Focus On The Task At Hand

This life of ours, this is a wonderful life. If you get through this life and get away with it, hey that is great. But it’s very unpredictable. There are so many ways you can screw up. A lotta guys, they zip up their zipper before their d**k is put away.  Paul Castellano

Paul Castellano succeeded Carlo Gambino as head of the Gambino crime family and is credited by many with increasing the family’s involvement in legitimate businesses. He met an untimely demise while on his way to a corporate meeting of sorts at a steakhouse in midtown Manhattan. While militant vegans, such as the misanthropic warbler Morrissey, may argue that Castellano’s assassination demonstrated that meat truly is murder, his avuncular commentary warned that complacency and inattention are the real threats.

The late Joe Paterno, football coach at Penn State, once noted that we should set our sights on excellence rather than success since the elements of success, such as attention to details, are usually within our control, while success itself more often is not.

Castellano’s admonition cautions that in a life that is unpredictable, taking things for granted or entertaining distraction at a critical moment can lead to taking one’s eye off the ball, so to speak.

Wiseguy Wisdom is a guide to personal growth based on books, movies and government tapes.

We Are All Part Of One Human Family

Have you heard the one about the Chinese godfather? He made them an offer they couldn’t understand.       Corrado “Uncle Junior” Soprano

Corrado Soprano, lovingly known as Uncle Junior,  was an entrepreneur active in the gaming and personal finance industries. His crude but timely koan demonstrates how difficult it can be to communicate with those from other cultures and develop relationships based on trust and mutual respect. As technology helps to shrink the distance between the residents of the global village, learning to communicate and get along will be essential if  we and the planet are to survive.  

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama once observed, “Whether we like it or not, we have all been born on this earth as part of one great human family.” One way to acknowledge this familial connection and enhance our interaction with individuals and groups from places such as Colombia, Mexico, Nigeria, Jamaica, Russia, Albania and Hong Kong is to learn another language.

Mastering a few simple phrases, such as ‘Where’s the rest?” or “ Get in the trunk.” can go a long way toward building bridges of understanding. Truly, as Maya Angelou once said, “ We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”

Wiseguy Wisdom is a guide to personal growth based on books, movies and government tapes.

Follow Your Bliss

“I dreamed about being a wiseguy the way other kids dreamed about being doctors or movie stars or firemen or ball players.”    Henry Hill

It was the opinion of American mythologist Joseph Campbell that those who know their bliss have a clear understanding of what makes them feel most alive. He believed that when you follow your bliss you will live the life you truly ought to be living.

Said Campbell, “When you follow your bliss…doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else.”

Such was the experience of Henry Hill. Hill went through a lot of doors--some open, some not--as he followed his bliss right into smuggling cigarettes, hijacking trucks, dealing drugs, collecting gambling debts and helping to engineer the legendary Lufthansa Air Cargo heist, which at its time was the largest cash robbery in U.S. history.

Eventually, he parlayed his bliss seeking into a book deal, a major motion picture, numerous television interviews, a Web site and a stint in the federal witness protection program.

Hill demonstrated how following your bliss can put you on the path to personal fulfillment, as long as you don’t mind having to get rid of the occasional body.

Wiseguy Wisdom is a guide to personal growth taken from books, movies and government tapes.

You Are What You Eat

"Leave the gun, take the cannolis."       Peter Clemenza

Peter Clemenza embodied the axiom that an army travels on its stomach. This loyal and corpulent capo of the Corleone family knew that breakfast--which in his case usually consisted of  a chunk of bread, a hunk of salami and a glass of grappa--truly is the most important meal of the day.

By leaving the gun and taking the cannolis after the execution of the traitorous Paulie Gatto, Clemenza demonstrated that tools, particularly incriminating ones, can be replaced. However, we only have one body and to do our best as we battle our own Tattaglias we need to eat right. Otherwise we could end up swimming laps with Luca Brasi.

When in doubt, take the cannolis.


Wiseguy Wisdom is a guide to personal growth taken from books, movies and government tapes.