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Thank God You’re Lazy!

This tag is associated with 31 posts

Impossible in Space

If you read the papers, you’ve probably seen a list of corrections. Most of them clear up errors made the previous day. Not many corrections, therefore, match the one offered by the New York Times in July of 1969. It referred to a story that appeared 49 years earlier. That story had declared “absurd” the […]

Rowing to the Impossible

If you’re going to do the impossible, one thing is certain: You’re going to have to overcome adversity. That’s what Roz Savage did in setting four world rowing records, including first woman to row solo across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. Today is Day 3 of a 17-day series on “How to Do the […]

Joe Torre’s Formula for Success

Joe Torre reached the Hall of Fame in his field the same way you can get to the top in yours. He did it by knowing the biggest problem he had to solve. In Torre’s case it was George Steinbrenner, who hired him to manage the New York Yankees but who had a habit of […]

Sports and Life

Years ago, in my sports writing days, a softball coach told me something that changed my life. “If someone is lazy on the field, they’ll be lazy in the office, too,” he said. “If someone is a team player on the field, they’ll be a team player in the office as well.” Those words came […]

How to Be Wildly Successful

My friend, mentor and co-author Rob Gilbert is being honored by his school today. Gilbert, a professor of sport psychology at Montclair State University, is receiving the Outstanding Education Practices Award. Gilbert’s life and teaching come down to four words: It is about others. He would rather hear your story than tell his. He’ll talk […]

Aesop, Hockey, and You

Years ago, Aesop warned about the dangers of getting complacent. He told the story of the hare and the tortoise, in which the hare raced out to a big lead over the plodding tortoise, decided to take a nap, and woke up just in time to see the tortoise cross the finish line first. Aesop […]

How to Win Your Own Boston Marathon

Only two people can win the Boston Marathon, and that leaves out most of us. But anyone can win a much more important event, namely, the one we call life. To do anything worthwhile, you must do three things, and they’re exactly the three things marathon winners do. First, you must start. This involves a […]

Stop Excuses and Start Success

If you compete, at the end of the day you will have one of two things: results or reasons. You will either have produced something, or you will have an excuse as to why not. Furthermore, at the end of the day you will be known by one of those two things: results or reasons. […]

Hire People Who Are Smarter Than You

Pat Summitt tells the story of a job interview that changed the course of her program. Summitt, coaching legend at the University of Tennessee, was in the market for a recruiter. “If I hire you,” Summitt asked the applicant, “can you get me the player I want?” “Oh, I can get you the player,” came […]

The Thing That Will Kill Any Team

Casey Stengel, who managed the New York Yankees to seven World Series titles, said, “The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided.” Stengel knew that just one or two players can poison a whole group. That applies to any team, whether it’s in an […]