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Show 'Dale Carnegie 'Nothing Too Barn Important1 THIS STORY, told me by Earle B. Johnson, Jacksonville, Fla., I give you exactly as he gave it to me. "One night I received a long distance telephone call. It was our family doctor in DeLand, Fla. My father was not expected to live a serious h.art attack. I was shocked stunned. It was unbelievable un-believable my father, who had never been sick! A few hours later I was th re. The doctor told me Dad had had an acute attack of coronary thrombosis, and that slowly through the years he had developed hcirdcning of the arteries. "Dad wa.j always a good fighter in anything he did and contrary con-trary to preri'ctions he was sitting up several months later. When he was able to make the trip, I arranged for an examination by an eminent heart specialist who started in wLh Dad's case history from the time he was a boy to the birth of his three sons, his early businesses, then the Florida boom in 1925, and its disastrous crash in 1926. That is when it started worry! Dad had set a pretty high standard of living for his family, and after the crash he did his best to keep up that level for us. Then the bank failures of 1929 depression of early 30's. How much we took for granted and how little we realized what this broken man had gone through with worrying about finances, family and business never bur- Carnegie dening us with any of it. It all came back to me as I sat there watching my Dad going to pieces. This two-fisted business man emotionally collapsing. It was unbelievable! "When the doctor finally dragged the whole story out, he explained ex-plained that every condition Dad had was THE NATURAL RESULT RE-SULT OF WORRY OVER THE YEARS, that the daily worry he had gone through set up an organic condition that slowly hardened hard-ened the arteries and finally resulted in the heart condition. "Dad's future was outlined with brutal frankness. It was almost too late, but he had one chance to live. 'Do not think, talk about, nor transact any business of any nature. Instead, go fishing, fish-ing, go walking, grow flowers.' After a year of this, he was re-examined, and his improvement was remarkable. With the same program he could hope to live nearly his normal life span. "A few months ago Dad said, 'Son, I want to give you a little sound advice. I hope you will always remember it. When you get my age and look back, you will find there are many things you used to think important that really do not amount to much. Everything you do is important, of course, but none of it too darn important.' |