Dan J. Harkey

Master Educator | Business & Finance Consultant | Mentor

Personal Growth & Development

A practical guide to getting better results in your work, your time, and your life.

If you’ve collected enough advice to fill a bookshelf but still feel like your calendar owns you, you’re in the right place. My articles focus on the successful practices that move the needle: goal setting, time management, sales and relationship-building, negotiation, more intelligent time allocation, and reinventing yourself when the old version stops working. Less inspirational theater. More execution.

Most people don’t fail from lack of talent—they fail from drift. I write about how to build clarity, protect your time, strengthen relationships, negotiate better outcomes, and create a repeatable system for progress. Practical, direct, and occasionally funny—because growth is serious, but it doesn’t have to be grim.

Search Results

Hip Pain Management in 2026:

Evidence-Based Options from Steroid Injections to PRP and Total Hip Replacement

Clear and Present Danger:

The Soon-To-Be Ex-Husband Tried to Sneak Behind His Soon-To-Be Ex-Wife and Encumber The Jointly Owned Home For A Real Estate Loan.

Lousy Decisions in Government: A Never-Ending, Continuous Merry-Go-Around

Why They Happen, Why They Persist, and How to Reduce Them

Parkinson’s Laws: Designing Organizational Systems Against Bureaucratic Drift

When Compliance Reporting Becomes the End Product:

How Required Reporting Turns Bureaucracies into a Paper Reporting Treadmill and a Production Results Avoidance Machine

“Boneheaded Actions: Characteristic Actions Taken by Bureaucracies”

When Rules and Processes Replace Results

Less Than Intelligent (Stupid) Decisions, from the California Government (Housing + Insurance Edition)

Why “fraudulently created, sold as reasonable policies” keep producing shortages, unaffordable premiums, and brittle systems — with case studies

Hip Replacement Surgery:

Effectiveness, Recovery, and Realistic Expectations

“Brothers in Arms”: Dire Straits’

At its core, “Brothers in Arms” is a heartfelt lament—a quiet, emotionally restrained anti-war song that invites listeners to feel the pain and loss soldiers experience, fostering empathy and understanding.

“Money for Nothing”: Dire Straits

The lyrics are written in-character: from the viewpoint of working-class guys watching music videos and scoffing at how “easy” musicians seem to have it—fame, money, attention—compared with physical labor.

What Is the Ego?

What It’s Made Of, How It Forms, How It Evolves, and How We Outgrow Needing It “Fed”-to help us understand our inner processes and support our personal growth journey.

Hope Is Not a Strategy:

Why Optimism Without Action Fails (and What to Do Instead): A Better Approach-Hope + Strategy + Action:

The Car Repair Estimate Moment — From the Kid’s View

The car makes a sound it’s not supposed to make.

California Benefits Cliff: The Plight of Low-Earning Workers When Earnings Rise, and They Lose Benefits.

What to Watch and Where They Hit While Attempting To Live on a Subsistence Income

Financial Stress: When There Is Too Much Month Left at the End of the Money

This isn’t financial advice—just a clear-eyed look and compassionate look at why so many households feel squeezed, what “financial stress” is, and what helps most when the margin of safety disappears, when a Flat tire needing replacement becomes a crisis.

Powwow Meaning, Origin, and How the Word—and the Gathering—Evolved

What Does “Powwow” Mean Today?

Powwow: Meaning, Origins, and Why the Word Matters

The word you’ve heard—maybe even used—without knowing its weight

Low Wages: Getting By on $20 per Hour or Less (U.S. & California, mid 2025)

The wage floor, frozen in time and space.

Motivation (Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic):

Why Similar Effort Produces Different Outcomes

The Quality of Intelligence Intersects: Philosophy, Psychology, Motivation, Tenacity, and Economics.