I am writing this narrative as swiftly as I can because, in truth, I have no idea how much time, how much living, remains for me. Will I make it to Thanksgiving? Maybe. To Christmas? Very doubtful. But for a certainty the inevitable snow that will soon cover every fallen leaf will also blanket my grave before the new year has counted many days.

Am I being ravaged by some malignant disease? No. Only four months ago, after my annual checkup, Dr. Scagno assured me that all systems were "go" and that I inhabited one of the healthiest forty-two-year-old bodies he had examined in a long time. Am I planning to take my own life? God forbid. If ever a man had everything to live for, that person is me.

So why this terrible sense of impending doom, this certainty of a deadline (such an apt word) on my life that has triggered this hasty recital on the typewriter. After all, who among us has any guarantee that he or she will even see tomorrow's sunrise? Perhaps by the time you finish reading these words you will understand.

Hopefully, by the time I complete these brief memoirs, if I finish, I, too, will have a much better perspective of all that has happened to me since that memorable morning, more than six years ago, when I suddenly changed the direction of my life. The decision was mine and mine alone, you must understand, and even with my days now limited, I would do it all again if life had such a thing as reruns.

"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it." – Henry Ford (1863-1947)

"Only those who are asleep make no mistakes." – Ingvar Kamprad (b.1926)

"Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service." – Henry Ford (1863-1947)

"I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life's greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve. This level of resolve can move mountains, but it must be constant and consistent. As simplistic as this may sound, it is still the common denominator separating those who live their dreams from those who live in regret."
Anthony Robbins

"I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy."
Anthony Robbins

"It is not what we get. But who we become, what we contribute... that gives meaning to our lives."
Anthony Robbins