本书是一部描写过着平凡生活的40多岁家长重建自己年轻时活动过的乐队组合，重温自己年轻时的理想和热情的故事。不仅同甘共苦的中年人之间惺惺相惜，当他们的内心世界被年轻的下一代所了解之后，那份对生活的珍惜和对美好的追求也跨越了年龄的界限，让他们共同努力去追寻生活的目标和理想。
EXCERPTS FROM How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
PART ONE
Seven Ways to Peace and Happiness
1 Find Yourself and Be Yourself: Remember, There Is No One Else on Earth like You
2Four Good Working Habits That Will Help Prevent Fatigue and Worry
3 What Makes You Tired-and What You Can Do About It
4 How to Banish the Boredom That Produces Fatigue, Worry, and Resentment
5 Would You Take a Million Dollars for What You Have?
6 Remember That No One Ever Kicks a Dead Dog
7 Do This-and Criticism Can't Hurt You
EXCERPTS FROM How to Win Friends and Influence People
PART TWO
Fundamental Techniques in Handling People
8 "If You Want to Gather Honey, Don't Kick Over the Beehive"
9 The Big Secret of Dealing with People
10 " He Who Can Do This Has the Whole World with Him. He Who Cannot Walks
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PART THREE
PART FOUR
HOW TO ENJOY YOUR LIFE AND YOUR JOB You are something new in this world.Never before，since the beginning of time，has there ever been anybody exactly like you;and never again throughout all the ages to come will there ever be anybody exactly like you again.The science of genetics informs us thatyou are what you are largely as a result of twenty three chromosomes contributed by your father and twenty-three chromosomes contributed by your mother.These forty-six chromosomes comprise everything that determines what you inherit.In each chromosome there may be，says Amram Scheinfeld，"anywhere from scores to hundreds of genes-with a single gene，in some cases，able to change the whole life of an individual.Truly，We are"fearfully and wonderfullymade.
Even after your mother and father met and mated，there was only one chance in 300，000 billion that the.person who is specifically you would be born！In other words，if you had 300，000 billion brothers and sisters，they might all have been different from you.Is all this guesswork？No.lt is a scientific fact.If you would like'to read more about it，consult You and Heredity，by Amram Scheinfeld.
I can talk with conviction about this subject of being yourself because I feel deeply about it.I know what I am talking about.l know from bitter and costly experience.To illustrate:When I first came to New York from the cornfields of Missouri，I enrolled in the American
SEVEN WAYS TO PEACE AND HAPPINESS
Academy of Dramatic Arts.I aspired to be an actor.I had what I thought was a brilliant idea，a shortcut to success，an idea so simple，so foolproof，that I couldn't understand why thousands of ambitious people hadn't already discovered it.lt was this:l would study how the famous actors of that day-John'Drew，Walter Hampden，and Otis Skinner-got their effects.Then I would imitate the best points of each one of them and make myself into a shining，triumphant combination of all of them.How silly！How absurd！I had to wasteyears of my life inutating other people before it penetrated through my thick Missouri skull that I had to be myself，and that I couldn't possibly be anyone else.
That distressing experience ought to have taught me a lasting lesson.But it didn't.Not me.I was too dumb.I had to learn it all over again.Several years later，I set out to write what I hoped would be the best book onpublic speaking for businessmen that had ever been written.l had the same foolish idea about writing this book that I had formerly had about acting:l was going to borrow the ideas of a lot of other writers and put them all in one book-a book that would have everytlung.So I got scores of books on public speaking and spent a year incorporating their ideas into my manuscript.But it finally dawned on me once again that I was playing the fool.This hodgepodge of other men's ideas that I had written was so synthetic，so dull，that no businessman.
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