Upward Bound
By Bruce Shawkey There are two kinds of people you can learn a great deal from: people who are moving upward in life, and people who are slowly sliding backward. From the first group, you learn what works — good habits, strong attitudes, discipline, persistence. From the second, you learn what to avoid. Their mistakes often look painfully familiar, because they’re the same kinds of mistakes many of us have made ourselves at one time or another. I enjoy listening to people talk about their lives, their struggles, their ambitions, their regrets, and the ways they’ve changed over time. To me, there’s nothing more interesting. I often come away feeling more energized than I would from almost any game or entertainment. Over the years, I’ve thought of myself as a collector of human experiences—my own and other people’s. The more closely you watch human nature, the more clearly certain patterns begin to appear. Successful people are rarely perfect, but they tend to share certain qualities: cu...
