About this Blog
In order to rapidly and efficiently achieve your personal, professional and life’s most important goals, you must honestly assess yourself (through focused introspection, objective detachment and other self-analysis and self-knowledge techniques which can be learned here), expand and sharpen your tactical and strategic skill sets, clearly visualize your ultimate destination, create a plan and a path to get there, define incremental steps in the fulfillment of that plan, acquire and leverage the assets that you’ll need, and proceed with confidence. Master yourself. Lead Others. Convert dreams into actions, and actions into accomplishments. TAKING COMMAND! is about self-growth, professional growth and the actualization of your greatest potential. Success, in everything, is ultimately the product of someone’s making a decision to do something, and then taking the actions necessary to do it. Learn to seize and leverage opportunities, to overcome obstacles and to do what you must in order to execute the plan that takes you to the realization of your ambitions. Take command of yourself and become a potent, persuasive leader. Get things done!
Our Founder, host and principal content provider is Douglas E. Castle, who can be accessed either through his Blog (click), or through his Linked In Profile (click).
About Douglas E. Castle
Professional Resume
Douglas E. Castle is a senior level expert in all matters of high-level corporate negotiations, deal structure and finance, strategic planning, international business and major project management. He speaks, consults and writes frequently about these subjects, as well as about key aspects of leadership, crisis management and the Human Condition. He authors a great many blogs on a number of subjects.
Mr. Castle has been, and continues to be a seasoned and acclaimed advisor, director and trustee to emerging enterprises and growing companies worldwide, across a broad variety of industries on matters of organizational development, strategic planning, financing (both institutional equity and debt), international incorporations and negotiating of co-ventures, mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Castle’s current passions are centered upon leveraging his wealth of experience in high-stakes corporate negotiations, deal structure, organizational engineering, strategic planning and financing to foster innovation and entrepreneurial growth and success.
Mr. Castle’s professional resume has encompassed: international banking, asset-based financing, merchant banking (equity), factoring, trade financing, credit enhancement and surety, transactional structuring (mergers, acquisitions, LBOs, ESOPs, management buy-outs, transnational and domestic co-ventures) and the creation of investment instruments. He has written and presented operating plans for, and has chartered a number of international commercial and economic development banks and reinsurance companies in multiple offshore and international jurisdictions, with an aggregate capitalization of in excess of $12.8 billion USD. During the past thirty years, he has also incorporated close to one hundred IBCs (international business companies) across all business sectors. He has worked as a turnaround expert for troubled US and UK companies, and has renegotiated loan terms with banks, other creditors, bondholders and shareholders for these companies, both as pre-bankrupts, and as debtors-in-possession and trustees-in-possession.
Mr. Castle’s current affiliations include: Executive Director of Global Business Intel™, an unincorporated Division of Global Edge Technologies Group, LLC; Director and Senior Consultant of The Castle Consultancy; Managing Director and Member of Global Edge Technologies Group LLC, and others. You can obtain more information about Douglas Castle’s personal, educational and professional background by visiting either http://www.linkedin.com/in/douglascastle, or http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/.
Some of Mr. Castle’s prior engagements have included: Acting Chairman and CEO of TNNWC Group, LLC; Senior Financial Analyst In Charge Of Special Projects for National Westminster Bank, plc; Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Banking, Finance and Investments at Hofstra University; Director of Capitol Guaranty Surety Company Inc., Director of First Empire Capital Corporation and First Empire Autolease, Inc., Intelligence Contractor for Kroll International Inc. and numerous others.
Mr. Castle received his B.S. in Economics from Stony Brook University (1976), with Omicron Delta Epsilon honors (as well as a New York State Regents Scholarship), and he received his MBA in Public Accounting from The Hofstra University Graduate School Of Business (with a graduate fellowship) in 1979.
Mr. Castle is a passionate and prolific writer about topics relating to Internationalism, Futurism, Leadership, and a variety of other non-financial topics. He authors a number of blogs and is active in social media, publicity and branding campaigns for select clients. A brief sampling of some of these blogs follows:
THE GLOBAL FUTURIST – http://theglobalfuturist.blogspot.com/
THE INTERNATIONALIST PAGE – http://theinternationalistpage.blogspot.com/
TAKING COMMAND! – http://takingcommand.blogspot.com/
MAD MARKETING TACTICS! – http://madmarketingtactics.blogspot.com/
INFOSPHERE™ BUSINESS ALERTS! - http://InfoSphereBusinessAlerts.blogspot.com
BUSINESS AND PROJECT PLANNING - http://BusinessAndProjectPlanning.blogspot.com
LINKS 4 LIFE ALERTS! - http://Links4LifeAlerts.com
SENDING SIGNALS! - http://SendingSignals.blogspot.com
BRAINTENANCE - http://Braintenance.blogspot.com
A comprehensive list of Mr. Castle’s Blogs and RSS Feeds, hosted on both Blogger and WordPress, can be found at http://DouglasCastleRSSFeeds.com.
Note:You may receive a download of Douglas E Castle’s complete curriculum vitae in a .pdf format by clicking on: http://bit.ly/DouglasECastlePDF1.
Tags, Topics, Subjects, Labels, Search Terms, Categories and Keyword Phrases:
Self-growth, self-knowledge, identifying and prioritizing objectives, visualizing outcomes, planning and preparation, breaking goals into smaller projects, achievement by increments, flexibility, adaptation, tactical maneuvers, longer-term strategies, leadership, domination, personal power, persuasion, seduction, convincing, behavioral psychology, expectation management, hypnosis, NLP, RET, EMDR, mass hypnosis, subliminal messaging, polygraph, espionage, interviewing, interrogation, lying, psychological operations, emotional warfare, questioning tactics, The Art Of War, controlling others, mind control, law enforcement, disinformation, misdirection, sensory deprivation, private investigation, self-discipline, managing employees, running groups, running organizations, communications, codes, ciphers, sanity, propaganda, crowd control, sensory deprivation, divide and conquer, building confidence, infiltration, establishing rapport, DOD, CIA, FBI, DIA, NSA, Secret Service, KGB, Moussad, IMF, SWAT, Interpol, Seal Team Six, sleeper cells, double agents, deep background checks, police tactics, self-preservation, achieving financial and social success, cults, recruitment, conversion, charisma factors, holding meetings, public speaking, sabotage, terror, de-humanization, de-personalization, Machiavelli, pain threshold, establishing rapport, conquering fears, use of threats, dealing with uncertainty, military intelligence, information gathering, spying, industrial espionage, sabotage, psychological manipulation, counterintelligence, surveillance, motivation, command, obedience, rapid decision making, spyware, spycraft, delegation, negotiation, post-hypnotic commands, speech patterns, compulsion, unifying people, self-actualization, personal power, suspicions, truth serums, de-programming, emotional extortion, decompensate, escalation, posturing, bullying, sociopathy, authority, power personality, empathy, Milgram’s experiments, Hobson’s choice, mob mentality, de-personalization, shaming and blaming, the power of silence, crisis management, crowd control, VAKOG, sensorial overload, sleep deprivation, food deprivation, social isolation, confession, posturing, confusion personal presence, building a legend, conspiracy theories, paranoia, defenses, instinct, intuition, PTSD, Ki, Chi, Kwon, perception, prospective, Command Therapy, alpha male, hecklers, secrets, signs, symbols, Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Knights Templar, The Lucis Trust, The UN Counsel On Foreign Relations (CFR), The Trilateral Commission, The Bilderbergers, theosophy, mysticism, religious fanatics, subjectiveness, bigotry, impartiality, arbitration, mediation, moderation, rules of engagement, emotional attachments and vulnerabilities, sacrifices, crowd pleasing, greed, plata o plomo, witnesses, eyewitness accounts, fluid memory, fugue state, psychosis, patience, Time Line Therapy, “good cop – bad cop”, Mutally Assured Destruction (MAD), the element of surprise, entrapment, finding an exit, breaking up tension, martial arts, Stockholm Syndrome, hostage situations, crisis management, risk assessment mitigation and containment, trust, hope, obtaining cooperation, disaster recovery, backup support, anticipation, nerve centers, camouflage, concealment, disguise, ordnance, psychology and physiology of fear, reading people, counter-espionage, engendering loyalty, Malcolm Gladwell’s “context”, hallucination, survival, collateral damage, playing poker, making an calling bluffs, leveraging of media, disillusionment, chastisement, saving face, Kidnap and Ransom, Search and Rescue, staging, safe houses, myth, diplomacy, negotiation, focus, hyperawareness, dim mak, Jacob’s Ladder, The Manchurian Candidate, The Minority Report, adaptation, improvised weaponry, threat assessment, conflict resolution, confusion and commotion, rituals and routines, bread and circuses, catering to the ego, public speaking, spreading rumors, news “leakage,” terrorism, personal default settings, implication, improvised weapons, accessing powerful contacts, bonding, visualization, planning and implementation, discrediting testimony, raising doubts, pre-emptive strike, reliability and responsibility, insubordination, taking charge, delegation, rewards and incentives, punishments and negative reinforcement, handling meetings, arriving at a consensus, dealing with committees, channeling anger, dealing with difficult people and other obstacles…
