If I told you a 71-year old man ran a marathon a few weeks ago, would that surprise you?  What if he was diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease in 2019?

Dr. Larry Grogin of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey is using his diagnosis as a new source of motivation so he will run one marathon (26.2 miles) every single day for 100 days in a row. His route will take him across the country from New Jersey to California as a way of raising money for the Davis Phinney Foundation, which helps people with Parkinson’s live better lives.

He is traveling roughly 2,600 miles from New Jersey toward Los Angeles (Calabasas), California – by April 10, he passed through Wheeling, West Virginia.

He was embodying his own philosophy: “If you fall down 10 times and you get up 10 times, you’re standing. With Parkinson’s, it’s so true… It’s the getting up part, that’s the option.”

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In March, Shay Taylor-Allen matched into her top-choice anesthesiology residency at Yale New Haven Hospital — the same place where she was born, cared for her sick mother, and worked as a janitor for 10 years starting at age 18.

While cleaning floors and offices, she pursued college and medical school at Howard University, balancing night shifts with studies and applications. Her viral Match Day reaction captured pure joy at returning not as staff, but as a doctor serving her community.

It proves that humble beginnings, relentless determination, and seizing small opportunities can lead to extraordinary full-circle success.

Upon graduating, she said “I want to build a bridge between doctors and other service workers. When I was there as a janitor, I felt like I couldn’t speak to the doctors. They were so untouchable.”

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Recently Apple emailed customers who had purchased the Studio Display XDR with the VESA mount at a higher price, and let them know they would be refunded $400. They did it in four sentences that seems too Applish and yet to the point:

“Thank you for your recent online purchase at the Apple Store.
Apple recently lowered the price of the Studio Display XDR – Standard glass – VESA mount adapter configuration you ordered.

We are pleased to inform you that we will provide you with a refund for the difference between the price you paid and the new, lower price.
For the most up-to-date information about your order, please visit online Order Status.

Lest we forget, here’s Apple founder Steve Jobs on why Apple prioritizes such lean, functional language:

“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

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Grey’s Anatomy doctor and actor Eric Dane passed away in February after a sudden and public battle with ALS.

Dane was known for playing complex, often flawed men and he carried that same blunt realism into his final months. He didn’t use his diagnosis to deliver grand, poetic speeches about the “meaning of life.” Instead, he went to Washington and lobbied for the extension of the Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Act.

His approach was action-oriented. He viewed his situation not as a tragedy to be mourned, but as a platform to be used for a specific, measurable result. To Dane, it wasn’t about the “journey”—it was about the work focusing on his craft and his family, refusing to let the disease become his entire identity.

His bottom line was:  Don’t just talk about the problem; use the tools you have to move the needle. It’s a philosophy of using your influence to solve the immediate, practical issues in front of you, without the need for a “motivational” filter.

“Our challenges don’t define us, our actions do. It’s not about the ‘why me?’—it’s about the ‘what now?” – Michael J. Fox

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I happened across a stat last week that only one MLB National League hitter had a batting average of over .300 last season (Trea Turner of the Phillies) – only six American League hitters batted .300.  There were about 763 active players in the majors last year meaning less than 1% hit .300 or more.

The average MLB salary rose to $4.7 million last season so all told, over 99% of pro baseball players failed over 70% of the time while making a pretty good living along the way.  That’s because no one gets a hit, wins or succeeds all the time and yet we humans often act like we have to which is not true.

As Mchael Jordon put it “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career… I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Not how perfect, how persistent.

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Almost everyone loves or respects Tom Hanks – here’s what he said about the idea that the greatest waste in life isn’t failure, but the hesitation to act when your gut speaks to you:

“When the moment calls, trust your instincts and go all in. If you’re going to do it, do it. If you have the chance, do it. Don’t pause.”

Being present helps us act with integrity and honesty to live life without regret.  Most of the things that hold us back are not real – they are just fears.  Imagine the uncompleted successes that never make it out of our minds. 

Just recently Meryl Streep has talked about — Believe in who you say you are — and live like you mean it. I’ve watched children play, and when a child pretends to be someone, there is no pause. They don’t wonder if they are allowed to take up that space; they just occupy it.

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During her acceptance speech at the iHeartRadio Music Awards on March 26, Taylor Swift shared a perspective on creative longevity that resonated deeply with the industry. She reflected on her early years, emphasizing the value of having time to fail and experiment away from the “immediate scrutiny” of the internet.

Her message to aspiring artists was one of patience—encouraging them to protect their craft from the pressure of instant feedback and to allow their passion to grow in private before feeding it to the public.  The world is too fast, not enough time to work through internal struggles.

She stood onstage with Olympic skater Alysa Liu and delivered a stark warning about the “immediate feedback” loop of the digital age. Her most pointed line—which is currently trending was:

“Anything you feed your mind, it will internalize. Anything you feed the internet, it will attempt to kill.”

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You see commercials and ads for investing, 401k’s, retirement, wealth planning and so on but few rarely think of the time they spend investing in a career they are not wild about or being with people with whom they have little in common.  It’s easier to invest money in a mutual or ETF fund than it is to double down on the things in life that bring the greatest fulfillment returns.

It is easy to track a bank balance, but much harder to quantify the “yield” of a meaningful workday or a compatible social circle. Many stay in lackluster careers because they feel they’ve already “invested” too many years to walk away, effectively throwing good time after bad.

We treat our money as our most precious resource, but it’s actually our time and energy that are our greatest investments.

“Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Newsweek did a story recently about kennel dogs getting to choose their own adopters. A group of people sitting in a circle when dogs were set loose to go up to a potential new owner.  Like magic, the dogs found and stayed with the person they were comfortable with.

A dog named Ducky was adopted after spending a year at Animal Protector shelter in New Kensington, PA after being adopted and then returned to a previous shelter.  It makes you think what would happen if instead of humans choosing our friends, they got to choose us.  Would we put our best foot forward?  Could they sense a new friendship and act on it.

Take a look how it worked for the dogs and their new besties here.

“You don’t choose your friends, they choose you, and you either reject them or you accept them without reservations.” — Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Flanders Panel (1990)

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Sara Blakely’s journey from selling office supplies to billionaire is one of modern business’s scrappiest success stories. For seven years, she pounded doors peddling fax machines for Danka and experiencing rejection at every no.

At 27, frustrated by pantyhose lines under cream slacks, she sliced off the feet—Spanx was born. With $5,000 in savings, no investors, and a self-written patent, she got shut down by every North Carolina mill until one owner’s daughters said yes. By 41 in 2012, Forbes crowned her the youngest self-made female billionaire.

But it’s her Dad’s dinner table rule that defined her passion to succeed:  “What’d you fail at today?”

“Failure is not the outcome. Failure is not trying. Don’t be afraid to fail.”

Hear Sara’s own words here.

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If you could have been in my NYU mental health for musicians’ class a few weeks back, you would have heard a vociferous answer to my question:  “what is the brain good for?”  They roared:  Safety.  And, indeed it is.  But we can’t expect to wake up in the morning happy – that is not its job.  What it is not good for is making us happy unless we train it.

That’s done by creating small micropractices.  To become more compassionate, when you walk past a few complete strangers each day, just say to yourself “I wish you well”.  To become happier requires more gratitude.  For that, think of three people you are grateful for each day and before getting distracted or hopelessly busy, close your eyes, see their face one at a time and say to yourself why you are grateful for them.  These are only a few of the micropractices that we can create to get our brains helping us attain happiness, gratitude and compassion.

Our brains are smarter when we teach them what we need.

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A first-generation college student graduating at the top of the class.

A small startup taking customers from a giant tech company.

An independent musician building a large audience without a record label.

A teacher in a struggling school getting most of the class into college.

A new author whose first book becomes a bestseller.

A small local business surviving while big chains close.

A junior employee whose idea saves a failing project.

A student overcoming anxiety to give a powerful presentation.

A neighborhood restaurant beating national chains on quality.

A young entrepreneur turning a side project into a company.

Underdogs succeed because they combine belief, relentless effort, and the freedom to try things others are too comfortable to attempt.

From Alicia Keys song “Underdog”:  “They say I would never make it, but I was built to break the mold, The only dream that I’ve been chasin’ is my own”

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Pete Carroll is one of only three coaches who have won both a college National Championship and a Super Bowl and yet he has been fired several times – mostly recently after this season by the Las Vegas Raiders after only one year as coach.

Carroll is a motivational force to be reckoned with.  He taught a course at USC called “The Game in Life” and one of his principles is that confidence is a skill, not a personality trait. It must be practiced through visualization and “self-talk” management to eliminate the fear of failure.

He structured the course to show that the “Game” (life) is won in the mundane, daily habits. He called this Always Compete, meaning the goal is to be the best version of yourself regardless of the external circumstances.

One of his best learning tools is to ask students to write down their personal philosophy in 25 words or less. If you can’t define your “why,” you can’t maintain high-level performance under pressure.

A most intriguing practice that has me sharing this with you this morning.

“The only way other than being lucky or just being absolutely gifted to being successful is you have to figure out what it is that makes up your core values because until you do, you don’t know who you are. And if you don’t know who you are, you don’t know how to be you.” – Pete Carroll from Win Forever.

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Most of my music business college student performers deal with forms of stage fright and imposter syndrome.  Even highly successful people can struggle with confidence and anxiety.

In 1967, singer and actress Barbra Streisand forgot the lyrics to a song during a concert in Central Park in front of about 135,000 people.  The experience triggered severe stage fright and anxiety. After that night she stopped performing live concerts almost entirely.

For 27 years, despite being one of the most famous performers in the world, she avoided live performances because of the fear of forgetting lyrics again.

Then in 1994, she decided to face the fear directly and returned to the concert stage in Las Vegas and later on a worldwide tour. The tour became one of the highest-grossing concert tours of the decade.  Streisand later explained what the experience taught her:

“I had stage fright for 27 years… I just had to face the fear”.

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Burnout specialist Marni Wandner spoke to my music mental health class at NYU last week – saying burnout isn’t just about working too hard. It happens when the work you’re doing doesn’t line up with your values, your energy, or the environment you’re working in.

Her approach helps people step back, understand their stress patterns, and build healthier habits so they can succeed over the long-term instead of pushing themselves until they crash. The goal is to perform at a high level without sacrificing health, balance, or well-being.

“Burnout isn’t when the lights go out. It’s when you stop noticing they’re dimming.” — Marni Wandner

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In the past few months, multiple mental-health researchers have renewed attention on something surprisingly simple: spending time outside significantly lowers stress and improves mood.

A growing body of research shows that even 20 minutes in nature can lower cortisol levels and improve focus.

… “just a twenty-minute nature experience was enough to significantly reduce cortisol levels.” (University of Michigan).

… “Spending just 20 minutes connecting with nature can help lower stress hormone levels.” (Harvard Health).

Employers and therapists are now recommending “nature breaks” the same way they once recommended coffee breaks.  In an age of screens, algorithms and AI — the antidote might be something ancient: sunlight, fresh air and quiet.

The cheapest mental health treatment in America might be a walk outside.

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It’s another inspiring trend emerging in the past year across many industries from journalism to healthcare to technology — professionals in their 40s and 50s are increasingly returning to school, learning new skills, or launching entirely new careers after layoffs or burnout.

Today an average worker may experience three or four careers in a lifetime – not just one.

Instead of viewing change as failure, many are reframing it as growth.

The future rarely unfolds in a straight line.  Sometimes the most hopeful moment in life is when you start over.

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”  — C.S. Lewis

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Alysa Liu at age 16 was washed up or so it seemed.  She was a phenom who felt completely burned out, finishing 6th at the 2022 Olympics. And then she did something terrifying for a world-class athlete: she stepped away entirely. Many assumed her career was over.

Two years of self-reflection and healing later, she returned to the ice in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan winning the Gold Medal and ending a 24-year drought for U.S. women’s figure skating.

Her story proves that stepping back to find yourself isn’t “quitting”—it’s often a powerful  way to come back stronger.

She spoke openly about how her confidence this time didn’t come from being perfect, but from being authentic. As she put it after her win, “My program is fun and I feel really confident… I want to be a storyteller.”

She had to rebuild her belief in herself jump by jump over the last two years.

“I didn’t let anyone else tell me what to do or how to feel. I just did what felt right for me, and that’s why I’m here.”

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Lindsey Vonn risked it all for one more chance to cement her legacy and go for the gold at the recent Winter Olympics in Milan – not that she needed to as the most successful female downhill ski racer in history.

Vonn felt she was forced out of the sport in 2019 by pain rather than choice. The 2026 Games offered a chance to say goodbye while actually feeling like herself again. At 41, she wanted to prove that a “bionic” athlete with titanium implants could still compete at the highest level.

The gamble ended in a harrowing crash a few weeks ago. The impact was so severe that she suffered devasting injuries and nearly lost her leg to amputation.

Despite it all, Vonn spoke “champion wisdom” from her hospital bed – a thought everyone especially young people and those nurturing a comeback in confidence would value:

“…just getting to the start line was the victory.”

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Apple CEO Tim Cook gives kudos to his predecessor and company founder Steve Jobs for helping him to think differently which I caught recently in Fortune.

“… skills, like the importance of being able to evolve from past beliefs—a trait he said few leaders actually possess. Cook explained that Jobs valued people who could admit they were wrong, encouraged lively debate, and enjoyed being challenged by other workers.

Yet Steve Jobs was famously uncompromising, but his perspective on “being wrong” was deeply tied to his commitment to results over ego.

Cook says “He would flip on a dime … I’ve never seen anyone with a greater capacity to change his mind than Steve.”

In Jobs’ own words”:  “I don’t mind being wrong. And I’ll admit that I’m wrong a lot. It doesn’t matter to me too much. What matters to me is that we do the right thing.“

Imagine if we transformed being wrong from a sign of weakness into an advantage.

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