Notes From My Journal
560 articles filed under Notes From My Journal.
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Notes From My Journal
Catching Up: A Look Back at November
I like to keep my Journal notes to personal events and inconsequential thoughts that, for whatever reason, stayed intact in my memory banks till the end of the month, on the presumption that if they lasted…
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Notes From My Journal
Catching Up: A Look Back at October
Several readers wrote to say that they aren’t thrilled about my changing this blog to once a month. They were accustomed to hearing from me at least once a week, and they wondered if something terrible might…
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Notes From My Journal
Humble Bragging
I recently spoke at a meeting in Miami of about 40 entrepreneurs, most of whom had businesses with revenues in the $1 million to $10 million range. Since they were in a range I had written extensively about in…
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Notes From My Journal
New York City Still Feels Remarkably Healthy
K and I were in the Big Apple this past week. And our time there was full of surprises. The streets and avenues of midtown and downtown were relatively clean, and the sidewalks were crowded. The mood was…
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Notes From My Journal
How Long Do You Want to Live? Here’s My Answer…
How Long Do You Want to Live? Here’s My Answer… Among my wealthy friends and coevals—let’s say, among the top 1% ($6 million+ net worth)—I’ve noticed that the great majority of them are still busy with their…
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Notes From My Journal
My Plot for a Science Fiction Movie
My Plot for a Science Fiction Movie... And, Like Most Good Science Fiction Movies, It Will Probably Come True! I’ve been saying this for several years, knowing how implausible it sounds. I’m talking about my…
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Notes From My Journal
Just Got Back from a Great Family Vacation on Grand Cayman Island…
Just Got Back from a Great Family Vacation on Grand Cayman Island… I’m back from a week in Grand Cayman with the immediate family: K, our three sons, their spouses, and six grandkids (two each). Happy to be…
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Notes From My Journal
What Matters Most (and Least) in Winning Fights…
What Matters Most (and Least) in Winning Fights… I can’t claim to be an expert, but I’ve learned some things about martial arts and fighters. I’ve taken lessons from and trained with many high-level amateurs…
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Notes From My Journal
What’s Going to Happen? A New Prediction…
What’s Going to Happen? A New Prediction… Since I wrote about the election last week, I have changed my mind about the COPs’ strategy – which, if I’m right, is even more clever than I’d been giving them credit…
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Notes From My Journal
I’m Not Gloating, but…
I’m Not Gloating, but… You heard it here first (and again and again). For more than a year, I’ve been predicting that Biden would drop out of the 2024 presidential race in order to allow someone with a better…
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Notes From My Journal
Made in Japan
“Made in Japan” After I finished with my business meetings and presentations late Monday, K had us on the train to Takayama, the first of several additional destinations (Hakone, Kyoto, and Naoshima) we have…
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Notes From My Journal
I Did It!
I Did It! On Saturday, I gave my presentation on “the seven natural laws of wealth building” to an audience of about 1,000 plus another 700 watching the live stream. I won’t grade my performance. Everyone I…
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Notes From My Journal
The Japanese Do It Again!
The Japanese Do It Again! We were in Osaka for a few days, where we were filming some interviews and meeting with the senior executives of the company that publishes my books and essays. Later this week, I’ll…
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Notes From My Journal
Giving Speeches and Other Frightening Experiences
Giving Speeches and Other Frightening Experiences I’ve read that, next to dying, most people fear public speaking more than anything else. I get that. I know what it is like to stand in front of an audience of…
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Notes From My Journal
It Feels Like the Garden of Eden
It Feels Like the Garden of Eden I’m neck deep into finishing three separate presentations I’ll be delivering in Tokyo next week. Two of them account for three hours of speaking to 2,000 paid attendees. The…
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Notes From My Journal
How to Mentor a Super-Accomplished Genius
How to Mentor a Super-Accomplished Genius A friend writes to let me know that, as part of a post-graduate program he did at Harvard a few years ago, he’s been asked to mentor a young man that has not only…
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Notes From My Journal
Convicted… of Course
Convicted… of Course I wasn’t surprised by the conviction of Trump. The cards were stacked before the trial began. A locus in NYC. A jury comprised entirely of people whose answers to the voir dire made it…
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Notes From My Journal
Where Am I?
Where Am I? Once every eight weeks, if not more often, K and I travel to LA to visit Number One and Number Two Sons and their families. Together, they have bestowed upon us four grandchildren: Francis, the…
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Notes From My Journal
Funny… You Should Ask
I gave up on Saturday Night Live after the original cast (including Dan Ackroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, and Gilda Radnor) and the original writers were replaced by less talented performers and…
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Notes From My Journal
The Retirement Question
The Retirement Question “How did you know it was time to retire?” I was asked that question twice last week… once by a reader (IK) and once by the CEO of a Japanese publishing company that is doing some kind…
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Notes From My Journal
Things I’ve Been Thinking About Lately — May 6, 2024
Speechwriting (with a Little Help from My Friends) I’m a little nervous. I can’t deny it. In July, I’m going to be in Tokyo for two days, lecturing to 2,000+ Japanese investors and businesspeople that, I’ve…
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Notes From My Journal
Learning About Languages
Learning About Languages Steve Leveen, founder of the America the Bilingual Project and author of America’s Bilingual Century, an excellent book, is a friend of mine. He recently copied me on an essay he…
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Notes From My Journal
He Was, I Thought, Just Another Bright Young Friend of Michael’s with an Impossible Dream. I Was Wrong!
He Was, I Thought, Just Another Bright Young Friend of Michael’s with an Impossible Dream. I Was Wrong! Alex Edelman was a good friend of Number Three Son Michael when they were both in college. I knew him…
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Notes From My Journal
Things I’ve Been Thinking About Lately — April 15, 2024
What Will Israel Do Now? From Michael Snyder on Iran’s direct attack on Israel last week. I thought this was a good, early assessment of the quandary Israel is in now: Just like October 7th, the shocking…
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Notes From My Journal
Things I’ve Been Thinking About Lately — April 8, 2024
Some Good News about China’s Economy… and Why I Am Happy About It I’ve never understood why politicians and other thought leaders in the US celebrate economic decline in large economies like China or Russia. I…
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Notes From My Journal
A Century of Masterpieces Brought Together by One Passionate Collector
A Century of Masterpieces Brought Together by One Passionate Collector I’ve always loved reading about wealthy US businessmen who, during the gilded age of American Capitalism, assembled massive collections of…
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Notes From My Journal
Trump's Legal Troubles Unlikely to Stop His 2024 Campaign
he Legal Tactics to Jail or Bankrupt Trump Before the Election Are Failing. What Can Anti-Trumpers Do Now to Keep Him from Running and Possibly Winning? On March 4, as you know, the US Supreme Court ruled…
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Notes From My Journal
Were It Not for Hypocrisy…
Were It Not for Hypocrisy… For ten years, from 2000 to 2010, I wrote a blog called Early to Rise. It was, in general, about self-improvement – building wealth, optimizing health and fitness, and living a rich…
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Notes From My Journal
Old Men Worrying About the Future
Old Men Worrying About the Future: Three Predictions We Won’t Live to See I got into an email chat with my Myrtle Beach crew that got briefly serious. In a single afternoon, we covered the economic, political…
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Notes From My Journal
What’s Going On with Me, You Ask? I’ll Tell You… I’m Fat!
What’s Going On with Me, You Ask? I’ll Tell You… I’m Fat! RJ, an old friend who recently reconnected with me, asked me to bring him up to date on my life. “What are you spending your time on?” he asked. “Are…
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Notes From My Journal
A Good Example of Bad Science
A Good Example of Bad Science Early in the COVID-19 breakout, I caught the bug from a young’un I was rassling, and then passed it on to PB, one of my trainers. PB is in his fifties. He’s scrupulous about…
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Notes From My Journal
Another Reason to Support the War in Ukraine
Another Reason to Support the War in Ukraine I just found out. The military-industrial complex has come up with a new reason Americans should support Ukraine in its war with Russia: It’s good for the US…
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Notes From My Journal
Five Contrarian Truths About Behavior Modification
Five Contrarian Truths About Behavior Modification I’ve been thinking about a thesis I cooked up about a year ago, which, if it continues to feel valid as I write about it, will become a book. The thought is…
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Notes From My Journal
Five Contrary Truths I Learned Too Late in My Life
Five Contrary Truths I Learned Too Late in My Life. If You Are Younger Than 73, You Can Be Five Steps Ahead of Me! I’ve spent what probably amounts to an unhealthy amount of my spare time trying to figure out…
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Notes From My Journal
Things I’ve Been Thinking About Lately — January 15, 2024
White Privilege, Intersectionality, Critical Race Theory, Identity Politics… How Academia’s Dumbest Ideas Became So Popular I had just finished a chapter of a book I’m writing in which, among other things, I…
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Notes From My Journal
I Am 17 and I Don’t Know Where to Go with My Life
“I Am 17 and I Don’t Know Where to Go with My Life” I frequently get requests from my readers asking for advice, and I do my best to answer their questions and get them pointed in the right direction…
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Notes From My Journal
Boys Will Be Boys
Boys Will Be Boys I was backing up. I would have fallen over the barbell on the floor behind me had Paulo, my trainer, not stopped me. I asked him, “As a kid, in Brazil, did you ever play that prank where you…
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Notes From My Journal
Things I’ve Been Thinking About Lately
Things I’ve Been Thinking About Lately: Does Personal vs. Political Hypocrisy Matter? I’ve noticed that there is often a gulf between the political and the personal when it comes to theories about what is…
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Notes From My Journal
Connecting the Dots — December 15, 2023
Things I’ve Been Thinking About Lately Irony and the Universe. About 30 years ago, I had a quirky insight into the old “meaning of life” question. It came to me while I was sitting in a dental office, inhaling…
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Notes From My Journal
I saw my cardiologist last week
It was a routine checkup six months after my surgery to remove blockage from the carotid artery in my neck after my stroke. “I know how annoying it must be when patients come to you with Google-based diagnoses…
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Notes From My Journal
A reminder
Dear Reader, A reminder: Starting with this issue, I’ll be publishing this blog once a week, rather than twice. I’m hoping this will allow me to finish a few of the 16 (no lie) books I am almost done writing…
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Notes From My Journal
Reminder: A Change Is Coming
As I said on Tuesday, I’ve decided to start publishing this blog once a week instead of twice. So, starting next week, you can expect to receive one somewhat longer issue that will include more of the…
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Notes From My Journal
A Change Is Coming
I’ve decided to publish this blog once a week rather than twice. The original idea was to lighten the load for me and J, my editor. And I hope to do that. But knowing the way I work, I suspect my once-weekly…
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Notes From My Journal
A Question – Believe It or Not – That Haunted Me for Years!
Years ago, when I was actively writing short stories, I sent a dozen of them to the brother of a friend for a critique. He (the brother) was an award-winning Canadian author of novels and short stories. Since…
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Notes From My Journal
Connecting the Dots — November 14, 2023
Things I’ve Been Thinking About Lately Why Fixing Matches Is Good for Boxing: Years ago, a friend of mine who was a boxing promoter explained to me why boxing has a history of fixed fights. “When you have a…
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Notes From My Journal
Putting My Editor’s Hat Back On…
I have spent a fair amount of time in my publishing career training, coaching, and editing new and developing writers. It’s an aspect of my work-life I very much enjoy because it is an intimate and earnest…
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Notes From My Journal
Connecting the Dots
Things I’ve Been Thinking About Lately This is a new column that I’ll be including once every week or two. As you can see below, it’s going to be a listicle of things that have been on my mind. Thoughts I find…
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Notes From My Journal
Question: Who Are the People That Had the Greatest Positive Impact on You?
In a video interview recently, I was asked to name the people that had “the greatest positive impact” on my life. The general topic of the interview was "business building.” So I first thought about the…
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Notes From My Journal
Political Culture in America Today
In my college years, I saw America’s university curriculum as a smorgasbord of diverse and delectable ideas. A cornucopia of philosophical, political, and social ideas that were, to me at the time, potentially…
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Notes From My Journal
We Are So Much the Same. Then Why Are We So Damn Different?
When K and I had Number One Son, we parented him the way I imagine many first-time parents raise their children – to become, as Jordan Peterson advised, adults that we would like and admire. Number One-Son did…
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