Lifestyle

Douglas Eugene Noll – A walk through his publications and their achievements made so far

Published

2 years ago

February 7, 2023

Every author has a different story, but they have one thing in common – they all overcome great obstacles and hardships. Plenty of famous writers had impairments yet found enormous success in their lives. It goes without saying that the best art comes out of the worst adversities. When physical and mental activity is hindered by sickness, creative activity thrives. Many renowned authors, writers, and poets bear witness to this decision. One such example is Doulas Eugene Noll. The author of De-Escalate: How to Calm an Angry Person in 90 Seconds or Less was born with multiple severe impairments.

His calling is to serve humankind, and he does so on numerous levels. He is a best-selling author, educator, and trainer. He is an accomplished mediator. Noll’s job takes him from international work to assisting people in resolving highly vexing interpersonal and ideological problems.

Noll has penned four books, and his latest book De-Escalate: How to Calm an Angry Person in 90 Seconds or Less, was a best-seller on amazon and was published in four different languages. It also won the Book Excellence Award in 2017. The book teaches the readers how to calm an angry or upset person of any age while remaining centered and calm. In addition, Noll, in his book, has also highlighted ways to calm oneself down swiftly and efficiently. Noll is a lawyer turned peacemaker born near-blind and with club feet. He is the creator of several online courses that teach his innovative de-escalation skills.

It was in the year 2000 that he realized that the courtroom was not where he belonged. As a result, he embarked on a journey as a peacemaker and mediator after leaving a successful trial practice. Noll has stressed in his book what he has implemented in real life. He has taught in some of California’s most violent men’s and women’s prisons with substantial outcomes. Noll held workshops for groups who wished to bring something positive into their communities.

He named that workshop after his book as De-escalation training workshops, where participants learned how to calm an angry person in 90 seconds or less. The training workshop was a perfect way for churches and faith communities to express one’s religious and spiritual beliefs in a practice that brings peace under challenging situations. Throughout ten weeks, the participants begin to master the skills and change their way of looking at the world through the lens of positivity.

In addition to De-Escalate, Noll has published three other books named Peacemaking: practicing at the intersection of law and human conflict, Sex, politics, & religion at the office: the new competitive advantage, and Elusive peace: how modern diplomatic strategies could better resolve world conflicts. Each book brought an impact of its own and earned recognition.

His journey as a lawyer

In 1977, Noll began his legal career as a clerk for the Honorable George Hopper before being admitted to the California Bar in December of the same year. As an associate, he joined Fullerton, Lang, Richert & Patch, a Fresno law firm located in Fullerton, in 1978. He tried his first legal case in 1978 and went on to practice law as a civil trial lawyer for the next 22 years, working on over 75 trials.

Douglas Noll contributed to the legal profession by assisting students in achieving success via education and teaching. Throughout his career, he worked as an instructor in various positions at numerous institutes. Noll was a member of the American Institute of Mediation’s core faculty and the Straus Institute’s Professional Skills Development program’s summer faculty.

In a nutshell, Noll’s entire life has seen him reinvent himself taking different routes but with the same vision in mind: To bring peace to the communities. He illustrates that being born with impairments is not our choice, but not allowing them on the way to the top is entirely our choice.

His dedication to disclosing the world through a lens of positivity led him to create Prison in Peace, where he transforms murderers into peacemakers. He stresses that the power of mediation cannot be overlooked. Noll is now an award-winning author, teacher, trainer, and skilled mediator.

Lifestyle

Derik Fay: The Quiet Architect of Impact-First Entrepreneurship

Published

11 hours ago

May 8, 2025

Michelle Langton

In an era where noise often overshadows results, Derik Fay is quietly shaping a different kind of legacy — one built not on showmanship, but on undeniable substance. For more than two decades, Fay has engineered the rise of over 30 companies across industries as diverse as real estate, technology, healthcare, and entertainment. Yet his name rarely leads headlines — not because he hasn’t earned it, but because he never needed it to validate his success.

Growing up in Rhode Island, Fay learned early that the world rarely hands out opportunity; it must be seized, created, and multiplied. While many of his peers pursued traditional paths, he took a risk that would define the rest of his life: at just 22, he founded 3F Management, a venture firm with an entirely different mission — to build companies that would outlast trends, outperform markets, and, most importantly, out-impact their competition.

Instead of obsessing over short-term wins, Fay approached entrepreneurship like a craftsman. Much like Henry Ford, who famously said, “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business,” Fay built companies that weren’t just profitable — they were purposeful. Every venture was designed to create real, sustainable value, both for shareholders and for the communities they served.

Through his relentless focus on structure and leadership, Fay’s ecosystem of businesses now touches thousands of lives daily — from employees finding new opportunities to entrepreneurs gaining the mentorship they never had before. But unlike typical moguls who boast about headcounts, Fay views every job created as a ripple in a larger mission: empowering individuals to write better futures for themselves.

Where others have scaled fast and crashed harder, Fay’s model thrives on foundations few are patient enough to build anymore. His method is slower, smarter, and almost surgical: find what others overlook, fix what others fear, and grow what others abandoned too early. It’s this principle that led him to not just build companies — but to resurrect them, reimagine them, and sometimes even walk away if the mission no longer aligned with the impact he envisioned.

Fay’s philosophy extends far beyond boardrooms. Philanthropy isn’t a checkbox at the end of his success story — it’s embedded into the way he scales. His ventures are built with giving back written into their DNA, from local community initiatives to broader mentorship platforms that help emerging entrepreneurs get their first real shot at success. His life’s work is proof that wealth and generosity are not mutually exclusive — they are, in fact, essential partners.

Today, while newer generations of entrepreneurs hustle for likes and magazine covers, Fay’s name is whispered in rooms where real power moves. His reputation — built quietly but relentlessly — is that of a man who delivers, builds, and elevates without the need for public validation.

In a business world increasingly built on spectacle, Derik Fay reminds us that the most lasting legacies are forged not in the glare of the spotlight, but in the thousands of lives changed quietly along the way.

For more insights into Derik Fay’s ventures and philanthropic efforts, visit www.derikfay.com and follow him on Instagram @derikfay