There's a sense of aliveness that comes from connection shared experience. And you see it in every place. You see it when ball players jump up and down gather at home plate hugging and it's not just because they're winning it's that shared moment that feeling of - we enter the world alone we leave alone.

Picture yourself vividly as winning and that alone will contribute immeasurably to success.

The daily act of writing remains as demanding and maddening as it was before and the pleasure you get from writing - rare but profound - remains at the true heart of the enterprise. On their best days writers all over the world are winning Pulitzers all alone in their studios with no one watching.

Everyone talks about age but it's not about age. It's about work ethic. Winning never gets old.

High expectations weren't nurtured in my neck of nowhere back then - children weren't fawned over from an early age as 'gifted' and groomed for a prizewinning future self-esteem was considered something you had to pick from the garden yourself.

At a young age winning is not the most important thing... the important thing is to develop creative and skilled players with good confidence.