I'm Gretchen Ribbon and this is a little happier.

I have written two biographies in my time,

40 Ways to Look at Winston Churchill,

and 40 Ways to Look at JFK.

I had also planned to write a book called

40 Ways to Look at Richard Nixon,

and I did a tremendous amount of research for that book

until my editor said that she didn't want to publish it,

so I had to cancel that project.

Now, at the time, this was a huge disappointment and shock to me,

but as it turns out, the book that I wrote instead

was the happiness project, so that whole thing turned out fine.

But as part of my research for the book that I ended up not writing,

I did a lot of work related to Richard Nixon.

And one story I often recall from that time came from a book

by Richard Reeves called Nixon Alone in the White House.

Now, when Nixon was president, an advisor drafted a letter,

which Nixon thought didn't strike the right tone,

but he sent it anyway, and he repeated to that aid

something that Eisenhower had once told him.

A true executive can sign a poor letter without changing it.

I remind myself to be excellent in some areas,

...