Regis and Me

Regis Francis Xavier Philbin was a really good guy. I was at a Notre Dame football scrimmage, the springtime Blue and Gold Game, when an older coach came up to my row in the stands and yelled out, "Professor! I want you to come and meet one of my good friends! Can you come down for a minute?" "Sure, Coach." I made my way across the seats to Coach George Kelly and down the aisle as he tugged on my sleeve and said, "I've been wanting you to meet an old friend of mine. We go way back."

We got down closer to the field, only a few rows up, and the coach led me across a row of seats. "Regis, Regis, I want you to meet my favorite professor, Tom Morris." George Kelly patted me on the back. "Tom, this is my old friend Regis Philbin." I got a big smile from the television icon. His show, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee was at the peak of its popularity on ABC. "Professor, come sit down and visit!" I did, and he said, "What do you teach?" I said, "Philosophy." He said, "Wait a minute. You're my daughter's favorite professor." What? "She's in your big freshman class." "Really?" And we talked on and on for a long time. Regis had no sense of self importance or celebrity. He was just a nice funny guy. The man wanted to know all about me and what I did and at some point asked me if I was thinking about writing a book for general audience. I said, "I just did and it's out next year." "What's it about?" "True Success for everybody. The wisdom of the great thinkers." He lit up even more. "Let me know when it's published and we'll have you on the show to talk about it!" Wow. Ok. "I'll do it!"

Regis was the ideal conversationalist. Nothing was about him. Everything was about me and whomever was around. He was engaging, and really funny. In fact, I was so taken up in the moment I forgot to tell him that a few years before, when Notre Dame had won the National Championship, I had written, recorded, and released a rock and roll fight song called "The Fightin' Irish Are Back!" And Champion T Shirts made up a special shirt for it featuring the Irish Leprechaun playing my Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, with my initials added to the headstock: TVM. Regis had played the song on his national show and danced to it. And it didn't even occur to me to mention that to him.

A little more than a year later, I was on the famous sofa with him and Kathie Lee, in front of the live audience in late August of 1994, if I recall, talking about kids having success going back to school, and listening to him pitch my book to his national viewers. He'd come backstage to the Green Room to talk to me and make sure I felt his personal welcome and enthusiasm for the book True Success before the show. But of course I was in the Men's Room. But he met me in the hall and we had the best chat. He was a real motivator. After that little hallway talk, I could have suited up and played with the team. Even at my age. After the broadcast, he grabbed me and pulled me around all the cameras to the audience and held up my book and said, "Everybody go get this book right away! You'll love it!" And they did. And then I saw him at a few parties in South Bend on game weekends, and he was always kind, generous, happy, funny, and just a joy to be around.

His daughter and my philosophy student JJ has created her own show Single Parent, and her husband is the creator of The Good Place. Good people. Good work. Regis will be missed by all. Gone too soon. A good, good man who did great things for other people, like me. And that's true success.

A Philosophy for Success

I’m a philosopher. That gives me access to the wisdom of the ages – as well as an answer that completely perplexes people when they ask what I do for a living. But, on airplanes, and at parties, after the puzzlement subsides, people often ask me, within a few minutes, if the great thinkers of the past had any good advice about life, or life success, that we can use now. The answer is yes. From Plato and Aristotle on, the wisest people have left us powerful advice for success in anything we do. It boils down to seven universal conditions. I've alluded to this or talked about it in this blog before. Let's take a brief overview. Reminders can be helpful.

The 7 Cs of Success

For the most satisfying and sustainable forms of success, we need:

(1) A clear CONCEPTION of what we want, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined.

(2) A strong CONFIDENCE that we can attain that goal.

(3) A focused CONCENTRATION on what it takes to reach the goal.

(4) A stubborn CONSISTENCY in pursuing our vision.

(5) An emotional COMMITMENT to the importance of what we're doing.

(6) A good CHARACTER to guide us and keep us on a proper course.

(7) A CAPACITY TO ENJOY the process along the way.

There are certainly other tips associated with success, but every other one is just a version or application of one of these in specific situations. The 7 Cs give us the most universal, logical, and comprehensive framework for success. So, let’s take a quick look at each. 

(1) A clear CONCEPTION. In any facet of our lives, we need to think through as clearly as possible what we want to accomplish. True success starts with a clear inner vision. The world as we find it is just raw material for what we can make it. We’re meant to be artists with our energies and our lives. The only way to do that well is to structure our actions around clear goals.

(2) A strong CONFIDENCE. Inner attitude is a key to outer results. Harvard psychologist William James learned long ago that confidence can have powerful effects. In any new enterprise, we need upfront, resilient faith in our prospects. James called that "precursive faith" - faith that runs ahead of the evidence. Sometimes we have to work hard for this attitude. But it’s worth the work, because it raises our probability for success. The best confidence comes from careful preparation and then augments it with a can-do perspective. It’s no guarantee of success. But it is a chief contributor to it.

(3) A focused CONCENTRATION. Success at anything challenging comes from planning your work and then working your plan. A focused concentration generates new perceptual abilities. Concentrating your thought and energy toward a clear goal, you begin to see things that will help with it. This focus involves planning, acting, and adjusting along the way. Even a flawed plan can get you going and lead to a better one. A focused concentration of thought and action is key.

(4) A stubborn CONSISTENCY. The word ‘consistency’ comes from two Greek roots, a verb meaning “to stand” and a particle meaning “together.” Consistency is all about standing together. Do my actions stand together with my words? Do the people I work with stand together? This is what true consistency is all about. It’s a matter of unifying your energy in a single direction. It’s also known as harmony. Inconsistency defuses power. Consistency moves us toward our goals.

(5) An emotional COMMITMENT. Passion is the core of extraordinary success. Truly caring. It’s a key to overcoming difficulties, seizing opportunities, and getting other people excited about their work. Too much goal setting in in business is done just with the intellect and not the heart. We need both to guide us and keep us functioning at the peak of our abilities, despite the obstacles we inevitably face. 

(6) A good CHARACTER. Character inspires trust. And trust is necessary for people to work together well. But good character does more than provide for strong partnerships. It has an effect on each individual’s own freedom and insight. Bad character corrupts and blinds. Good character makes sustainable success more likely. In the end, character is all about strength.

(7) A CAPACITY TO ENJOY. The more you can enjoy the process of what you’re doing, the better the results tend to be. It’s easier to set creative goals. Confidence will come more naturally. And so on. A capacity to enjoy the process is linked to every other facilitator of success.

These conditions are deeply interconnected. They constitute a unified framework of tools for most fulfilling forms of achievement. It's been my joy to speak and write on them in books like True Success and The Art of Achievement, as well as The Stoic Art of Living and the ebook The 7 Cs of Success. I've been able to ponder them and discover their surprising depths for over 25 years. They can help us make our proper mark in the world. So, why should we ever settle for anything less?

Anybody For a Signed Ebook? A What?

When I was a kid, a famous circus came to town. My mother arranged for me to meet The Human Cannonball. He was pretty impressive. And I happened to have in my hand a toy Arabic sword, the old-fashioned kind with a wide, curved blade, four inches across and made of smooth flat white plastic. The equally flat handle was a snazzy red. The Cannonball shook hands with me and then offered to sign my sword. Wait. What? I could actually get his autograph? Cool! To a small town boy like me, he was like a god among men. This was going to be my first celebrity autograph, ever! I handed him my weapon and he pulled out a pen with some sort of wide black ink flow and scrawled his name big across the pristine blade and gave it back to me. Wow. I was thrilled.

Until I got home and realized that the sword would look better with the autograph on the handle, not the blade. So, I went back into my room, got out a variety of erasers and soap and some washcloths, and went to work on the signature, completely removing it from the blade. I then meticulously redid what he had written, but now, in a much smaller size, onto the handle, tracing carefully the sort of flamboyant cursive script he had used. I was so excited when I ran into the kitchen to show my mom how I had moved the man's autograph to a better position!

I clearly didn't grasp fully enough the concept of an autograph. And, now I realize that, maybe, I still don't. My mother explained that the only autograph was when the man's own hand held the pen that put the ink onto the surface being signed. When I erased that ink, I had destroyed the autograph. It was gone. I then had just written his name on the handle, exactly as I could have done had I never met him at all. Oh. My shock at this realization was visceral. So, to be a real autograph, the guy (or lady) has to hold the pen (or pencil, or paint brush - I got the extension of the pen idea, just fine - I thought) and actually use it to touch the object being signed. That's what makes for an autograph!

Or, perhaps not.

Have you ever heard of a signed ebook? It's being done. When ebooks first came out, I wondered what would happen to the time honored custom of author autographs. Of course, we all had dancing in our heads visions of iPads and Kindles and Nooks whose backs would be absolutely covered with tiny little author signings, presumably in permanent, indelible ink, as the closest possibility. Nope. Wrong again.

One of the most innovative companies now publishing and selling ebooks, ZolaBooks.com, is currently making signed ebooks available, and I can tell you that it's no mass produced, fake signature thing. They recently sent me an iPad loaded with new tech and apps designed especially for this, so that I could help them test personalized author signatures for ebooks.

Zola is an innovative publisher, seller, and community of readers that's pioneering some new dimensions for the experience of literature in our new tech world. They approached me a while back and asked me to join an amazing group of, otherwise, highly respected authors to offer them exclusive ebook rights on a few of my own titles. So I gave them the rights to True Success, If Aristotle Ran General Motors, and the most incredible long term project I've ever done, a look through the ages at what the deepest thinkers have said about life success, a book called The 7 Cs of Success, which is available only in ebook, at this stage, and only at Zola.

A few days ago, I wrote about the recent climb of El Capitain, and how Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson acted in accordance with seven universal conditions for success in pursuing their astonishing achievement. I listed this framework of ideas that I refer to as The 7 Cs of Success. And lots of people have asked me where they can read more about them.

I first discussed The 7 Cs at depth in the book True Success, and then took a different look at them in the follow-up study, The Art of Achievement. But the most comprehensive examination of them ever is in the exclusive ebook The 7 Cs of Success. In it, I start with Lao Tsu, in the Tao Te Ching, and Confucius, in the Analects, and work my way forward through the history of deep and practical philosophy on how we can best make our lives matter and attain our greatest dreams. There is no real science of success that works like chemistry or botany, despite what many people say, but there is a powerful art of achievement. And it's this art that many of the great practical philosophers have outlined throughout human history.

In The 7 Cs of Success, I explore the deepest and most useful thoughts of the two great Chinese sages; plus the insights of the classic statesman of Rome, Cicero; a Muslim Mystic, Hadrat Ali; a Spanish Jesuit, Balthasar Gracian; the quintessential American philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson; and a contemporary Japanese billionaire - go find out who he is. What's wild is how much such different thinkers have in common. And yet, their distinctive nuances can help us to realize exactly what we need to be doing right now to craft the comprehensive success and the satisfying future we want.

I'm writing about them today because Zola has given me an opportunity to be one of the first authors in the country who can personally sign ebooks, one at a time, in the new tech version of the old fashioned mode. They've developed a way to do this, and are having me prototype it for them and try it out. So if any of you guys want to explore The 7 Cs of Success in the book by the same name, or in True Success, or if you want to see the different but complementary framework of ideas in If Aristotle Ran General Motors, Zola is offering signed versions of those books right now, in order to make it possible for me to use an iPad and my index finger (unless you request, for example, a thumb) and do a personal signature on the book, or books, for you.

Any of you who have been reading my blog posts for a while will know that I don't really do the self-promotional "Buy my book" stuff you so often see online. But this is a crazy opportunity for me to learn how to sign books using cutting edge technology and for you to get a signed book available nowhere else. So if you'd like to try this, go to www.Zolabooks.com/tom-morris and click whatever you prefer. The drop down right above the price will get you a signed copy.

So, go experience this now, if you'd like, by using the links above or clicking

Sign Me an Ebook!

And let me know what you think! But please don't figure out how to move the signature you get to another place in your ebook book. I still can't guarantee that would count as an autograph. Best Wishes. Tom

Seven Conditions for Success

Anyone reading this blog post may have heard me speak at some point on what the great philosophers said it takes for success in whatever we do. My claim is simple. 

From Plato and Aristotle to the present day, the wisest people who have ever thought about success and excellence have left us bits and pieces of powerful advice for attaining true success in our lives. I've put them all together as this framework of seven universal conditions. For the most deeply satisfying and sustainable forms of success in our lives, we need to bring into any situation, relationship, or enterprise:

(C1) A clear CONCEPTION of what we want, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined.

(C2) A strong CONFIDENCE that we can attain that goal.

(C3) A focused CONCENTRATION on what it takes to reach the goal.

(C4) A stubborn CONSISTENCY in pursuing our vision.

(C5) An emotional COMMITMENT to the importance of what we're doing.

(C6) A good CHARACTER to guide us and keep us on a proper course.

(C7) A CAPACITY TO ENJOY the process along the way.

I was talking to a friend yesterday, and he mentioned Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, quoting one of the habits, "Begin with the end in mind." I thought it might be helpful to reflect briefly on the difference between Covey's framework and mine.

I once directed a weekend retreat with Covey and found him to be a sweet and kind person, as well as very thoughtful. I had great fun with him. And I admire the results of his work. But, that being said, on to the comparison. First, I'll just list his seven habits, as he does, in the form of recommendations or imperatives:

Habit 1: Be proactive.

Habit 2: Begin with the end in view.

Habit 3: Put first things first.

Habit 4: Think Win/Win

Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

Habit 6: Synergize

Habit 7: Sharpen the saw.

A few comments. Habit (1) is about taking initiative, always good, and included in the application of my C3 - the focused concentration condition.

Habit (2) is a brief version of my C1 (the first condition of the 7Cs), the condition that tells us that as we begin to work toward any goal, we need a clear conception of what we want to result from our activity, and that we need to make our conception vivid and rooted in the imagination, aspects of goal setting that Covey doesn't explicitly address in his framework. 

Habit (3), like (1), is included in my understanding of C3, the focused concentration condition, as developed in True Success.  

Habits (4), (5), and (6) come into play in relationships, in negotiations, and in work situations of joint endeavor, but not always in the successful meeting of individual, personal challenges. They are very good advice for the circumstances in which they apply, and are, in those circumstances, applications of C3, concentrating on what it takes, or C4, the consistency condition, or C6, the character condition, but they are not themselves, in my understanding, strictly universal conditions for success. Some things can be, and sometimes must be, properly done by one person alone, and for some of these private matters, a strategy of synergism need not necessarily play a role. And where not more than one person is involved, the most basic requirements for win/win thinking may not even arise. Obviously, there can't be two winners except where there are at least two players.

Habit (7) has to do with personal renewal, growth, continuing education and skill development, which is always a good idea. But, again, there are some forms of personal challenge, relationship goals, and even professional demands where, in meeting the demand, or accomplishing the goal, it does not necessarily come into play. A very commendable activity, even one necessary for a full life, does not necessarily count as one of the fundamental conditions I'm focusing in on as crucial for all forms of success. Where it does come into play, it falls under my C3.

Even more noteworthy, my conditions C2 (Confidence), C4 (Consistency), C5 (Commitment), and C7 (the Capacity to Enjoy the Process) are nowhere explicitly captured in this framework. I say this not to claim that Covey's important schema is incomplete in any way, but just to point out that it's different in design and intent from my framework of seven conditions. Although there are important fundamental similarities and overlaps, The 7Cs of Success, as a framework or tool kit of ideas, is significantly different from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. 

For more on the 7 Cs, see True Success, The Art of Achievement, and the big new ebook, The 7 Cs of Success, which reveals how these tools were understood by some of the greatest practical philosophers throughout the centuries and around the world. For Covey's original book, click here, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.

Sunday Bonus: Kobe and Arianna on Success

There's a remarkable conversation in the New York Times today. The writer Philip Galanes sits down with Kobe Bryant, thought by many to be our greatest active basketball player, and Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post and bestselling author, to talk about their struggles and successes, difficulties and coping mechanisms. I recommend it heartily. It's chock full of great insights and reminders. 

For example, I often speak on the topic of True Success - what the great philosophers have said that it takes for satisfying and sustainable achievement in any challenge. I've isolated seven universal conditions for success, from the world's deepest wisdom literature through the centuries, and tested these conditions repeatedly in the lives of contemporary people. I call them The 7 Cs of Success (as in "Seven Seas"). In the briefest statement, in any major challenge, we need: a clear Conception, a strong Confidence, a focussed Concentration, a stubborn Consistency, an emotional Commitment, a good Character, and a Capacity to Enjoy the Process along the way.

Kobe and Arianna speak of, or allude to, many of these tools for achievement in their fascinating exchange. The two have known each other for a while, because Kobe often seeks out highly successful people in other fields, hoping to enhance his own understanding of achievement.

At one point, we get, for example, relevant to my C7 - a Capacity to Enjoy the Process and my own repeated insistence that life is supposed to be a series of adventures, of journeys we enjoy as we move toward our goals:

KB: My heroes growing up, the Jordans, the Bill Russells, the Magic Johnsons, they all won multiple times. I wanted more. But it wasn't just the result. It was the journey to get there.

PG: You like the process?

KB: I love the process. The result comes later.

AH: He talks the same way about getting back to the game after injuries: doing the research, collecting the team. Kobe found joy in rehab. That's amazing because so many people are goal-oriented only.

Joy in rehab. Who would even think of that?

Go read more, about sleep, meditation, struggle, focus, and so much more. Click to read it here. And have a great day.