Posts by Robert Ringer
Go for It!
“Always expect the unexpected.” – James Patterson It’s a serious mistake to allow yourself to get caught up in the “what if” and “how to” trap – attempting to project all problems and solutions in advance of taking action. The reality is that no one can ever hope to know all the problems in advance,…
Read MoreConcentrate on Concentrating
“Concentration is the ability to think about absolutely nothing when it is absolutely necessary.” – Ray Knight When I finished rewriting Winning Through Intimidation, I felt pretty confident that there were no glaring errors in the new edition (re-titled To Be or Not to Be Intimidated?). After all, I had done about 25 drafts of…
Read MoreProtect Yourself
“We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect some new disaster with each newspaper we read.” – Abraham Lincoln Today, I’m going to give you a Christmas present that I believe you will cherish the rest of your life. Provided, of course, you make use of it. My present comes…
Read MoreDoes Legalman Get a Bum Rap?
“With all due respect to lawyers, it’s wonderful that you have this intricate knowledge. You break down words to the nth degree. And sometimes I find it rather disgusting. And it goes on and on.” – Sonny Bono After decades of trying, those brave souls who have been carrying on the fight for sweeping changes…
Read MoreConverting Years Into Months
“Time is money.” – Benjamin Franklin My evolution as a computer user began back in the late seventies with the Xerox 860, considered to be the premier dedicated word processor of the time. The problem was that I didn’t have a clue as to how to use those hi-tech behemoths. I had two secretaries, and…
Read MoreMore on Recasting
“The only place opportunity cannot be found is in a closed-minded person.” – Bo Bennett I rarely write about the same subject twice in a row. Today, however, I’m going to make an exception. I just read an article in Time that was too good to pass up, because it so well underscores what I…
Read MoreMan, Method, and Recasting
“A lot of Woody Guthrie’s songs were taken from other songs. He would rework the melody and lyrics, and all of a sudden it was a Woody Guthrie song.” –John Mellencamp When my dad and I used to talk about business, he would often say, “It’s all man and method.” He was referring to the…
Read MoreNow You See It, Now You Don’t
I’ve written a lot about inferences, assumptions, and illusions – and how they relate to one another. Sometimes the line between inference (the act of deriving a logical conclusion from a premise believed to be true) and assumption (accepting something as true without proof) becomes fuzzy. Recently, I’ve had some head-shaking experiences that got me…
Read MoreIs Size Overrated?
Some years ago, my son played in a youth basketball league that was pretty intense. The reason for the intensity was that most of the fathers were trying to relive their youth through their sons, and wanted their boys to become the athletes that they themselves never were. In my son’s first year, he played…
Read MoreThoughts Have Consequences
Because I have extolled the virtues of action for so long, I have often been asked if thinking can be considered to be a form of action. The short answer is “yes.” To employ Aristotelian logic, since thoughts have consequences, we can reasonably conclude that thoughts are actions. But the whole notion of thinking as…
Read MoreA Charitable Foundation for Entrepreneurs?
Time magazine recently named Bill Gates one of its three “Persons of the Year” (along with his wife, Melinda, and rock star Bono). Queen Melinda was certainly deserving of her share of the honor, as she long ago demonstrated her enormous ability to marry well. And Bono appears not only to have good intentions but…
Read MoreEscape From Book Boredom
The number of books that I’ve started to read over the years is in the thousands, but the number of books I’ve actually finished is only a small percentage of that number. There are multiple reasons why I don’t finish most of the books that I start – some of the more important of which…
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