RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO HELL

'That your satisfaction lies in your illusions But your delusions are yours an' not mine'





                                                  

                                                     --- THE PERFECT CRIME ---

SMASHING THROUGH THE BOUNDARIES: BUREAUCRACY'S GOING DOWN!

Bureaucracy: that cancerous growth upon the human psyche.. I think the West needs a paradigm change. Bureaucracy is the diminution, the strangling of human potential. The West needs to replace "systems" with frameworks for human opportunity and growth. We are more valuable than parceled value, stronger than the delegitimized edifice of institutional inertia. We have got to liberate our power to think, not becoming boxed into deviationist dancing on the "head of a pin". The West experienced Enlightenment and Counter-enlightenment. Haven't we the gumption to ascend to that Higher Age calling upon our collective Mind and Will?? There is nothing pathetic about the bureaucratic norm; bureaucracy aims to eliminate even human Pathos from its soul-starved void. The dustbin of history is littered with heresies: elimination of bureaucracy will be the First Frontier to an unadulterated future full of promise and prosperity. 'Declaring war on bureaucracy is not unlike declaring war on, say, cancer or drugs' - Jack and Suzy Welch 'What you want instead is an organization where ideas flow freely up, down, and sideways, along halls, in elevators. A business where an idea's value has nothing to do with the stripes on the shoulder of the person behind it and everything to do with their insight and creativity' Kenneth argues that bureaucracy is never optimal. Hence, 'mission driven' organizations must subdue and, ultimately, eliminate the 'bureaucratic form'. He is not a fan of Weber! Weber on bureaucracy: 'From a purely technical point of view, a bureaucracy is capable of attaining the highest degree of efficiency, and is in this sense formally the most rational known means of exercising authority over human beings.  It is superior to any other form in precision, in stability, in the stringency of its discipline, and in its reliability.  It thus makes possible a particularly high degree of calculability of results for the heads of the organization and for those acting in relation to it.  It is finally superior both in intensive efficiency and in the scope of its operations and is formally capable of application to all kinds of administrative tasks' On his contradictory attitude thereto: 'The principles of office hierarchy and of levels of graded authority mean a firmly ordered system of superiority and subordination in which there is a supervision of the lower offices by the higher ones. No machinery in the world functions so precisely as this apparatus of men and, moreover, so cheaply... Rational calculation . . . reduces every worker to a cog in this bureaucratic machine and, seeing himself in this light, he will merely ask how to transform himself into a somewhat bigger cog. . . . The passion for bureaucratization drives us to despair ' 'It is horrible to think that the world could one day be filled with nothing but those little cogs, little men clinging to little jobs and striving toward bigger ones--a state of affairs which is to be seen once more, as in the Egyptian records, playing an ever increasing part in the spirit of our present administrative systems, and especially of its offspring, the students. This passion for bureaucracy ...is enough to drive one to despair. It is as if in politics. . . we were to deliberately to become men who need "order" and nothing but order, become nervous and cowardly if for one moment this order wavers, and helpless if they are torn away from their total incorporation in it. That the world should know no men but these: it is in such an evolution that we are already caught up, and the great question is, therefore, not how we can promote and hasten it, but what can we oppose to this machinery in order to keep a portion of mankind free from this parceling-out of the soul, from this supreme mastery of the bureaucratic way of life'

SELF-'360': PUTTIN' IT ON THE LINE

May It Please the Court:


I want to grow so I can contribute to lasting, creative growth.

I am young, energetic and strive to energise others.

I am not perfect, which gives me room to grow spiritually and professionally.

I am inexperienced, perhaps underqualified, yet I look truly look for new and better angles.

I will advocate for, and facilitate change where this helps people and companies to grow. At the same time, I am developing my risk awareness, realising I must be prepared to change together with others.

I must learn to listen better: I can see my weaknesses with greater clarity than hitherto.

On the other hand I have experience and, I am confident, knowledge of secured loans, bankruptcy, litigation, legal, customer service, corporate actions and marketing.

I can, and do, innovate.

Most importantly, I love watching others succeed by transcending their limits. Most of those limits, I believe, are self-imposed. Having experienced failure and despair, I can empathise with others' creative and professional struggles and can help them to WIN.

I want to succeed, as a person and a professional. I want this country to succeed. I want our society to succeed. I want good groups and companies to succeed. And I want the globe to succeed!


I AM LEARNING TO WIN :)...

AN HONEST APPRAISAL..

MY "HAPPINESS" CRITERIA


-I have to be appreciated. More importantly, I relish the opportunity to appreciate great performance in others.

-I seek the chance to engage in a very open environment where there is scope for real candour and dialogue.

- I need to see the link between operational targets/practices and strategic goals. Ultimately, I enjoy contributing to formulation of those goals, and to spreading a respected organisation's values.


CREATION AND CO-CREATION

I really enjoy stretch assignments and stretch projects.

But nothing beats a great team with great leaders.



PERSONAL SWOT


Strengths

- I am strong at conceptual thinking.

- I have an analytical mindset, which can link to 'big picture' targets.

- I have an intuitive "feel" for risk-opprtunity.

- I am creative.



Weaknesses

- I can sometimes overreach.

- I need to consider stakeholders more effectively. How are others affected by my actions.

- I need to become more self-aware by noting how I am likely to be perceived. Is this the perception I wish to create? Does my image negatively impact others' potential?

- 10-10-10: What are the long AND the short-term consequences of my actions?

- I should more regularly solicit feedback and review my behaviours.



HUMBLE LISTENING IS CONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE

STURM UND DRANG :( : ( :) :? -- :? :)!

IT'S NOT WORK, IT'S ART :)

MY DISEASE, MY CURE

REFLECTION   (:IIII[ :IIII)

Sick of my idle fancies and fears,
With you here, I'll see clear.

I AM LOST WITHOUT YOU: PLEASE TEACH ME TO SPEAK

(Drowned in the Goldberg Variations)


Aeons of loneliness,
And loveliness crushed;
Wings cannot span,
Nor fathom the distance

Without Transcendence.
Without you, only brute silence:

Can I yet learn to speak?

THE NUMBERS AND THE VALUES

FOR EVERY INCH

'I don't know what to say really. Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives all comes down to today. Either we heal as a team or we are going to crumble. Inch by inch play by play till we're finished. We are in hell right now, gentlemen believe me and we can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell. One inch, at a time. Now I can't do it for you. I'm too old. I look around and I see these young faces and I think I mean I made every wrong choice a middle age man could make. I uh.... I pissed away all my money believe it or not. I chased off anyone who has ever loved me. And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror.

You know when you get old in life things get taken from you. That's, that's part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out that life is just a game of inches. So is football. Because in either game life or football the margin for error is so small. I mean one half step too late or to early you don't quite make it. One half second too slow or too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are in ever break of the game every minute, every second. On this team, we fight for that inch On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us to pieces for that inch. We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch. Cause we know when we add up all those inches that's going to make the fucking difference between WINNING and LOSING between LIVING and DYING. I'll tell you this in any fight it is the guy who is willing to die who is going to win that inch.

And I know if I am going to have any life anymore it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch because that is what LIVING is. The six inches in front of your face. Now I can't make you do it. You gotta look at the guy next to you. Look into his eyes. Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. You are going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows when it comes down to it, you are gonna do the same thing for him. That's a team, gentlemen and either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's football guys. That's all it is. Now, whattaya gonna do'?

IN THE MINOTAUR'S CAVE: BULL-RUN

Charge-primed for glory,
We're retelling civilization's story..


[TIME TO TAP THOSE BROKERS]

INFATUATION

IN VACUO/EX NIHILO

Describing circles fallen;
Motive arc, to-and-fro;
This geometric need,
Of broken bones and breaking stars -
Of bursting stars...

.....


'FIRST MUSICIAN.(or all three musicians, singing)
Why does my heart beat so?
Did not a shadow pass?
It passed but a moment ago.
Who can have trod in the grass?
What rogue is night-wandering?
Have not old writers said
That dizzy dreams can spring
From the dry bones of the dead?'

..

'Who is there? I cannot see what you are like,
Come to the light'..

'I should not be afraid in County Clare' - William Butler Yeats, 'The Dreaming of the Bones'





'Run desire run
Sexual being
Run him like a blade
To and through the heart
No conscience
One Motive
Cater to the hollow

Screaming feed me here
Fill me up again
Temporarily pacify this hungering
So grow
Libido throw
Dominoes of indiscretions down
Falling all around
In cycles
In circles
Constantly consuming
Conquer and devour

Cause it's time to bring the fire down
Bridle all this indiscretion
Long enough to edify
And permanently fill this hollow

Screaming feed me here
Fill me up again
Temporarily pacifying

Feed me here
Fill me up again
Temporarily pacifying'

ET IN TERRA PAX

MAGIC LOVERS - THE MYSTERY, THE MAYHEM :)!!

HIDDEN RENDERING VISIBLE: GROUND ATTACK - Selections From Faust

'Yea, if a cloak of magic could be mine,
With power to bear me far in foreign lands,
I would not change it for the raiment fine, 
Of monarch throned with royal star and bands'. 

MYTHICAL CREATURES COME TO LIFE - (:I ???

TRANSCENDENCE: THE ETERNAL-ONWARD

'The mind of the Whole, is social' - Marcus Aurelius

BEAR MARKET, BEATEN - (sub nom - Bearing Up)

- Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 170

EMBRACE TRANSCENDENCE


'You just stood there screaming
Fearing no one was listening to you
They say the empty can rattles the most
The sound of your own voice must soothe you
Hearing only what you want to hear
And knowing only what you've heard
You, you're smothered in tragedy
And you're out to save the world

Misery
You insist that the weight of the world
Should be on your shoulders
Misery
There's much more to life than what you see
My friend of misery

You still stood there screaming
No one caring about these words you tell
My friend, before your voice is gone
One man's fun is another's hell
These times are sent to try men's souls
But something's wrong with all you see
You, you'll take it on all yourself
Remember, misery loves company

Misery
You insist that the weight of the world
Should be on your shoulders
Misery
There's much more to life than what you see
My friend of misery

You just stood there screaming
My friend of misery'

IMMANENT STRUGGLE - Before and afterthought

ABYSS; ENERGUMEN; ELECTRUM

And the earth was without form and void,
And darkness was upon the face of the deep..

SURREALY SEXY x :) :) x

EUROPE, WHERE IS YOUR ANIMAL SPIRIT?

MANAGEMENT BY FEAR IS BORING - Part of 'Silly" Management Series

BLACK SWAN EVENTS - Part of "Silly" Management Series

ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT - Part of "Silly" Management Series

TO BE DIFFERENT

My hope is in our difference


(L'indifference, c'est faute)


.....

'Just a castaway
An island lost at sea
Another lonely day
With no one here but me
More loneliness
Than any man could bear
Rescue me before I fall into despair

I'll send an SOS to the world
I'll send an SOS to the world
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle

A year has passed since I wrote my note
But I should have known this right from the start
Only hope can keep me together
Love can mend your life
But love can break your heart

I'll send an SOS to the world
I'll send an SOS to the world
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle

Walked out this morning
Don't believe what I saw
A hundred billion bottles
Washed up on the shore
Seems I'm not alone at being alone
A hundred billion castaways
Looking for a home

I'll send an SOS to the world
I'll send an SOS to the world
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle

Sending out an SOS' 

GROWTH IN ELYSIAN FIELDS: ON POETRY, AND THE POET - Selections From Faust

Cf Phillip Zimbardo's 'Growth mind-set': or, the Spirit's urging..

Deny the Denier!

(To the music of Benjamin Britten's 'Young Appollo' and Mendelhsohn's Spring Song)


'Who then bestows the ryhthmic line euphonious,
The ordered pulse, to stir or soothe the soul?
Who marshals fragments to a ceremonious
And splendid, universal, whole?
Who rides the flood of passion at its height?
Or sings the glow of evening, solemn, sweet?
Who strews the spring's dear garlands of delight
In petalled path for his beloved's feet?
Or who can twine the wreath for honour's portals,
Can insignificant leaves with tongues invest,
Assure Olympus, and unite immortals?-
The might of man [Sic], in poets manifest'.

......

'The mind that's formed, you'll have the deuce to capture:
The heart that's yet in growth will yield you thanks'...

CITY OF LIGHT (THE LIGHTNING ORB) - Selections From Faust

'He sets astir with growth and springing
The world of colour he is bringing;
But, since the flowers lie dark within their bed,
He makes the dressed-up mortals serve instead.
Turn and look back, see from this height
The city lying in the light'

'They all come tumbling to the light'..

TO STRIVE - Selections From Faust

Imprisoned to my heart.. (Tribute to Ron Ashkenas and 'Happiness Criteria')


'I gather heart to to risk the world's encounter,
To bear my human fate as fate's surmounter,
To front the storm, in joy or grief not palter,
Even in the gnash of shipwreck never falter'..

IDEALOG (I): HYPER-EQUITY MARKETS FOR CORPORATE BORROWERS

'If you've got no money, Honey, we've got your disease - GnR



- Supermarket access to equity capital

- T+3, or T+n where n<3?

- Reduced reliance on corporate debt and money markets

- Ringfenced subsidiary financing? Tax implications

- Has this already happened?

- Is this "nuts"?!

- Real-time growth, driven-expansion..

- Learn as you go=quality control

- Avoid bypassed options.

EXPLODING SOUL-WORLD=PROMETHEAN FIRE

In the form of Scriabin's Prometheus

WHERE R WE GOING?

RECLINING/INCLINING THOUGHTS

MY GIRL,

Shiver for me..

SOLEMN PLEA -

Where do you think you're going?
Don't you know it's dark outside?
Where do you think you're going?
Don't you care about my pride?
Where do you think you're going?
I think you don't know
You got no way of knowing
There's really no place you can go

I understand your changes
Long before you reach the door
I know where you think you're going
I know what you came here for
And now I'm sick of joking
I know I like you to be free
Where do you think you're going?
You better go with me girl..

UNDER SEXY ALBUM COVERS: LUCKY MAESTRO!

Ode to Joy...

ON A LIGHTER NOTE, DEBUSSY'S GIRL WITH THE FLAXEN HAIR??..

'If you would win lasting love, then put away all pride' - Ovid, 'Ars Amatoria'

"TELL-TALE SIGNS OF POSSESSION": THE PERSECUTION SONG

'Wrung symphonies of suffering from her'...

                                - THE SPAWN OF LOVE AND WAR -

LOST SOULS: DUSK AND HER EMBRACE :(:)

                                      ---   Lillith Immaculate ---

IN OMNIA PARATUS: END OF THE LINE -------- ??!!!

NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(SHOW UR SCARS)

AREA OF DESTINY: THE WILL TO WIN ; AND THE HEART OF THE MEGALOPSYCHOS

'The Good of man is the active exercise of his soul's faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue, or if there be several human excellences or virtues, in conformity with the best and most perfect among them. Moreover, to be happy takes a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring'

'.. the highest good for humans, the highest aim of all human practical thinking, is eudaimonia, a Greek word often translated as well-being or happiness. Aristotle in turn argues that happiness is properly understood as an on-going and stable dynamic, a way of being in action (energeia), specifically appropriate to the human "soul" (psuchē), at its most "excellent" or virtuous (virtue representing aretē in Greek). If there are several virtues the best and most complete or perfect of them will be the happiest one. An excellent human will be a person good at living life, who does it well and beautifully (kalos). Aristotle says that such a person would also be a serious (spoudaios) human being, in the same sense of "serious" that one contrasts serious harpists with other harpists. He also asserts as part of this starting point that virtue for a human must involve reason in thought and speech (logos), as this is an aspect (an ergon, literally meaning a task or work) of human living'.

- Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics

DESIRE

INSIGHT

EROICA: GETTING WITH THE PROGRAMME

"I will seize Fate by the throat. It will not wholly conquer me! Oh, how beautiful it is to live - and live a thousand times over" - Ludwig Van Beethoven

DAUGHTER OF ELYSIUM: THE MYSTERIUM TREMENDENS

In no fix'd place the happy souls reside. In groves we live, and lie on mossy beds, By crystal streams, that murmur thro' the meads: But pass yon easy hill, and thence descend; The path conducts you to your journey's end.” This said, he led them up the mountain's brow, And shews them all the shining fields below. They wind the hill, and thro' the blissful meadows go.

— Virgil, Aeneid (6.641

Freude, schoener Goetterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische dein Heiligtum. Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was die Mode streng geteilt; Alle Menschen werden Brueder, Wo dein sanfter Fluegel weilt.

Joy, o wondrous spark divine, Daughter of Elysium, Drunk with fire now we enter, Heavenly one, your holy shrine. Your magic powers join again What fashion strictly did divide; Brotherhood unites all men Where your gentle wing's spread wide.

THE BREAK-OUT

What feeling comes o’er me that warms my cold heart?
Wreteched, lone, imprisoned, at my own shade I start.
Oh, vision of brightness! why com’st thou to me? Behold! ‘tis an angel from Heaven I see.
T’is thou, my Leonora - Oh, thou comest to shatter my chain: Thou, only canst cheer me to life…. back again.]

WITH THE LIGHTS OUT, IT'S LESS DANGEROUS

4 E's AND A P: THE YEA-SAYERS

'Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously'! Friedrich Nietzsche

'Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders'.

'I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage'.

'I wish to be at any time hereafter only a yea-sayer'! ...

He had his vices, but these quotes are priceless:

'He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either'.

'He who has a strong enough why can bear almost any how'.

'He who has a why to live can bear almost any how' 

'He who laughs best today, will also laughs last'.

'He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying'.

WILD CHILD

Here I am, and you're a Rocket Queen oh yeah!

QUOTH THIS RAVEN: EVERMORE??

Omnia Vincit Amor

LOVE BEYOND THE GRAVE

Rage against the dying of the light...

TITAN

A symphony is a world..