Keep It Simple

by Terry Bradshaw; David Fisher

• ISBN13: 9780743417303
• ISBN10: 0743417305
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-10-01
• Publisher: Atria Books

Summary

Contents

Dedication

1 An Important Chapter in My Life

2 My Basic Philosophy for Beating Life's Challenges

3 The Not-So-Secrets of Happiness

4 The Heart Has a Heart of Its Own and Other Disasters

5 My Biggest Break

Author Biography

Terry Bradshaw is a Hall-of-Fame, four-time-Super-Bowl-champion quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers and is currently co-host of Fox NFL Sunday.

Table of Contents

Contents

Dedication

1 An Important Chapter in My Life

2 My Basic Philosophy for Beating Life's Challenges

3 The Not-So-Secrets of Happiness

4 The Heart Has a Heart of Its Own and Other Disasters

5 My Biggest Break -- And How I Survived It

6 Keeping the Faith

7 Following the Leader

8 There's Always Time for a Good Time

9 Good Health Doesn't Hurt

10 Your Are Your Most Important Product

11 The Best Thing in Life Is Life

12 Team Works

13 Keep It Simple

Excerpts

Chapter 1: An Important Chapter in My Life Welcome to my book, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you very much for coming to this page today. Let me ask you this question: How many of you reading here have heard my album of gospel songs? Now don't you be shy, speak right up, right out loud. Anybody looks at you funny, you just tell them you're talking to a book. I promise you, they won't bother you again.Just be grateful that all I asked you to do was say a few words out loud. Usually when I address people I begin by asking them to smile. I love to see people smiling. Love it. A smile is the mirror to the soul. It's a reflection of the character that's inside you. It reflects exactly how you feel about yourself. It tells the world, I'm happy! So go ahead and smile. I mean, you paid for all that dental work, you might just as well show it. When you buy a big expensive car you don't keep it locked in the garage. With all the money you've spent at the dentists don't keep those teeth locked in your mouth! That's right, show off that big Buick grill of a mouth!And then I usually ask people to turn to the side and look at the person right next to them directly in the eyes. And shake their hand. Get to know them. Then after you get to know them, if they're nice enough give them a hug. Just go ahead and hug on 'em. And then I ask them to kiss -- wait, don't you go doing that. You'd definitely have a tough time convincing a judge that you kissed a stranger because a book told you to.Obviously there is a big difference between reading a book and listening to me speak in person, but some things are exactly the same. Let me tell you, when I ask an audience how many people have heard my gospel album those people usually give me exactly the same answer I get when I ask that question to people reading my book; total silence. My friends, if you really want to hear my album you just go on into your local record store and look for it; though you might want to look in the section labeled "landfill." When an album is successful it goes "gold," my album went "lead." That didn't bother me, I knew I wasn't really a singer. What I was, was the quarterback of the Super Bowl champions. That's a well-known rule; you win a Super Bowl you get to record an album.Not really a singer is only one of the many things I am not. Besides married, I mean. I am definitely not married. I am also not a movie actor, a television show host, or a talk-radio host, although I've also tried to do those things. Unsuccessfully. And those aren't the only things I've failed at, those are just some of the highlights. I've failed at a great variety of jobs. If there is one subject at which I am very good, it's failure. If failing was considered a profession, I'd be a legend at it.But I got to record several albums, host my own TV show, appear in movies, host a talk-radio show, and make numerous commercials because I was very good at handing off a football to another man or passing it to a receiver and letting him run with it. Let him get hit by the big guys. That was my primary experience, handing off a football or passing it. So when record producers heard my voice they probably said, "Maybe he don't sound that great, but he won a Super Bowl." Or when television producers saw me acting they might have decided, "That boy sure doesn't look that good, but he won a Super Bowl!"Can I have an amen on winning the Super Bowl, please?You win just one Super Bowl and people'll amen you to death.Lemme have an amen on amening! Hallelujah to that, Brother Terry!There was one other thing I could do. I could talk. I mean, I could definitely talk. I could fill a silence better than jelly filled a doughnut, better than a cow filled a milk pitcher, better than Pamela Anderson filled -- well, you get the concept. So I began making speeches. I spoke anyplace they would have me. I spoke in auditoriums, I spoke in gymnasiums, I spoke standing up