MSI Press Blog

  Excerpt from  Forget the Goal, the Journey Counts  (Stites)  Absorbing the ‘20s!   I don’t remember much before I was six years old except that as a little kid I was happy in those bubbling days of the 1920s. It was called the Roaring Twenties, and everyone seemed to be doing just great. In the 1928 presidential election, the candidate Al Smith said he would see that the whole country had a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage. Things were that good! Calvin Coolidge had been president, and my dad said he was an all right president even if he didn’t say much. Dad said they called him Silent Cal, and that he wouldn’t run for another term because he had “had enough.” He never did say enough of what. So Hoover ran and won. Dad said it was because Democrat Al Smith was a Catholic and no Catholic could ever be elected president. Dad had Hoover and Smith buttons along with buttons and rib bons from presidential elections all the way back into th...

  MSI Press authors are located all over the world. Getting to know the authors can also mean getting to know a new part of the world. We will be sharing this information on a regular basis. Follow us and map our authors' locations. The late MSI Press author, Alfred Stites ( Forget the Goal, the Journey Counts ) , spent his retirement years in Costa Rica (lit. rich coast) before moving to New Mexico with his children in his 90th decade. After leaving Costa Rica, he wrote a book, Sidewalks in the Jungle , to tell others what Costa Rica is really like. Costa Rica was the point where the  Mesoamerican  and South American native cultures met. The northwest of the country, the Nicoya peninsula, was the southernmost point of  Nahuatl  cultural influence when the Spanish conquerors ( conquistadores ) came in the 16th century. The central and southern portions of the country had  Chibcha  influences. The Atlantic coast, meanwhile, was populated with African wo...

  The following is the story behind Forget the Goal, the Journey Counts (Stites) From the editor: Alfred's book was one of the first we published, nearly 20 years ago, by an author we did not personally know. (Since then, we have met lots of new people and made lots of new friends.) At the time, and until recently, Alfred was living in Costa Rica. In fact, he had written a book earlier about Costa Rica. We were used to working with foreign authors. In fact, we had already published books by authors from Syria and Jordan. We found Alfred's story fascinating -- 71 different jobs, and most of them contributed to who he was as a person. Some of those jobs were downright unique, and he had met some well-known people and a lot of unknown unique words. A fun read! Alfred lived into his 90s. Near the end of his life, he moved back to the USA to be with his children in New Mexico. Alfred may not still be with us, but we still have his book. So, Alfred is still entertaining readers. For...

  Today's fortune cookie is associated with Alfred Stites' books, Forget the Goal, the Journey Counts .  For more posts about Alfred and his book, click HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.  Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can!  Find their contact information on our  Authors' Pages .    

  Excerpt from Forget the Goal, the Journey Counts (Stites)  My Second Miracle   It was during this period of my life when I had the second of my automobile “experiences” with my new Volkswagen Hatchback. One night, around 11:00 p.m., I was driving home to Arlington from a party in D.C. I had had a few drinks, and for some reason I took a winding blacktop road through the residential section instead of the freeway, my usual route. At the top of a rise I saw a curve ahead, and realized I was driving too fast. I hit the brakes twice. The car suddenly fishtailed violently, and I lost control. As it went off the road to the right and up a slope, I gripped the bottom of the steering wheel, bowed my head, and closed my eyes. The car catapulted over a 10 foot embankment, rolled over, landed on the roof, and then rolled over again slamming into a bank. I must have been unconscious for a short time because when I opened my eyes, the road was lined with cars, and a ...

  excerpt from Forget the Goal, the Journey Counts (Stites) -  President Johnson’s Family  One afternoon, as my part-time bookkeeper was leaving, she turned to me and said, “Don’t look now, but Lady Bird is coming down the hall.” In a few moments, two young men in black suits and dark glasses swept into the room, quickly scoped out the gallery space, then went into my office and workroom. I had seen Secret Service before and waited out their quick and thorough investigation of the premises. Lady Bird entered the gallery followed by Linda Bird, and I smiled a welcome. They spent a half an hour casually looking at prints and artifacts. Lady Bird complimented my gallery and started for the door. Linda Bird hopped up on a cabinet, told her mother she would be along later, and asked to have the car sent back. The young lady and I spent a lovely hour talking about early prints, the caricaturists Cruickshank and Daumier in particular, as she collected their original w...

  Excerpt from Forget the Goal, the Journey Counts I did believe, however, that there was a good market for human hair wigs, and a few weeks later I told Borghese that I would start my own distributorship. I knew a young man who wanted to be in his own business and thought he would be a reliable partner. A large man of six foot two, “Big Mike” was tired of working in his father’s auto parts store and wanted to strike out on his own. He had an attractive little wife and a new baby boy. Mike and I each put in $7,000 and agreed that I was to sell the product outside the D.C. area while he ran the office and sold in D.C. and surrounding suburbs; his wife would keep the books. We ordered the wigs, rented a small storefront on Wisconsin Avenue, and when the first shipment arrived from Italy, we were in business! I loaded up the car and took off throughout Maryland and eastern PA, visiting beauty shops. In the second month, I contracted with a small but exclusive department stor...

Everyone has at least one story to tell; Alfred Stites has a lifetime’s worth. Candid, humorous, thought provoking and interesting, his writings delight both young and old. Writing is a passion for Alfred… he writes because he loves to tell a story. If you’re fortunate enough to sit in his presence whilst he weaves a tale or two, blue eyes a’ twinkle, you’ll not forget neither the story told nor the storyteller. His book,   Forget the Goal, the Journey Counts…71 jobs Later , relates a lifetime of interesting meetings, unusual endeavors, and tales worth relating and reading.  Update 2016: Alfred passed away on on April 11, 2016 after living a very long and full life. Just read his book, “Forget the Goal, the Journey Counts…71 Jobs Later,” and that will be clear. He worked with some rather famous people, like JFK and others of equal fame. He had quite a zest for life. For 94 years he fully enjoyed every day of it. Indeed,  a long, full life.  RIP, Alfred...

Foreword  For most Americans, their lives center around the job they have. Strangely, it is the job that defines most people. When two strangers meet, one of the first questions invariably asked is, “What do you do?” Most people take a job because it pays well and has strong benefits such as health coverage. Most of the time the job they have is not what they would really like to be doing. Most people are working to have enough to retire some years or decades later or are working toward a goal they have set for themselves because someone said having a goal is very beneficial. This book is about my taking the jobs that came along because I wanted to do the work, not because of anything that came with the job. I did what I wanted to do and sometimes refused jobs that had a big salary, stock options, health plan, perks of homes and travel, but were not what I would like doing. I could never see why anyone would spend two-thirds of their life essentially working to make money, ...