Reducing Stress

In the Introduction to his best selling book, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff (And It's All Small Stuff),” Richard Carlson writes about how he came up with the title.

A foreign publisher of one of his earlier books asked him to get an endorsement from another best-selling author, Dr. Wayne Dyer, who had provided one for an earlier publication of his. So Carlson sent the request to Dyer, but didn’t hear from him, so after waiting for awhile, he told the publisher to go ahead and print the work without the Dyer endorsement.

Six months later, when he got his first copy of the book he saw the identical Dyer quote printed on the front cover that had been used in the earlier  book.

Needless to say, Carlson was quite upset and called his literary agent, who demanded that the books be removed from the shelves. Meanwhile, Carlson wrote his friend Dyer an apology, worried about what his reaction would be.

Soon after, he got this gracious response: “Richard, There are two rules for living in harmony. #1 Don’t sweat the small stuff, and #2 It’s all small stuff. Let the quote stand. Love, Wayne.”

Carlson writes, “That was it. No lectures, no threats. No hard feelings and no confrontation. Despite the obvious unethical use of his very famous name, he responded with grace and humility; no feathers ruffles. His response demonstrated the important concept of ‘going with the flow,’ and of learning to respond to life gracefully and with ease.”