Current Events Archives – Page 6 of 7

4 May 2009

Guys with Sensitive Eyes

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T16:54:42-06:00May 4th, 2009|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog, Leadership|

I had to take a bit of a hiatus from blogging. Had a flare-up with the eyes and it was a bit hard to read or write much, at least without lots of grammar and spelling errors. But I did have lots of time to think and writing helps clear my thoughts and motivate me… so here goes.

Government Forms Can Cause Blindness

I didn’t know this either and it is not in the fine print anywhere… I found it out the hard way on Wednesday evening. Ok, I admit I procrastinated a bit on the personal tax returns and had […]

26 Apr 2009

Spring is Taxing

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:30:09-06:00April 26th, 2009|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog|

Just looked at the weather forecast. Cool, wind, rain and snow accumulating until May. Life in the foothills.

Just looked at the calendar, personal taxes returns due by end-April.

Good news, eyes are better… the redness and watering are gone and I can see well again.

Bad news… I can see the snow and tax returns.

19 Apr 2009

If the Shoe Fits – 2

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T16:55:11-06:00April 19th, 2009|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog|

Quick update on the missing shoes affair…

Apparently there was an extra pair of shoes left at the end of the gathering (not mine as I did review the extras before I left and these were the wrong colour and style). So my aunt mailed them to the guy we thought had my shoes.

They were not his shoes.

I have the wrong shoes and he has the wrong shoes.

Who has our shoes?

I think I will turn this case over to Mulder and Skully as I am sure now that paranormal forces are at play. In the meantime I am closing […]

15 Apr 2009

If the Shoe Fits…

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:31:27-06:00April 15th, 2009|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog|

A few weeks back I attended the funeral for my uncle and then went to my aunt's home afterwards. There was quite a crowd from all over.

Later in the day, when I went to leave, my dress shoes were missing.

Luckily, I had another pair of casual shoes in the car, or I would have been driving for two hours in socks.

Well, my relatives (my aunt, mom, and grandmother) tracked down someone who had left their shoes at the gathering. Apparently his eyesight is not too great and he noticed he had the wrong shoes about halfway back on the drive to Winnipeg (from Brooks, […]

7 Apr 2009

Tar Sands – Dirty Oil

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:31:42-06:00April 7th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Current Events, Doug's Blog|

I recently read "Tar Sands – Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent" by Andrew Nikiforuk. I found the book to be both dry (lots of statistics and numbers) and disturbing at the same time.

Now to be sure, the book is really about all the negative aspects of the exploitation of Alberta's oil sands. However, I do think it is important to see both sides of the story and welcomed a chance to understand some of the issues better.

Most of the book was about the socio, economic, political and environmental issues. There was one chapter at the […]

1 Apr 2009

101st Post

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:31:52-06:00April 1st, 2009|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog|

Still working on the visualization and goal attainment. Even when I achieve it I will probably still be doing something entrepreneurial with my spare time. The big difference is I will also have more freedom of choice for my time.

Well it's April 1st and at least I didn't fire anyone this year. Yes, a number of years ago our staff played a nasty one on management while we were at a lunch seminar with the CEO of Dell. Since then we changed the rules to exclude jokes about operational matters, too dangerous to get out of hand.

Happy April Fools Day […]

1 Apr 2009

100th and Last Post

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:31:57-06:00April 1st, 2009|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog|

This is my 100th post. I've enjoyed sharing my thoughts, experiences and lessons over the past year.

One of the recurring themes of my posts and my motivational reading is the power of visualizing the end goal.

Well, the power of visualization and alignment has paid off.

I've reached my goals and I have decided to retire from business and writing. Yup, nothing but beaches and sailing on sparkling blue water for me.

As the dolphins said as they left Earth in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:

"So long and thanks for all the fish!"

Nothing else to say… bye.

20 Mar 2009

Spring is for Growth

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T16:37:58-06:00March 20th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

Tomorrow is the first day of spring. For some it is also the first day of a new calendar year.

Here in Canada, where the winter is long, spring is a time of renewal and the beginning of a period of growth.

There is a tradition of New Year’s resolutions as we move into the beginning of January. However, with the longer days and renewed energy of spring, perhaps more people should be seeing this time of the year as one of personal commitment and growth.

This year in particular has been a colder than normal winter, both in terms of weather and in terms of […]

11 Mar 2009

Coke – Mercury Edition

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:33:05-06:00March 11th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog|

First there was Coke, then New Coke and then Coke Classic. Well according to the news program I was watching this morning, Coke now contains mercury (in many instances).

Apparently, the sweetener of choice for Coke is corn syrup (or fructose-glucose in Canadian labels). They switched a number of years back from table sugar to reduce costs. In the process of extracting the sugars from corn they use a chemical with Mercury in it. Sometimes, they don't get all the mercury out… mercury in your body is bad. And by the way, this is a problem for all foods with corn […]

10 Mar 2009

Vision and Leadership Required

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:33:10-06:00March 10th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog|

Is it my imagination or did Alberta squander another boom?

During the Klein years, the focus was on slaying provincial debt and creating the Alberta Advantage, which near as I can tell was really about creating an environment for business investment (a good thing normally) in the province (low taxes, etc.), and not necessarily for having better quality of life, hospitals or educational systems. This led to a runaway provincial economy where costs were skyrocketing (too much of a good thing).

If you weren't in the Oil business, it was actually getting hard to compete outside of Alberta because of excessive rent […]