Show up and do the work

Want to be a great guitar player? Get a guitar and play. Want to be a world-class writer? Write. Want to be a legendary filmmaker? Start making films.

How to build something so people will come

If you've never seen the film Field of Dreams, do yourself a favor: Skip this post until after you've corrected that error. Everyone else, please keep reading. Thanks!
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Uncle Warren's Cyber Monday Blowout

Here's your chance to have the books, the music and other odds and ends for Cyber Monday.

Know the lines

In the dream I was performing in a stage revival of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and three of us were rehearsing. I'd been doing fine when I had the words in front of me, reading the script, but now we were on the stage and I had no idea what to say.

'An endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary'

Where is H.L. Mencken when we need him?

Janis, Bobby McGee and freedom

 A golden oldie from my days as B.W. Richardson, and adapted as part of the Refuse to be Afraid book:

Day of thanks

I am thankful to be living in a place where, ostensibly at least, my rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are considered inalienable.

Unplugged and loving it

[Found in notebook, written April 20, 2011]

In his influential book Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money (I describe it as influential because it has influenced me so deeply), Rabbi Daniel Lapin encourages his readers to make goals and delve into their life’s purposes but not before spending two or three days avoiding all electronic screens. Those brightly colored images have a mesmerizing effect, much like a deer confronted by headlights, Lapin said. Better to clear the mind before focusing on weighty matters.

A ride on the time machine

We had a substitute teacher that day. She was older than our regular fifth-grade teacher at Elementary School No. 1 in Little Falls, N.J.

W.B.’s Book Report: Letters of a Self-Made Failure

Here is a timely relic from nearly 100 years ago. Maurice Switzer wrote a series of 10 letters, ostensibly from a man who took a circuitous route to contentment and addressed to his younger brother, who is newly embarked on this adventure we call adulthood.