Clues to Success: Making Rhyme out of Reason

By Fred Neff

Author, Fred Neff shares his 109 clues to success from 30 years of personal research from books and seminars along with work and life experiences. Neff illustrates each clue with rhyme to aid you in retaining and visualizing the essence of each one. Numerous stories and anecdotes also illustrate how the clues work in real life situations. Howeve

• Language: English
• Publisher: Leaning Rock Press LLC
• Release date: May 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781950323029

Fred Neff

Fred Neff has published numerous magazine articles, as well as children's books and is making his debut in non-fiction self-help with Clues to Success-Making Rhyme out of Reason. He received his bachelor's degree in Journalism from San Diego State University and was also on the start-up staff as an intern for a new publication, gaining his first byline in the premier issue of San Diego Home/Garden Magazine. Prior to SDSU, during the waning years of the Vietnam conflict, he served aboard a Destroyer, a Submarine Tender, and then a fast attack submarine, USS Gurnard (SSN-662) for the remainder of his 6 years of active duty in the U.S. Navy. Much of the material for Clues to Success-Making Rhyme out of Reason is compiled from later years of selling accident and health insurance door-to-door in South Carolina. Being involved in networking businesses as well, he regularly attended self-help seminars, meeting many of the authors who influenced his writings. Fred also started up some of his own businesses from scratch, one of which is still booming with customers as of this writing. While much of his desire to write over the years was fashioned after internalizing the positive messages from self-help books and seminars, he also began writing and publishing children's books after his son, Calvin, was born in 2005. According to Fred, when people started buying his Calvin and Dad books and then continued to purchase them, he no longer harbored the doubts that keep many writers from sharing their works with the public. Then on a dare from one of his co-workers to give back to the community, he designed and taught a night course, How to Write a Children's Book, where he helped many students realize their dreams of becoming a published author. Some of them to date have been published numerous times. As much as he enjoyed writing children's books and teaching others to do the same, his own 'Call of the Wild' had not been fulfilled with much of his life's work that had been written on napkins at all-night diners, then transposed and trapped inside computer files, just sitting there. So one night, as writers can attest to, he started writing, one sentence and one page at a time. Burning the midnight oil for several months, he gradually combined years of internalized messages into a story with Clues to Success. What is partly different here than with most self-help books is that along life's way, Fred wrote about the bumps and bruises as well, never imagining that they would become an integral part on the journey to success. When you see how often failures, heartache, and setbacks feed and water the seeds of success, you will have little doubt that you, too, can enjoy a healthy measure of success in your own life's journey.

Book preview

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Reviews

"Fred Neff has written a book that fits in the bookshelf with all the great motivational books like The Power of Positive Thinking, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and The Greatest Salesman in the World. Success isn’t a straight path. You have to find your own clues in order to walk it. Fred’s book is an exhortation for you to take personal action, follow your passions and have the faith to believe that even when you get knocked down, you can stand back up and keep searching for your own clues to success."

—James Dongweck is the author and publisher of AwardWinning children’s books The Uncrossable Canyon and The Goblin’s Story: A Tale of the Uncrossable Canyon.

"Fred Neff, author of numerous successful children’s books, established himself as a highly effective inspiration and motivational purveyor of words and wisdom with Clues to Success–Making Rhyme Out of Reason. In his breakout self-help exposé, the author masterfully identifies major obstacles frequently encountered when we attempt to make positive changes in our lives or achieve our goals.  Each clue to success begins with an original poem capturing the essence of the forthcoming section. The exposé is infused with personal experiences which are universal in nature, providing insight and self-examination necessary to overcome your fears and achieve your ambitions.  The author’s literary style makes reading Clues to Success feel like you are having a conversation with the author, and his passion for enabling everyone to achieve their goals is evident in every page. Clues to Success–Making Rhyme Out of Reason is a must read for anyone seriously contemplating making positive changes in their life!"

—Bryan James Lockett is the author of Mystic Connecticut: A Woman’s Hundred-Year Journey to Heaven.

"In reading Fred Neff’s Clues to Success–Making Rhyme Out of Reason, I was reminded of the words of wise King Solomon who said, … he pondered and made a thorough search in order to compile many proverbs and … sought to find delightful words and to record accurate words of truth. I can think of no higher praise than to compare Neff’s collection of wise sayings with that of the words of Ecclesiastes 12: 9-10. You will likely want to clip each chapter onto your refrigerator every day and find a way to live your life by the witticisms and poems Fred has cleverly created to stick in your mind. Believe me, you won’t mind"!

—John Benjamin Sciarra, Award-Winning Author


Fred Neff has written an account of what many people find illusive in life—finding success for themselves. His style of rhyme reads as though he is talking personally to you, and he really is. As for myself, business owner of an Asian cuisine restaurant and sushi bar in Mystic, Connecticut, I have encountered many hurdles that Fred addresses in his new book. Interestingly, Fred homes in on one clue that he sees as the major disparity between the rich and poor. It’s clue #57. He describes how becoming efficacious can change how we see and attain our very own future. It is a startling truth that is seldom found in a school curriculum, where it should be taught to prepare young people the personal responsibility for finding their own success."

—Johnny Lin is the proprietor of Johnny’s Peking Tokyo, home of the Mystic area’s most popular sushi bar.

Fred Neff is an extraordinary book author. He specializes in children’s books. He knows how to take an idea and write about it. Fred also taught night school to adults wanting to write and publish. Now he has written a book on finding clues to success. But this is not just a book of rhyme. Fred also includes numerous stories and personal accounts to illustrate the clues. Congratulations Fred, excellent job.

—Tom Santos, Director, Southeastern Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association, Cable TV host of Books and Things with Tom Santos, and author of two books, Mystic in the Fifties, and My Son Todd, my Guardian Angel.

To my son, Calvin,

an avid writer of rhymes in his own right.

DLYVM!

Foreword

— Henry G. Chiles, Admiral USN Retired, former Commander, U.S. Strategic Command and Commander, Submarine Force Atlanticand former Commanding Officer, USS Gurnard, SSN-662.

I offer this poem as a foreword to Fred’s book. The gist of this was written by Eustace Glascock many years before either of us was born. I adapt shamelessly because I think it brings up ethical points that are timeless, and might compel readers to ponder. Eustace Glascock wrote a similar poem about wearing a uniform in 1879. It’s adapted to Fred Neff with greatest respect for his thoughtfulness, innovative writing ability, long-term (and mostly long-distance) friendship and willingness to put up with an old man.

The author’s suit that Fred now wears?

Ah!!! fellow; it’s not for sale,

for he who dons must never doff—

as he spins his earthly tale.

‘Tis a matter of years to make the fit,

and the cloth may be worn and spare

with ink spots scattered over warp and woof, but . . . woven with scrupulous care.

With labor and patience, with Calvin and friends,

every word is drawn to its place.

‘Tis dyed in the colors of honor and truth, with the author’s distinctive grace.

The dirt and grime of strife and of toil

only brighten its marvelous hue;

For the shiftless shame of an idle life would rot it through and through.

Measures he takes, but not with a tape—

he must TAILOR to fit a MAN’S SOUL

with a garment to wear, thro’ life’s arduous race, and bring him in safe at the goal.

His trademark is woven into every suit.

‘Tis a vow that the wearer must make,

how low or how high in this world he may be he must give something more than he takes.

Yet he has no weaver of magical skill, his tailor’s no Fairyland elf.

He’s merely discovered that to wear such a suit, the wearer must make it himself.

Acknowledgments

First and foremost I thank the Lord for planting the seeds of a writer in me along with the joy to write in the good times and the moxie to persevere through the stormier stretches of life. I think this book not only offers clues to success, but unintentionally has let the reader stumble through the back door of my life to see how an ordinary guy handles the ups and downs that all of us are presented with. Reading inspirational and motivational books and listening to recordings of some of my favorite speakers really shaped how I responded to events in my life. Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar and Denis Waitley are among my favorites.

My older brother, Bob, has always been my business inspiration. He taught many basic laws of success and failure to me that allowed many doors to be opened that I otherwise would never have chosen. He even shoved me through one of those doors—selling accident and health insurance door-to-door in South Carolina for Combined Insurance Company of America. But their two-week sales school was pure dynamite. As a matter of fact, the lead rhyme of clues in my book is one I wrote on a napkin during the wee hours at an all-night coffee shop after the final class. I was stoked and ready to go into the field.

A course I took called Imagine 21, created and presented by Lou Tice, contributed a piece to the puzzle of success that truly opened the door for me, and I believe many others. It goes way beyond setting goals. It is called being efficacious. And I did not even know what the word meant, as many people in my class didn’t and most people on the street haven’t a clue today what it means or entails. I was so excited about this discovery that of course I wrote about it and have included it in my clues within this book.

Another great orator that I had the good fortune to hear and meet in person, is Rich DeVos, co-founder of the Amway business. One of his early presentations compared our great country to the Soviet Union, laying the groundwork for how and why capitalism is, was, and always will be the best system on the planet—bar none. I still have that recording and cherish it, and should really get it updated from its original cassette tape format!

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