“Smith convincingly shows how individuals of any age and in any industry can chart a course to a great career by drawing on prior success stories.”—Publishers Weekly Over the past three decades, Professor Larry Smith has become something of a “career whisperer” for his students at the University of Waterloo. His stunning TEDx talk on finding your calling has been viewed by more than six million people and counting. This book captures the best of his advice in a one-stop roadmap for your future. Showcasing his particular mix of tough love and bracing clarity, Smith itemizes all the excuses and worries that are holding you back—and deconstructs them brilliantly. After dismantling your hidden mental obstacles, he provides practical, step-by-step guidance on how to go about identifying and then pursuing your true passion. There’s no promising it will be easy, but the straight-talking, irrepressible Professor Smith buoys you with the inspiration necessary to stay the course. “Have you ever had a conversation with someone about your life that leaves you feeling so elated that you have goosebumps? This is a typical result of how I feel after chatting with Larry.”—M. Azam Javed, Tesla “Had it not been for the time I was able to spend with Professor Smith during my university years gaining his advice on career success, I would not be where I am today.”—Mike McCauley, Google “Larry Smith has hit on the new millennium’s major career issue.”—Booklist “Larry Smith has created the road map young people need to not only follow their passion but do so sensibly and with integrity.”—Gail Vaz-Oxlade, #1 bestselling author of Debt-Free Forever

Motivational, Inspirational, Informative, Energetic, and Instructive are all appropriate words to describe, "No Excuses - Get It Done" by Rocky Turner. Speaking from the perspective of one who achieved his dream job, Turner provides keys to help the reader looking for a jump start on their life goals.

Most people think success comes from good luck or enormous talent, but many successful people achieve their accomplishments in a simpler way: through self-discipline. No Excuses! shows you how you can achieve success in all three major areas of your life, including your personal goals, business and money goals, and overall happiness. Each of the 21 chapters in this book shows you how to be more disciplined in one aspect of your life, with end-of-chapter exercises to help you apply the "no excuses" approach to your own life. With these guidelines, you can learn how to be more successful in everything you do --instead of wistfully envying others you think are just "luckier" than you. A little self-discipline goes a long way -- so stop making excuses and read this book!

Trailblazing Seattle Seahawks fullback Derrick Coleman Jr.—the first deaf athlete to play offense in the NFL—tells his inspirational journey of persevering through every obstacle, remaining dedicated to the hard work and a no-excuses attitude that ultimately earned him a Super Bowl victory. Great for readers of all ages. Even at a young age, if anyone told Derrick Coleman what he couldn’t do, he’d just reply, “Watch me.” Diagnosed as hearing-impaired at age three, he faced a potentially limited future, but neither he nor his family were going to let that happen. Now Derrick shares the story of his remarkable journey toward NFL stardom, of the friends and colleagues who cheered him on when skeptics tried to chip away at his confidence, and of how every challenge he faced only strengthened his resolve. At the heart of his story is his unconventional family, whose one constant was always love. When Derrick was misunderstood as “difficult,” or bullied and laughed at by schoolmates, he removed his hearing aids and listened instead to his mother’s advice: Never let anyone else tell you how far you can go. Playing football became an outlet for Derrick’s restless energy and a way of proving he could forge his own path. As a senior at UCLA, he became a standout, an award-winning player who led his team with eleven touchdowns and demonstrated to the world what his heart had known all along: He had what it took to be a champion. No Excuses is more than just Derrick Coleman’s story as a sports legend, inspirational role model, and icon. It’s a motivating and unique testament to the human spirit, to the potential inside everyone who has ever faced difficult obstacles. It’s about aiming high in life, giving it your all, and never ever settling for excuses.

At the age of 24, working with his wife at a car wash, Larry Winters was struggling to get by. He decided he needed to make a change for the better, so he seized control of his life and, day by day, built his own business. Along the way, he learned many lessons about sacrifice, personal responsibility, determination and independence Live the Dream: No More Excuses, is Winters' inspiring story of his journey from a young man with no ambition to a man in control of his financial destiny. He uses examples from his own life to teach readers how to gain financial freedom for themselves. Most importantly, Winters stresses how self limitation is damaging and holds people back, keeping them from achieving the successful lives they desire. Live the Dream provides an inspirational blueprint for readers to gain financial freedom, and build their own businesses -- to give up excuses and achieve their life goals, all while staying grounded in what really matters: family, friends and faith. Larry Winters' powerful motivational style will have readers ready to seize the day and live their dreams.

The creator of the groundbreaking Fearless Living program shows readers how to overcome unrealistic expectations and live a life based on instinct and intention rather than fear, clinging, and regret. Reprint.

He was named by The Atlantic Monthly as "the most sought-after strategist in the Democratic party." He was targeted by National Review as the Democratic Party's "poet goon." From his unique perspective, Robert Shrum gives us an epic and personal story of the struggle for power in America during the past four decades. With wit and humor, rare candor, and a wealth of detail, he vividly recounts the real personalities and real forces that shaped the outcome of the closest and most important elections of our time. We are there with Shrum in the back rooms, on the planes, and in the motorcades with Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, John Kerry, John Edwards, and Bill and Hillary Clinton. Shrum reveals the manipulations and limitations of old and new forms of political persuasion, from the historic and sometimes controversial speeches he wrote to the negative ads he created for national and statewide candidates, from prepping presidential nominees for critical debates to the deployment of the new political weapon, the Internet. He lifts the curtain on decisive moments. Did John Kerry and John Edwards actually believe in the Iraq war they voted for? What was the real reason the Kerry campaign didn't respond faster to the Swift Boat attacks? Why didn't Al Gore let Bill Clinton campaign all-out in 2000? How did Clinton get through the first perilous week of the Lewinsky scandal? This is a provocative journey through recent history: George McGovern's antiwar campaign of 1972, the improbable rise of Jimmy Carter, Senate campaigns that made historic breakthroughs and shaped the presidential contests of the future, the gifts that made Bill Clinton a great politician -- and the circumstances and calculations that kept him from being a great president. As strategist, adviser, and often friend to the leaders he enlisted with, Shrum shows them as they are, with their strengths and human weaknesses -- as well as his own. Assailed as a populist who pushed the Democratic Party, in a phrase he coined, "to stand for the people, not the powerful," Shrum argues that unlike Republicans from Reagan on, Democrats fall short, politically or in office, when they trim their convictions and walk away from fundamental issues -- like universal health coverage. This is one of the most fascinating books ever written about the victories and defeats, the causes and candidates, the "flawed heroes" that drive the high drama of American politics.