PRODUCTIVITY STARTS AT HOME

PRODUCTIVITY STARTS AT HOME

By Domenick J Maglio PhD.  Traditional Realist

Knowing how to become motivated to get things done needs internalization of many skills, habits and values. In the past the method of teaching youngsters how to work and enjoy the fruits of their labor had been a function of good parenting. It is becoming a relic of the past.

The proper way to clean a window does not come with a manual. Usually it was learned by the parent assigning a child the chore. Instructions of how to do it correctly may have become before starting it although in most cases it came after with a blistering critique of the less than stellar results.

 In the aftermath of cleaning a window a youngster would usually receive a politically incorrect critique of his failure to meet his parent’s expectation. The way to reach the level of quality might have been touched on but not clearly. It was up to the child to think the process through and then ask questions to fill in the gaps.

 The child in training was supposed to correct his own work deficiencies. This did not come from asking unnecessary questions to waste time but the knowledge came from replaying in his mind the parent’s reaction to the job he did.

Parents expected a high level of competency not only with chores but during the child’s school years. The child was expected to complete his assignments in a timely and correct manner. It was not the teachers or parent’s responsibility to remind the child. The youngster was supposed to obediently learn the lesson in whatever way he could or else. The “or else” usually did not have to be administered as the child knew the parent’s word was golden.

Modern parents are too harried to follow up their commands. Children quickly learn they are paper tigers. They keep on expanding the limits becoming obnoxious negotiators until they are able to do what they want.

Instead of parents becoming indignant because the child will not obey their directions, they feel guilty. They realize they do not have the close family experience that they enjoyed as children. The parents compensate by being friends since they do not have the time and motivation to be in charge parents.

The guilt driven parents are more protective of their child’s feelings. When the child is having difficulty in school they immediately contact the teacher to see how they can assist their precious child. The child’s ability to solve the problem he is facing is not seriously considered. They do not believe the child can work through his own difficulties he is facing in school.

We are not setting obligations for children to do things around the house. Children are usually given a free pass. Even the inconsequential things a modern parent asks a child to do to contribute around the house have to be incentivized with dollar bills. The price is negotiated which usually goes well for the child and poorly for the parent. The child receives his “allowance” regardless of the quality or timeliness in which the task was done. Our children are being conditioned to be lazy at home and at school. They do only what they want when they want to do it.

Successful people in whatever endeavor they choose have the ability to get things done well and on time. Often they have to do things they do not want to do because it is part of the job or is necessary for the sake of the business.

The goal of being good at whatever a person does guides him to use his time wisely. Developing good time management skills is encouraged by the person to get the finished product completed well in the shortest time period. When this is achieved through trial and error these people become experts in what they have chosen to do.

When a person brings something to be completed to an expert they agree to a price and time to complete the project. The higher the number of people who want his services indicates he will do an excellent job in the specific time period. This is the reason this expression exists: “ When you want to get something done, bring it to a busy person.” It holds true today as it did in the past.

The pathetic reality is modern parents have forgotten their major legacy is their children.  They are providing their children an affluent lifestyle but are not giving their child the ability to carry on their work ethic. Low parental expectations at home and at school are resulting in too many weak and lazy people who are not productive in their lives.

It is time for parents and grandparents to aggressively insist that children and grandchildren do better and do more. They need to hold these loved ones to a  standard no lower than the one they had. Anyone who becomes good in any profession has to continually push himself to reach the top. It starts at home.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. You can visit Dr. Maglio at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.

ATTACKING CAPITALISM TO SELL CENTRALLY CONTROLLED ECONOMY

ATTACKING CAPITALISM TO SELL CENTRALLY CONTROLLED ECONOMY

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Tradizionale Realista

In 2008 the slogan” Too Big to Fail” spoken by President Bush treasury secretary, Henry Paulson was a shocking acknowledgement that the federal elites no longer felt the need to pretend they believed in capitalism. The merging of central government and international corporations through the revolving door process has become undeniable.

A major tenant of capitalism is that any business no matter its size will fail when it is unable to pay back the business’s liabilities. This elimination of non-profitable enterprises cleanses the market of inefficient businesses. In its place other newer or smaller businesses will expand to more effectively serve the customers of the failed corporation.

“Too Big to Fail" is antithetical to capitalism and a gateway to a centrally controlled economy and repressive state. It is a corruption of capitalism.

Big Government like large corporations even with the economy of scale has a difficult time controlling the explosion of bureaucratic expansion and waste.  Bureaucrats are incentivized to build their kingdoms rather than be efficient.  By restricting capitalistic competition it will blur any strong contrast or highlight the government inefficiencies of inferior service and products.

Presently in America the laws of a free marketplace are not being allowed to prevail. Our bloated federal government has gained enormous control of the economy through laws and regulation. The government connected corporations are given special waivers to bypass regulations that other companies have to meet thus giving them an unfair advantage in the competition.  Bundled campaign donations earn ambassadorships or access to the oval office. The offering of top corporate paying positions to political operatives in exchange for preferential legislation is becoming common practice.

The smaller the business the easier it is to monitor and supervise its employees to insure maximum agility. The large international corporations are on the other side of this continuum and have the most difficulty supervising its complex structure.  The diversity of operations and multiple sites all over the world creates an incredible challenge to maintain a streamlined operation.

This same phenomenon takes place in government agencies. We have witnessed this first hand in Obamacare. Attempting to manage 1/6 of the nation's economy has been a disaster. Even with ordering private insurance companies to artificially lower their insurance rates to cushion their insurance policies, the price and co-pay have risen.

In this symbiotic relationship government winners are chosen by how much support they give the administration. This can be through campaign contributions and lucrative jobs they are offering government operatives.  Losers are those who do not pay to play.

This marriage between major corporations and the federal government has recently been called “crony capitalism” and during the WWII period, “fascism.” The National Socialistic German Worker's Party used corporations to solidify their power.  

Every law abiding patriotic citizen should protest the confiscation and mishandling of the people’s money. The fear mongering of a global economy collapse by our D.C. government should have been dismissed as propaganda to protect these corporate and government elites special financial and power interests.

Americans should not hand over to our central government the power to pretend to micromanage our economy. The picking of winners and losers and the printing of “stimulus money” by the Federal Reserve does nothing other than increase potential corruption. The devaluation of our currency by “Quantitative Easing” is robbing a percentage of our purchasing power.

Anytime we hear “Too Big to Fail” we should be aware our D.C. government is selling this phony rationale to justify its expansion into every aspect of our lives. We need to refuse to be robbed by power seeking politicians that are only concerned with their own self-interest rather than the people’s.

This game has become transparent. “Too Big to Fail” policy is an attempt to transform the USA from a constitutional republic to a political elite control of the economy and rejection of our Constitutional Republic.

Our founders brilliantly provided us with a constitutional blueprint to prevent us from going down the path of elites controlling the government instead of the people controlling it. As these great men understood, large government siphons off the treasury and the freedom of the people.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. You can visit Dr. Maglio at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.

THE NEED TO DEFLATE THE OVERINFLATED MINDS OF YOUNGSTERS

THE NEED TO DEFLATE THE OVERINFLATED MINDS OF YOUNGSTERS

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

Our children’s impression of their performance of almost everything they do is terrific to stupendous. After years of their parents, teachers, coaches and other authority figures being propagandized not to harm a child’s fragile self-esteem, we are producing delusional people.

Adults are constantly supervising our children. There is little opportunity for them to play outside with their peers. By nature children are not politically correct. They say whatever pops into their heads, which is often brutally honest.  A youngster’s evaluation of a peer is impactful as it is direct and usually devastatingly accurate.

Today many parents consider this uncensored peer speech, “bullying.” Although in the recent past it was looked upon as the growing pains of normal childhood. Youngsters have to learn that they are not the center of the world. Another child’s insensitivity towards him assists a child to learn he is not as perfect as he has been led to believe. He begins to realize there are ways to handle complementary or nasty criticism. Becoming desensitized and toughening up youngsters is necessary training for survival and success and no group does it better than other children.

In the absence of straight forward peer feedback, children receive mostly positive filtered messages not to damage their feelings, although it falsely elevates their ego.

The modern culture is explicit that any negative assessment of a youngster is destructive, bordering on abusive. Everyone has to win a trophy, no score is kept in a game, the majority of elementary school students are on the honor roll and other false tactics are employed to avoid anyone feeling like a loser. Even President Obama declared everyone a winner at this year’s Easter egg roll. This has become common practice.

Authority figures have learned it is easier to take the path of least resistance by focusing solely on the upside and forgetting all together the downside of a person’s performance. This is especially true with the young child. Training a child to confront and overcome his difficulties has disappeared in the role of parenting. We must avoid issues that would make a child uncomfortable even though it is necessary to improve his performance. This has become the norm.

The child is content without having to meet higher expectations. The parent does not have to deal with motivating their child since everyone gives them positive reports.  Parents rationalize these glowing reports even when they know deep down that it is less than accurate. They do not want to confront another personal issue. Although the positive statements about the child make parents feel good, the youngster becomes less able to make a realistic assessment of his abilities as compared to others.

Anyone who attempts to set the false-esteem-child straight by telling him he has a lower level of competency as compared to others is considered mean spirited.  According to the parent’s view it is a humiliating experience for their precious child to be told he is not number one. They get angry at the messenger rather than correct the child’s actions.

We have gone from raising neurotic children who worry they might not have done their best to self-centered children who think whatever they do is great. These children that do not care about doing something well are simply delusional individuals who have no motivation to do things correctly.  They take every short cut to get the job done quickly without any concern whether it is quality or not.  They “do not care,” which makes them “careless.”

Authority figures act as if they do not have time to continually require quality work from the children. This acceptance of mediocrity is being unconsciously taught by the parents, teachers, music, art and sport instructors.  The reality that excellence in anything requires someone to focus, give effort and persevere is becoming a thing of the past. 

Only by parents and other authority figures being honest in evaluating a child’s performance can the child learn what he/she needs to do to improve. It teaches the youngsters that they cannot stand still rather they have to work hard every day to get better.

This approach will adjust the child’s overinflated and false self-esteem. It will reinforce being careful to do one’ best reversing the “get-by” careless approach to life.  The child will develop pride in his work.

Deflating of a child’s overinflated ego in the short run will be uncomfortable to painful. The payoff is the child is shocked out of his delusional state.  This realizing he needs to work hard to become the best is a lesson worth more than being left a million dollar trust fund from his parents.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. You can visit Dr. Maglio at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.