Be a hell-raiser

Fresh from the Army, my dream was to create great literature.
My models were Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe.
While preparing to become a great novelist, I had to earn a living.
My father suggested working at our hometown newspaper.
The minute I walked into the newsroom, I felt I had found a home.
As a journalist, I wanted to publish the truth and raise hell.
My new models were muck-raising journalists.
They comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable.
We have exposed political, corporate and union corruption.
We have exposed institutional injustices and industrial pollution.
We have uncovered the abuse of political and corporate power.
We have exposed malicious caregivers who abused the helpless.
We have been sued four times — unsuccessfully.
No one who has sued us has yet to win a dime in settlement.
Now it is my privilege to teach others how to raise hell.
Our world needs more hell-raisers.
People who are satisfied never contribute much to progress.
Change is constant. You either grow or stagnate.
You’re either green and growing . . . or ripe and rotting.
That’s my challenge to you. Deal with change.
Stay green and growing. Raise hell. Make things happen.
For more about hell raising, please click here.

Achieving your dreams

Last time we talked about exciting others with your vision.
Today we’ll talk about what it takes to achieve your dreams.
Years ago, we lived in a cramped, third-story walk-up in New York.
It looked out over the Hudson River to the New Jersey Palisades.
We were 14 hours by car from home in the dead of winter.
We dreamed of going home and running our own newspaper.
We dreamed of living the good life on a South Carolina lake.
Today, we live our dream. We own the local newspaper.
We live on our lake. We have many friends in a town we love.
I believe you will make your dreams come true, too.
But it will require timing, skill, work and belief in yourself.
What if you could do anything without fear of failure?
What if you tackled anything, knowing you would succeed?
That would be fantastic, wouldn’t it?
Those who dare to be great don’t luck into it.
They make their luck with vision, faith, preparation, execution.
You can do that, too. You can realize your dreams.
We'll talk more about this in the coming days.
For more on achieving your dreams, please click here.