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Beyond the Glass Ceiling

Diane Dutton ⁽⁴¹⁾ Red Level Author

Diane Dutton

ESO Publications

The Adventures of Lady Bear A Shakespearean Tail!

Posted Sunday, November 01, 2009 (6 days 12 hours ago.) Viewed 65 times.

Gaps of Time Life's truths through the eyes of a Lady Bear

If you have been following this series, you would see that the introduction of a small white puppy turned the world of an uptight female CPA, stressed over life controlling her instead of her controlling life. This is actually a good thing because what was to unfold in the 20 months following the introduction of Lady Bear into our lives could not have been predicted by the best fortune tellers.

Now everyone has been affected by the economy in some way. For me, the wave of change was bigger than the best surf at Malibu . 28 years in the world of Corporate America sets your habits, style and nature. Today, 20 months after getting Lady Bear into our lives, I literally have gaps of time where the world just disappeared and the coping mechanism was this little while dog.

First, her name: Lady Bear; origins, a little white Godiva chocolate bear, February 14, 2004. Michael saw the bear and had to buy it for me! She was a beautiful stuffed bear, white with a little red bow. I loved that bear and as the first, we named her bear! The next year, one more Godiva bear and then another until the room was filled with all different bears. These little stuffed bears created comfort for a very grown up, very responsible woman who would come home from the stresses of the corporate world, the life of a startup software company searching for money, battling the costs of startup without investor support, the marketing folks, attorney fees for patent work big responsibilities. Then the bears would be a comfort.

Now I will fast forward to late 2007 and Michael's vision of a puppy. I could not wrap my mind around the responsibility for a live puppy who ate, pooped, shed, barked, pooped some more you get the picture! No, I said no many many times, no, no puppy. I could not fathom the responsibility for another person or four legged person in our lives. Michael insisted. He somehow knew that we really needed this change to anchor ourselves through these ever changing, ever challenging times.

How would he convince me? I got to determine the name of this puppy! Of course, the puppy would have to be named "bear". That was the only way I would accept the fate of getting a puppy. Yes, the puppy would be named "bear" after my very first Godiva bear, Valentine's day 2004.

Once we decided on a female dog, the change from "bear" to "Lady Bear" was born. I knew this dog would be treated like royalty. To this day, the name truly fits; lady bear; this dog thinks she is royalty. She has taken her place as the most considered "person" in our household.

Since lady bear came home to Vegas, our house has gone through many changes including the return of one son and the intro of another son to Las Vegas life. The one constant in this whole crazy picture is Lady Bear. She loves us unconditionally; she is smart, considerate, caring and gives me an amazing perspective on the rocky road of our lives these days. I will always know that Michael's desire to have a puppy more than 20 months ago was inspired and has brought compassion and heart to my personality, my lifestyle and gives me the ability to see light at the end of a very challenging tunnel!

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Healthcare; The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!

Posted Tuesday, August 18, 2009 (81 days 6 hours ago.) Viewed 95 times.

In the course of the daily routine of life in American Society today a person will see, hear and talk about health care at least one to two times. Is this normal? No! Is this our life today? Yes! You may ask "why is this happening as a "Crisis" today?" The answer is "because the President told us the "Crisis" is today!

The big question I ask "Is this really a crisis at this moment"? My answer is no, but the President has commanded that it is, so the media, the congress and the American people are working in this "crisis" mode. The President has an agenda for Government controlled health care; the congressional majority Democrat Party has the same agenda as the President. On the other hand the majority of tax paying, voting public has a different agenda: Jobs, low taxes, lower interest rates on credit cards, lower gas prices for fueling their cars and yes, good honest competitive health insurance and health care costs.

How do we find a happy medium in this mess? I will tell you what we do not do; don't panic, don't knee-jerk react to the "crisis", don't jump to conclusions. There has never been a valuable solution that was taken with a quantum leap! Only slow, consistent, positive change works. Jim Collins in his work " Built to Last" uses the terms: Focus on the Core, while constantly changing to fit the circumstances and grow for the future.

Our country was founded on a system of checks and balances in government and our capitalistic economy where everyone has the opportunity to do well, not the right to do well or the right for the government to pay for everything. Let's stay away from that change in our society where the government (our tax dollars) pays for everyone to have health insurance and we will become a true third world country/welfare, socialist state.

Our health care system isn't perfect. It needs much improvement. We need tort reform; we need competitive group rates for all types of groups. You know the definition of insurance is the grouping of risk. In health care we need the same thought process so that small business owners can be a "group" and other groups can be created.

We need leadership that celebrates personal responsibility and personal achievement, not leadership that assumes the average American cannot think or accomplish for themselves.

So, I want better health insurance rates. My rates are terrible! Why? My rates are terrible because I was forced to retire from the world of corporate executive with drooping salary levels and a lack of control over my future. In that process of rebirth as an entrepreneur I faced 18 months of COBRA at high rates and then the world of the individual health insurance plan. There is very little flexibility to participate as a "group" for insurance rating in healthcare insurance. Your policy will be rated up and up and up for even the most minor prescriptions! Don't have an acid reflux problem, rate up; don't have a migraine problem, rate up. Now my plan is actually higher than both car payments put together with the car insurance thrown on top as icing!

Yes, I want health insurance and health care reform. I am just not willing to accept that the only "savior" for this system, which is still the best in the world, is the Federal Government control. I am convinced that smart people, given the right motivation, can create a better program for America and the American people.

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The Lady Bear Chronicles A Shakespearean Tail! Part IV

Posted Sunday, August 16, 2009 (83 days 12 hours ago.) Viewed 55 times.

The Law of Attraction, Energy in Motion Hopefully you have read Parts I, II & III!

I think now might be a good time to explore the real reasons for these massive changes in my life. Certainly it will be good therapy for me to write about this subject and of course I am hoping that you find it interesting, entertaining and educational!

Who watched "The Secret"? So many people did, but did it really make a difference? Since it only reached so far into the related subject, the Law of Attraction, it really couldn't create the deep impact that understanding the true nature of The Law of Attraction could have. I don't expect most would have reacted to the movie the way I did. When I see something like this, I begin to explore for a deeper understanding. That led me to the James Ray material, Wallace Wattles 1910 writing "The Science of Success" and so much more from Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Jeff Olsen, "The Slight Edge".

All of this material had me apply vision, mission, thought, feeling and action, small steps, done consistently synergistic with my vision would create great growth, change and clarity!

Wow, what a mouthful! What does all of this have to do with a puppy????

Ok, here is the big picture; Michael had a vision of a puppy in our lives. He wanted to make it happen. He took action to make it happen and guess what? We had a puppy!

As simple as that sounds, if you have been reading you know we went to great lengths to get THIS puppy! We traveled far and spent a few dollars in the process. All of this is part of The Law of Attraction. The way we decided which puppy of the litter to take, the name, the breed, represented a transition for me from living in the well worn path, to living in the "fate favors the bold" path.

First, which puppy should we pick? Ever heard of your arm strength test? That is where you take some object or words, hidden, and put that close to your heart with one hand and with the other arm stretched out, you have someone push down on the arm. If your arm can resist the push down, then the thing you are holding is good for you. If you cannot resist and your arm pushes down to your side, then the item you are holding is bad for you!

Well, we had two female puppies left in the litter. We covered the pictures and took turns testing, first I tested Michael and then Michael tested me. The picture (which we could not see) that was the strong one, we marked with a small dot. Would you believe, we both picked the same picture! We knew which puppy would be our Lady Bear!

So, all the pieces fall into place, we travel miles across the country to get a puppy and begin a new phase in our lives. We began a new phase in my life, in my responsibilities, in my concerns, in my ability to care about something more than career, finances and parenting responsibilities. It began a new phase is truly loving unconditionally, living with a being who loved unconditionally. This experience "said" Diane could be someone she never allowed herself to be in the past. This "said" my future could be unfolding in a new and different direction!

So someone tell me, how much hair do these puppies have anyway? How much carpet can they eat without getting sick? How many rubber toys, stuffed animals, ribbon and sticks can they eat in a day? I was surely about to find out!

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The Lady Bear Chronicles Part 3 - A Shakespearean Tail!

Posted Monday, July 20, 2009 (110 days 18 hours ago.) Viewed 88 times.

The Adventure Continues

Over 2,000 miles to pick up a puppy; for a women who never owned a pet anything in her life, it was quite a traumatic experience. My husband, Michael, tried very hard to mask the trauma with distractions. He didn't have to think too far out of the box; the distractions of life were already in our hands, a ready made set of issues no family should have to face when they are preparing for an adventure to pick up a puppy 2,000 miles away!

"A rose by any other name", OK, enough with the Shakespeare! In this case the "distractions" included the loss of a job, the move to "consultant", the ever changing investor market, and the patent process for our new software technology, software support issues, kids in college, kids out of college, a bad housing market, and the changes in the overall economy and on top of that my ladies workout gym was closing! Way too much for any two people to handle.

When in doubt, I recall a famous line from the movie Animal House "Road Trip!"

So, in the middle of the trauma, let's go get our new puppy. For me, it was important that I maintained the illusion of productive work effort while on the road. I was repositioning our software business plan for some very promising investor types who sent a business plan format they utilize for their "Angel" Investor Network. Great! I would work on my laptop in the car while we drove across country to pick up the dog. No wasted time here. Oh, I was so mistaken. How can you focus on rewriting a business plan when you are traveling through the scenic states of Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma? You can't. With the anticipation of getting the puppy and the interesting Clive Cussler adventure on CD, I was easily torn away from my big work plan to just chilling out, listening to the mystery and anticipating the future. A future I would have never imagined in my 50 years of life!

Sometimes when you think your life should get less complicated, along comes a little white puppy to make it much more complicated. You learn to let go of worrying about the most trivial of things. You learn that you cannot always control everyone and everything. You learn to care about more than you and your own little world. All of that I found in the face of that little white puppy. On March 9 th of 2007 a little puppy walked into my life. Of course I assumed puppies liked puppy toys and puppy treats. Lady Bear; she gave treats a whole new meaning. And so the adventure of the 6 day, 5 night trek across 7 states was compounded by on the job experience with fast food, the smallest patches of grass, poopy shoes and my husband's mysterious illness for the last leg of the journey.

If God was testing my patience and training me to live in a not so sterile world, this was a great beginning!

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