Buddha Said, “Meditation is for those who believe in the reality of Enlightenment, and understand the Urgency of the Situation.” So, do not hang around. If you believe in Enlightenment, then you need to find the best and most Speedy Way!

Speed Up The Process of Enlightenment with Advanced and Effective Meditation Techniques, a Syntheses of Ancient and successful techniques over 5000 years old.
The roots come from many ancient disciplines available in most Ancient Cultures all over the World, and include -

• Alchemical V.I.T.R.I.O.L, the first Formula of Alchemy, in reality a guided meditation to give you Incredible Energy!!
• Yoga to make you Flexible, Strong and increase the years of your long and happy life.
• Meditation to Access Peace and Clarity within.
• Kundalini Kriyas
• Taoist Meditation Techniques including the Microcosmic and Macrocosmic Orbits.
• Kundalini Tantra and Energy Circulations of Kriya Yoga
• Creating the Antahkarana so you can access the Incredibly Intense Energies of the Soul.
• Soul Infusion and Connecting to the External Energies of the Highest Heart.
• The Grounding and Purification of Negative Energies
• Psychic Purification of the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual Bodies.
• The removal of Energy Blockages and implants to Remove all Aches and Pains
• The creation of the Light Body so you can have more Radiance.
• The use of the Ancient Egyptian Technology of the Merkaba.
• Golden Pyramid Psychic Protection to Stop Energy Vampires.

Swami Satchidanand
http://www.articlesbase.com/advice-articles/energy-enhancement-meditation-opening-the-heart-relationships-hanbledzoin-kundalini-shaktipat-16794.html

Hi.

Marijuana seems to induce a surge of creativity for 10-15 minutes after using it. Then after that I go braindead.

Can marijuana hinder your creative abilty in the long run?

Also, I plan to experiment with hallucinogenic mushrooms.
For the next week or month after, will I lose a creative piece of my brain?
Im afraid I wont be able to go back and think the same way i used to. Will my train of thought be less creative/bland…. or is there even a noticeable after effect of magic mushrooms?

(please dont try to dissuade me from shrooms… you only live once!!)

Well for me I have been smoking weed since I was 15, And I haven’t been more creative. You know that rumor about weed killing brain cells?…its not true, it’s been tested. Anyways, Shroomies, hmm…Since they are hallucinogenic, eventually, you will loose some of that creative spark because they cause temporary insanity.

You should also try Salvia. It makes you trip like Shrooms, but for a less amount of time. And it’s legal. But read up on it first, if you do it wrong, you can have a really bad trip.

Internal communication is an effective tool for handling many problems at the workplace. It is also known to decrease absenteeism, alleviate grievances and reduce turnover of employees, thereby improving productivity and profitability of the company.

Designing an effective internal communication system depends on various factors, the most important being size of the organization. In a smaller set up, the head of the company could draft an internal communication strategy by himself or herself as most operations are under his or her direct control. When it comes to a big organization, other personnel like senior executives, managers and the HR department play a vital role. Another consideration is the flow and level at which internal communication must happen – should it be downward, upward or horizontal?

If you are struggling to communicate with employees, the following process will ease your problem.

Identify a common culture: Decide what type of culture you would like to adopt in the organization. Set forth the values, principles, procedures and behaviors that are considered desirable. This also has a great impact on the mission and vision of your company.

Use communication tools: Identify the means by which you can communicate with employees. The different communication tools at your disposal are:

• Paper-based tools like memos, newsletters, brochures, performance appraisal documents, slogans, pay packet enclosures, etc.

• Oral communication in the form of general meetings, division and branch meetings, team addresses, one-on-one manager to staff communication.

• Electronic tools like e-mail, website and intranet.

• Training sessions designed for teaching special skills, or team building activities.

Match tools with goals: You need to determine which tools are best suited to the goals of the company. For instance, a memo might work when a manager wishes to communicate specific work related instructions to a limited number of subordinates, but a newsletter is the thing to use when you want to talk to all the employees about the company’s achievements.

Prepare yourself: The next step to ensuring effective internal communication is to know what to communicate and how to go about it. For example, criticism is best offered face to face, in private, while praise must be publicly proclaimed.

Think creatively: Like any tool, those of internal communication also wear off with time and overuse. Infuse creativity and change to keep the interest alive.

Now that you understand the process, let’s look at the attributes of a good internal communication strategy:

Well-timed: Any communication or message from the company should be passed on to the employees before they get to hear it from outside sources.

Unambiguous: It should also say everything clearly – that means the message should be comprehensive and easily understood.

Crisp and informative: Remember to keep your message as short as possible. Also, the key message should be relevant to the reader.

Exciting: Keep the communication interesting if you’d like it to register. In a world of information overload, most of which is boring, the last thing you need is to add to the burden!

Remember that developing and implementing strategic internal communication can benefit your organization immensely. Books like “Effective internal communication starts at the top” and “Making the connections: Using internal communication to turn strategy into action” .“Effective internal communication”

Akhil Shahani
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/internal-communication-at-the-heart-of-every-business-409592.html