Is stupidity contagious?

Did “Catcher in the Rye” influence your outlook?

Here’s a Father’s Day message for you.
J.D. Salinger’s “Holden Caulfield” is an influence. Teenagers identify with him and his angst.
Like him in “Catcher in the Rye”, they are uneasy. They wonder if the world is against them.
They question and wonder about everything.

As a teenager, I had a load of angst.
The book’s influence was powerful.
In time, I realized the world wasn’t against me.
The rest of the world was only indifferent to me.
The world did not care what I did.
Only my parents and other loved ones did.
As Holden’s sister Phoebe did. She tried to help.
Whatever we make of life is up to us.

A recent study confirmed such influence on the young.
College students read a short story before a test.
The story was about a drunk soccer hooligan.
Apparently they identified with his behavior.
They shared his irresponsible self-image.
On tests, they scored poorly. Was self-image the cause?

Others read and underlined behavior they questioned.
They considered how they differed from the drunk.
Drinking, fighting and wasting your life.
This group did far better than the first group.

A third group did not read the story before the tests.
This group scored even higher than the other.
So I ask you, is stupidity contagious?
How does what we put into our minds influence us?
If we associate with losers, what happens to us?
We pick up their attitudes, don’t we?
In tech talk, garbage in, garbage out.

If we associate with winners, what happens?
If we read about successful people, what happens?
Now here’s the most important question of all:
How does our example influence others?
Are we strong role models - or hooligans?
Do we want to make a difference for good or evil?
It really is up to us how we behave.
Our example may powerfully influence others.
Consider your words and your actions.
Others who look up to you are watching.

Are you a role model worth emulating?
Do you serve your life’s purpose or anything less?
Are you showing others how to act and live?

To comment, click on Post a Comment below.
For more on your life’s purpose, click here.

Can you buy success?

What made Dirk Nowitzki
the Most Valuable Player?

You don’t have to care about sports to appreciate this.
An underdog team won this year’s NBA championship.
The gutsy Dallas Mavericks beat a bunch of all stars.
Everyone said they were over-matched from the start.
They were supposed to fold in the first round.

They battled through pro basketball's best teams.
Bookies probably lost a fortune betting against them.
Sunday night they beat the Miami Heat 105-95.
The Heat was not supposed to lose.

It was an emotional moment for Dallas’s Dirk Nowitzki.
He even hid in the locker room and cried.
He had been called a choke artist much of his career
Now he was the tournament's Most Valuable Player.

Miami had bought three top pro basketball stars.
Their aim was to win the NBA championship.
Everyone thought they would.
The Mavericks showed you can’t buy championships.
It takes a team, a dream and guts to do that.

So here’s the takeway from this little story:

1. Be careful that you don’t under-estimate rivals.
It isn’t the size of the dog in the fight.
It’s the size of the fight in the dog.

2. Never ever give in no matter what.
Winston Churchill rallied his countrymen at war.
They were a nation under seige by Nazi Germany.
“Never, never, never give in,” he told his people.
They didn’t and you know the rest of the story.

3. Believe in yourself no matter who opposes you.
Walt Disney’s people thought he had lost his mind.
He wanted to build a costly amusement park.
They begged and pleaded with Walt to forget it.
He didn’t. He rolled the dice and built Disneyland.
You know the rest of that story, too.

Please add your own story at Post a Comment below.
All of us love great underdog stories.

A life-changing 3 minutes

We are on our way to a celebration today.
We are celebrating the life of my wife’s mother.
She was a strong woman, a warrior’s wife.
She raised four children as he fought for us.
He was a career military lawyer and fighter pilot.
She was a warrior, too.
She kept the home fires going.
She lived 90 full years before God called her home.
Those were 90 successful years as a great role model.
She taught me more than she ever realized.
She and her husband were suspicious of me at first.
I was a newspaper editor - cause for concern.
Most mainstream media is and was super liberal.
They worried who their daughter had brought home.
Over time we became comfortable with each other.
They found I was not some two-headed monster.
We shared similar values and beliefs.
We were proud and grateful to be Americans.
I was thinking of her when I received a video today.
It was excerpted from “The Strangest Secret”.
Many of us know about Earl Nightingle who wrote it.
Earl and his great voice were always inspiring.
This short video comes courtesy of Mac Anderson.
Mac calls his inspiring newsletter “Simple Truths”.
I’m writing to share it with you today.
It will take three minutes of your time.
Those three minutes just might change your life.
Think about and practice Earl’s message.
For Earl’s inspiring message, click here.

The price of freedom

I’ll bet you don’t know Memorial Day's origin?
That’s OK. Not a lot of us do.
To some it’s just another day to shop or play.
Historically, it was started by freed slaves.
They honored the Union troops who freed them.
The last Monday in May has become a holiday.
It is a time to reflect on the sacrifices of others.
Those who paid the price for our freedoms.

I recently visited Arlington Cemetery - again.
This time it was with 100 World War II veterans.
These men had made countless sacrifices for all of us.
It was a memorable experience.
Just listening to them talk about the war.
Seeing tears in their eyes for fallen comrades.

I watched a movie Sunday about World War I.
The story was from the German side of the lines.
Soldiers on both sides of any war pay high prices.
This should not put us in sympathy with the enemy.
The jihadists are determined to end our way of life.
To take our freedoms and impose their ways on us.
It should strengthen us to know they are only men.
Deceived men whose leaders mislead them.
That is their weakness and our strength.

You see what is going on in the Moslem world today.
The idea of freedom is stronger than ever.
Let us commit to preserve that idea, to nurture it.
That is my Memorial Day challenge to you.
Remind your friends why we are as free as we are.

To comment, click on Post a Comment below.

Making good decisions

Which direction
will you choose?

Some think conservatives are selfish.
That they do not care for others.
They are welcome to think what they want.
I am a realist and a proud conservative.
I am not selfish nor care only for myself.
Those who know me know that.
I do NOT believe in handouts to the poor.
I do NOT believe in making others dependent.
For their votes or for any ulterior motive.
Experience in charity work taught me a lot.
It taught me about the downside of handouts.
They tend to keep people dependent.
Some think that is an uncharitable attitude.
I cannot change minds. Think what you want.
But I have been hungry. I have been cold.
I have been down on my luck - and hated it.
I have done without because I was broke.
But I never looked for a handout.
I had too much pride to seek one.
I learned long ago about two kinds of decisions.
You can decide to be wealthy.
Or you can decide to be poor.
You can decide to be a victim and blame others.
Or you can decide to hold yourself accountable.
Poor decisions are easy to make.
They are very hard to live with.
Good decisions are harder to make.
But they are far easier to live with.
The decisions are yours to make.
Once made, you live with them - like it or not.
We discuss this in our latest book.
It’s “Killer Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs”
For more about that, click here.