Rules Number 1 and 2

Underlying what I’m going to share with you in this article is an age-old theme: If I can do it, anyone can. It’s a theme I believe in strongly, probably because I’ve read so many articles, biographies, and autobiographies about people who have overcome enormous odds to achieve success. In a radio interview some years…

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Say It Ain’t So, Jose

There’s no question that some people feel cheated by the likelihood that the home-run boom of the past decade in Major League Baseball has been, at least to some extent, a result of players using performance-enhancing substances. It appears, however, that these purist fans are in the minority when it comes to baseball’s latest in…

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Mario and Me

I happened to be going through some old files the other day, and came across a 1978 article about blockbuster bestsellers. The reason I saved the article was that it included a list of “Mario Puzo’s Godfatherly Rules for Writing a Bestselling Novel.” Puzo, who passed away in 1999, wrote a number of bestselling novels,…

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Playing to Win

I don’t watch many football games on television anymore, but I did catch the last few minutes of some of the NFL playoff games. I also watched most of the Super Bowl between the Patriots and Eagles. What struck me most was how some things have managed to remain the same in a sport that…

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Reality Therapy Part 1

For most of my life, I was a strong believer in conventional psychology, which is based on the teachings of Sigmund Freud. Conventional psychology focuses on finding the psychological roots of an individual’s problems. The idea is that once a person’s past traumas are brought to the surface and dissected, he will be able to…

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Count Your Blessings Every Day

As Thanksgiving time rolled around this year, I couldn’t help but think of Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939. If you’re a sports fan, the chances are good that you’ve probably seen footage of that historic speech. The words that most of us remember are when Gehrig said, “Today I…

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Never-Fail Rules of Success

I rarely make guarantees, but I feel completely comfortable sticking my neck out on this one: I guarantee that if you religiously follow my “10 Never-Fail Rules of Success,” your results in every area of your life will dramatically improve. The rules are about as straightforward as you can get: Rule No. 1: Ask. Rule…

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Is 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…

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