This blog title has a double meaning, as you will see from reading it.
In my 1974 book (with co-author Salli Rasberry) The Seven Laws of Money, I announced the 1st law of money: Do it. Money will come when you are doing the right thing. The book was owned or read by hundreds of thousands of baby boomers. It had been circulated in mimeograph form to hundreds of businesses and churches all over America for a year before Random House published it.
Rasberry and I went to the Library of Congress before the book was published to see if anyone had ever touched on any of the themes in the book. Except for a 1904 childrens book about rabbits and money, no one every came close.
All of this leads to the theme: we were the first people in the English language to understand and appreciate the basic theme of success in the world: doing what you love for a living. It rang a bell for hippies but the rest of the world hardly noticed our message.
Thirty three years later I know that our message has been deeply absorbed by our fellow Americans.
Recently
Rush Limbaugh, the radio host with the largest radio audience in the
world (over 20 million regular listeners) to his 15 hour a week show
dealt with the theme of 'success'. Limbaugh defined success in life as
'doing what you love for a living'. To prove that he knows the theme
that Rasberry and I first introduced to the world Limbaugh says: most
people do the hobby they love when they retire...success is making a
living from what you love all your life. He goes further to prove he
understands it: some people consider success making a specific sum of
money or making a lot of money. That can't be success because when you
set a goal it is often too easy to reach it...when you merely want to
make a lot of money you quickly find that there are thousands of people who
are richer than you.
Rush Limbaugh is a great showman, deeply in touch with his audience. He would never have described success this way if it didn't resonate with his audience. Americans understand this meaning of 'success'.
Rasberry and I have succeeded in shaping the American view of what is meaningful in life. One hell of an accomplishment.