Lifestyle

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

Published

3 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

Wanda Knight on Blending Culture, Style, and Leadership Through Travel

Published

21 hours ago

December 24, 2025

Michelle Langton

The best lessons in leadership do not always come from a classroom or a boardroom. Sometimes they come from a crowded market in a foreign city, a train ride through unfamiliar landscapes, or a quiet conversation with someone whose life looks very different from your own.

Wanda Knight has built her career in enterprise sales and leadership for more than three decades, working with some of the world’s largest companies and guiding teams through constant change. But ask her what shaped her most, and she will point not just to her professional milestones but to the way travel has expanded her perspective. With 38 countries visited and more on the horizon, her worldview has been formed as much by her passport as by her resume.

Travel entered her life early. Her parents valued exploration, and before she began college, she had already lived in Italy. That experience, stepping into a different culture at such a young age, left a lasting impression. It showed her that the world was much bigger than the environment she grew up in and that adaptability was not just useful, it was necessary. Those early lessons of curiosity and openness would later shape the way she led in business.

Sales, at its core, is about connection. Numbers matter, but relationships determine long-term success. Wanda’s time abroad taught her how to connect across differences. Navigating unfamiliar places and adjusting to environments that operated on different expectations gave her the patience and awareness to understand people first, and business second. That approach carried over into leadership, where she built a reputation for giving her teams the space to take ownership while standing firmly behind them when it mattered most.

The link between travel and leadership becomes even clearer in moments of challenge. Unfamiliar settings require flexibility, quick decision-making, and the ability to stay calm under pressure. The same skills are critical in enterprise sales, where strategies shift quickly and no deal is ever guaranteed. Knight learned that success comes from being willing to step into the unknown, whether that means exploring a new country or taking on a leadership role she had not originally planned to pursue.

Her travels have also influenced her eye for style and her creative pursuits. Fashion, for Wanda, is more than clothing; it is a reflection of culture, history, and identity. Experiencing how different communities express themselves, from the craftsmanship of Italian textiles to the energy of street style in cities around the world, has deepened her appreciation for aesthetics as a form of storytelling. Rather than keeping her professional and personal worlds separate, she has learned to blend them, carrying the discipline and strategy of her sales career into her creative interests and vice versa.

None of this has been about starting over. It has been about adding layers, expanding her perspective without erasing the experiences that came before. Wanda’s story is not one of leaving a career behind but of integrating all the parts of who she is: a leader shaped by high-stakes business, a traveler shaped by global culture, and a creative voice learning to merge both worlds.

What stands out most is how she continues to approach both leadership and life with the same curiosity that first took her beyond her comfort zone. Each new country is an opportunity to learn, just as each new role has been a chance to grow. For those looking at her path, the lesson is clear: leadership is not about staying in one lane; it is about collecting experiences that teach you how to see, how to adapt, and how to connect.

As she looks to the future, Wanda Knight’s compass still points outward. She will keep adding stamps to her passport, finding inspiration in new cultures, and carrying those insights back into the rooms where strategy is shaped and decisions are made. Her legacy will not be measured only by deals closed or positions held but by the perspective she brought, and the way she showed that leading with a global view can change the story for everyone around you.