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Introduction
"The Four Keys to Success"
Through the years, the participants
in our programs and seminars have been interested in some basic guidelines
to orient them in their quest for success. They have shared with us their
experience with the “Eight Choices,” the “Seven Habits,”
or the “Six Secrets” that they have found in other books.
These ideas have helped and even inspired them, but the students have
observed that most of these “simplifying ideas” are much too
complicated--- they are just too difficult to remember. A short time after
they have read these books they are asking themselves, “Now, what
was that secret number five again?”
So, one day the two of us were
talking about how to create a set of simple guides to help people on their
journey to success. Luke, being a philosopher by nature and profession,
suggested that if we were to develop such guidelines we should heed the
words of the twentieth century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein that “the
aspects of things that are most important to us are hidden because of
their simplicity and familiarity.”
“Yes!” agreed Matt
enthusiastically. “If we develop some guiding principles for success,
they need to be easy to remember, but have an unexpected depth to them.”
As a teacher of improvisation and a great believer in the idea of seeing
familiar things with fresh eyes, Matt offered a favored quote from nineteenth
century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: "Thus the task is not so
much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has
thought about that which everybody sees."
“Ah,” muttered
Luke appreciatively. “So then, if we can find something that everyone
already thinks they know all about, but help them to look at it in a new
way…”
In that moment, the four simple
principles set forth in this book miraculously revealed themselves to
us. As we tell people in our audiences, you won’t have to write
these down, you don’t have to take any notes--- we promise that
these four principles are so simple, so fundamentally engaging (with an
emphasis on the “fun”), and so recognizable, that two weeks
from now we guarantee that you will have no difficulty remembering them.
In fact, we guarantee that you will remember them for the rest of your
life!
Here are the four remarkable
and unforgettable keys to success:
1) Row, row, row
your boat
2) Gently down the stream
3) Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
4) Life is but a dream
The usual reaction when people
first hear these four principles is always the same: appreciative, but
tentative, laughter. However, when they look in more detail and see what
these lines have to teach them about achieving success, the laughter transforms
into thoughtful reflection. After a few minutes of discussion, these same
people begin to appreciate that we are, in fact, quite serious about the
value of these keys to success.
These four lines provide a
simple yet powerful and profound guide to successful living. These straightforward
ideas can help you to reduce stress, create joy, enhance motivation, foster
teamwork, insure satisfaction in your work, and much, much more. In short,
they are uncomplicated guides for finding success and happiness in life.
By focusing on these four lines
as essential keys to success and happiness, this book will help you apply
them to all aspects of your life, whether at work, in personal relationships,
or any other component of daily living. The two of us are convinced that
the same skills for living that lead to success in one context, apply
equally in others. The same skills that make you successful at work will
assist you in being better parents, partners, friends, and community members.
Most people are familiar with
Row, Row, Row Your Boat as part of a “round”--- a song that
can be entered from any of its parts. That is, we believe, also one of
the advantages of this book. All four of the song’s lines are interconnected.
So, it doesn’t matter if you enter this book with an interest in
finding increased joy in your life and more fun at work (Merrily, Merrily,
Merrily, Merrily), reducing stress and living more peacefully (Gently
Down the Stream), or personal action and responsibility (Row, Row, Row
Your Boat) --- you’ll find that each key flows easily into all of
the others. Once you have mastered these three fundamental approaches
to living, you will find that every aspect of your life can be like a
dream come true!
This introduction is the only
place where we use the “we” voice--- the rest of the book
is written in the first person. As is our convention in the other books
we have written together, we make no distinction between Luke’s
experiences and Matt’s experiences.
There is one big advantage
to using the “we” voice in this introduction, however. There
are three of us here right now---the two of us, and you--- and three is
the perfect number to start singing a fun round like Row, Row, Row Your
Boat. So . . . let’s get started!
| Luke Barber |
Matt Weinstein |
| Vancouver, B.C. |
Berkeley, California |
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