I am often asked some variation of the “How do I get started as a writer?” question. Here’s the best answer I know, and it’s in three parts: 1) just start writing; 2) be willing to right crap [later edit: Ana points out that should be “be willing to write crap”—I...
Michael J. Fox is the kind of person who makes people feel good just by walking into a room. In 2002 I delighted in reading Fox’s memoir, Lucky Man, which recounted his childhood and charmed career, his exit from alcoholism, entrance into Parkinson’s and exit from TV...
At work on a companion volume to The Go-Giver, I’ve been looking a little deeper into the whole business of adding value, since that’s the bedrock of the book’s “Five Laws of Stratospheric Success.” Which brought me to a thought about appreciation. One of the most...
Ana and I just got back from an afternoon at the public library of the next town over at a reading with bestselling author Dennis LeHane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, et al.). It was fascinating. He read from his latest novel, The Given Day, which I sucked up with a...
A friend (Josephine Gross from Networking Times) sent me this amazing speech that’s been kicking around the Internet. I wanted to post it here, so I wrote to the author, Dr. Karl Paulnack, Director of the Music Division at Boston Conservatory (where, as it happens, my...
My office is downstairs in our house; directly above me is the living room, at the edge of which is the location of the food and water dishes of our inimitable seven-pound poodle, Ben. One night while focused on a manuscript at my desk, I heard the pat-pat-pat-pat-pat...
