Microsoft Word who will cry when u die doc

27. 
Write Thank – You Notes 
The things that are easy to do are also the things that are easy not to do. The more the pace of our lives speed 
up, the greater the impact the simple gestures of life will have on those most deserving of them. And near the 
very top of my list of simple gestures that have profound consequences is the lost art of writing thank – you 
notes. 
Everyone loves getting mail – it’s a fact of human nature. We all have a deep – seated need to feel important. I 
truly love receiving letters from people who have read my books and used the lessons within them to make 
positive changes in their lives. Few things excite me as much as receiving a bag full of mail from men and 
women who have attended one of my seminars and seen their careers take off and their personal lives improve. 
And knowing how much joy I feel when I receive mail from others, I try my best to respond to every letter that 
comes across my desk with a thank – you note of my own. 
Even in the case of the people I deal with on a daily basis – executives calling to book me for a speaking 
engagement, people who attend my personal coaching programs, members of the media requesting an interview 
and businesspeople calling me with new opportunities – I try to follow up on every encounter with a sincerely 
written thank – you note. Sure, it takes time. Sure, there might be pressing things on my agenda. But few acts 
have the power to build and cement relationships like a heart – felt letter of thanks. It shows you care and that 
you are considerate and human. So this week, go out and buy a package of the blank thank – you cards that are 
now available in bulk at your local office supply warehouse and start writing. You – and all the people that you 
deal with – will be glad you did. 

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28. 
Always Carry a Book with You 
According to U.S. News & World Report, over the course of your lifetime, you will spend eight months opening 
junk mail, two years unsuccessfully returning phone calls and five years standing in line. Given this startling 
fact, one of the simplest yet smartest time management strategies you can follow is to never go anywhere 
without a book under your arm. While others waiting in line are complaining, you will be growing and feeding 
your mind a rich diet of ideas found in great books. 
“So long as you live, keep learning how to live,” noted the Roman philosopher Seneca. Yet most people never 
read more than a handful of books after they complete their formal schooling. In these times of rapid change, 
ideas are the commodity of success. All it takes is one idea from the right book to reshape your character or to 
transform your relationships or to revolutionize your life. A good book can change the way you love as the 
philosopher Henry David Thoreau observed in Walden.” There are probably words addressed to our condition 
exactly, which, if we could really hear and understand, would be more salutary than the morning or the spring to 
out lives, and possibly put a new aspect on the face of things for us. How many a man has dated a new era of his 
life from the reading of a book. The book exists fro us perchance which will explain our miracles and reveal 
new ones.” 
How high you will rise in your life will be determined not by how hard you work but by how well you think. As 
I say in my leadership speeches, “The greatest leaders in this new economy will be the greatest thinkers.” And 
the person you will be five years from now will come down to two primary influences: the people you associate 
with and the books you read. I often joke with my seminar audiences that I play “Cinderella Tennis”: I try hard 
but I never quite make it to the ball. Yet when I play tennis with someone better than I am, something almost 
magical happens to my game. I make shots that I have never made before, gracefully floating through the air 
with an ease that would make even the best player blush. Reading good books creates much the same 
phenomenon. When you expose your mind to the thoughts of the greatest people who have walked this planet 
before you, your game improves, the depth of your thinking expands and you rise to a whole new level of 
wisdom. 
Deep reading allows you to connect with the world’s most creative, intelligent and inspiring people, twenty – 
four hours a day. Aristotle, Emerson, Seneca, Gandhi, Thoreau, Dorothea Brande, and many of the wisest 
women and men who grace our planet today are just waiting to share their knowledge with you through their 
books. Why wouldn’t you seize such an opportunity as often as you could? If you have not read today, you have 
not really lived today. And knowing how to read but failing to do so puts you in exactly the same position as the 
person who cannot read but wants to. 

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