Andy Andrews - Mastering the Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success: An Owners Manual to the New York Times Bestseller The Travelers Gift

by Andy Andrews, 2008

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Andrews, Andy, 1959

Mastering the seven decisions that determine personal success : an owners manual to the New York Times bestseller, The travelers gift / Andy Andrews.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

ISBN 978-0-7852-6141-4

1. Conduct of life. 2. Success. 3. Andrews, Andy, 1959 Travelers gift. I. Title. BJ1581.2.A535 2008

158.1dc22

2007039924

Printed in the United States of America

07 08 09 10 11 QW 5 4 3 2 1

To Maryann and Jerry Tyler of Roswell, Georgia

CONTENTS

.

When The Travelers Gift was released in 2002, no one knew what to expect. After all, even the bookstores could not decide upon the section in which the book would be displayed. Neither, evidently, could the media.

As ABCs Good Morning America promoted the book, it began to appear on every bestseller list in the country. The Travelers Gift was on the New York Times list in the fiction category. At the same time, Wall Street Journal listed it as non-fiction. It was self-improvement at Barnes & Noble, literature on Amazon.com, religion in Publishers Weekly, and general content in USAToday. Finally, the New York Times changed The Travelers Gift to their advice list, back to their fiction list, and lastly to the business list, where it stayed for seventeen weeks.

Publishers Weekly, in a mistake they had never previously made, reviewed The Travelers Gift twice. And (you guessed it) the reviews disagreed! The first review noted that the book was bland and uninteresting. Then, the very next week, another reviewhighlighted this timecalled me an author to watch and said that I had done an exemplary job and that the book would ring true with a broad spectrum of readers!

I was not really surprised by the confusion. Twenty-five years of researching these Seven Decisions have not made them easier for me to label. They do, however, prove their value every time I personally put one to work or observe them in the lives of others.

Can you imagine? Every single time I have harnessed or watched someone harness these decisions, they work! Why? Because theyre principles... and principles always work.

What you are about to read is not a work based on seven ideas or seven theories. These are not seven habits. They arent even mine! I didnt invent or discover them. I merely identified them and have spent more than two decades proving their value.

So, as you read, be aware that principles work every timeand they work whether you know them or not. Youve heard ignorance of the law is no excuse? Well, ignorance of principle is no protection from the principle. Just because one doesnt understand gravity does not mean that the principle wont affect him if he stumbles off a cliff.

You hold in your hands more than twenty-five years of personal research. I have come to the conclusion that the principles of personal successparenting, relationships, financial achievementare floating around just like the principle of gravity. Therefore, why shouldnt we learn them and harness them to create the future of our choosing?

Get ready to have fun... and lets get started!

ANDY ANDREWS

Orange Beach, Alabama

Creating the Life You Choose

In The Travelers Gift, David Ponder finds himself in a difficult predicament: hes lost his job, his twelve-year-old daughter is sick, and he cant afford to pay for treatment. After a devastating car crash, Ponder is teleported to an adventure of discovery where he meets seven prominent historical figures, each of whom gives Ponder a separate decision he can make that will change his life.

Were not all so fortunate to be offered an escape from the pain and drama of life. I know I wasnt. I grew up in a typical middle-class familymy parents loved me, I loved them, and life was great... until I turned nineteen. Then, in a one-two punch that sent me reeling, my mom died of cancer and my dad was killed in a car accident.

Obviously, I was devastated. My confusion and grief quickly turned into anger. I didnt have a lot of extended family or friends to lean on for support; therefore I managed to take a terrible situation and make it infinitely worse. Because I was filled with bitterness and unanswerable questions, a series of bad choices led me to a life of homelessness (at least a decade before homeless was even a word). No one from whom to borrow fifty dollars, no house, no car, no job, and, seemingly, no future.

Often spending nights under the state pier in my newly adopted hometown of Gulf Shores, Alabama, and in and out of the garages of unknowing homeowners, I bitterly remembered an old adage from childhood: God will put a man after His own heart where He wants him to be. I remember thinking, Thanks, You put meunder a pier.

Feeling desperate and helpless, I couldnt shake this one question, and it relentlessly plagued my mind: Is life just a lottery ticket?

How does person A end up with a healthy family and a job he loves, while person B ends up living under a pier? Does life come down to the luck of the draw? If life is indeed a lottery ticket, I thought, and this is my ticket, perhaps I might just quit. These were my first thoughts of suicide.

Man, I would have felt lucky to be teleported somewhere... anywhere! Instead, I was doing odd jobs, like cleaning fish and washing boats, and I had a lot of time on my hands that I often passed at the library. My free library card was my ticket to a new dimensiona world of endless possibilities, filled with extra-ordinary heroes from all walks of life.

Over the next couple of years, I read between two and three hundred biographies of happy, successful, influential people who, in their unique ways, changed the world. Some of these individuals amassed fortunes, but money wasnt what inspired me about them. I wanted to find people who enjoyed contentment, happiness, and success in life as parents, friends, business owners, or leaders.

Somewhere in that library, my self-pity turned to passion. I was on a mission to find out how they did it. What was special about them? How did they end up so lucky? Did they do something specific? Follow a formula? Was it their religion or social standing? I wanted to believe that life wasnt just a lottery ticket, influenced by a roll of the dice. I read that Albert Einstein didnt like the idea of random chancethe notion that God played diceso who was I to disagree with Einstein?