Print shop boss demands large print job start 'this instant' when preparation is incomplete, has to be redone, and costs the company a lot of money: 'Job was late, we lost any profit we were looking forward to through overnight delivery, reprint, etc.'

The "manifestation" crowd and your boss have at least one thing in common: Thinking that by saying or thinking something, it will come to fruition. No matter how much you want it, you can't always say something is and have it be so; the demand or expectation itself doesn't bear fruit. Like I'd be so happy right now if even $50,000 dropped out of the sky and landed on the ground at my feet, but that's just not going to happen. There's no amount of "manifesting" or demanding that's going to bring that into being.

The same goes for more mundane tasks. If a task, like getting a machine up and running, takes 10 minutes, it takes 10 minutes. You can't have your boss come in saying, "Do it now," and have it take 1 minute. Nor can you necessarily give that task to two people and have it take them 5 minutes each. That would be like expecting two pregnant women to be able to birth a baby in 4.5 months.

It is true, however, that having a clear goal in mind and a chance of getting there will make success far more likely, and those who believe that their effort will make them successful are seemingly more likely to be. But this is saying more about successive consecutive effort and attempts and energy being put toward something, rather than demand or wishful thinking.

You can't just go and give your subordinates something to do "this instant" when it's simply not possible; at any rate, it will lead to some sort of disaster, like it did for this boss who was forced to eat the cost of their mistake.