I grew up with books and audiotapes of Tom Peters, Zig Ziglar, and Tom
Hopkins. I can *still* hear Tom Hopkins say “Unbelievable!” in my
head. Not because I was unbelievably precocious when I was young, but
because my mom was always, always, *always* learning about sales and
management and whatever she needed to learn in order to help my dad
and my sisters and me succeed. Being an indiscriminate bookworm who'd
happily read anything on the shelves (and quite a few books that
weren't), I quickly chewed through her business books, her
interpersonal books, her writing books, her parenting books…There
was so much to learn, and it was always so much fun!

My parents often scolded me for taking books to breakfast, lunch, and
dinner. I would read while walking, while chatting, while waiting in
line; in bed, in the car, even in the shower sometimes… Looking
back, it seems as if I never looked up! Now I've realized that reading
was good but not as good as it could've been, though. Instead of
reading during meals, I should've been picking my parents' brains…
but I probably hadn't yet learned what questions to ask in order to
learn even more! =)

So if you think *I'm* interesting, you really have to meet my mom and
my dad. This process of constant improvement? It definitely comes from
them. The number of times I'd gone downstairs to check on my dad, only
to find him learning all sorts of new Photoshop tricks… The number
of books I've borrowed from my mother's bookshelf…

I have confidence that my life will unfold well. If I'm really,
really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really lucky,
I'll have the kind of partnership my mom and my dad have, and have the
kinds of close friendships my mom has.

I'm learning from the best.

(Hah! I blog something and within five minutes, my mom *blogs* a
response—a personal story she posted to an online forum before.
Blogs! Online forums! How cool is that? Now if only she allowed me to
link to her blog…)

E-Mail from Mama

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