PROLOGUE

(I Think That’s What They Call An Introduction)

Self-help this and self-help that is all we seem to hear nowadays. How about a little sit-down chat with an old friend who can reflect on his life and give you some good old-fashioned advice. Many of us look back on our lives and say, “What if.” In many cases, that reflection is based upon the illusions of grandeur that we get when we get older. If only I took that piece of advice, if only I caught that pass, if only I invested that money and if only I hadn’t passed out and puked on her and a few thousand other “what ifs.”

Many of those “what ifs” could be translated into “What a fucking idiot I was.”

What follows here is more along the lines of “look out,” “beware,” and if you can recognize it, then maybe you can avoid it or change the outcome. There are many lessons to be learned in our short time on this planet. However, very few young men sit down and read self-help books, visit the local psychiatrist, or seek their parents’ advice on key “growth” issues.

So this book is here to help you survive (and I do not use that word lightly) your younger years. Maybe after reading this book, you may avoid that butt kicking that is inevitably heading your way. Maybe you will be able to leave a casino with some money instead of a hangover, a sore dick, and empty pockets. Maybe you will get the hot chick for more than a two-second “excuse me” and maybe—just maybe—this book might help you think about events in a different light before they happen (ideal) or after they happen so they don’t happen again.

For me, your author, I am in that phase of my life where I am still crazy enough to act and think like a twenty-five-year-old while being fifty. It is good to “still be crazy after all these years” without the inbred pitfalls that I had twenty-five years ago. Just so you know (not that I give a shit) if I make a few bucks, that I am not here to preach be “holier than thou,” judge, or condemn, but I am here to advise, coach, and educate. The bottom line is if your younger years can be a little less bumpy for reading this book, then yah-fucking-hoo.

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