Deryck Richardson on Why We Should All Go Play and Get The Ultimate Road Map to Winning the Game of Life

In this interview, Deryck Richardson talks to Alexander “The Engineer” Lim, host of AuthorStory by alvinwriter.com, about his book, Go Play: The Ultimate Road Map to Winning the Game of Life.

“As kids, we don’t overthink things.” ~Deryck Richardson

Borders had never much existed for Deryck, even when he was younger, and this was how he got into all the many things he did. As an African-American who grew up in a white suburb, he got acquainted with grunge music, which seemed strange to his relatives in urban neighborhoods, who were not used to “white music.” HIs first job was when he was fourteen years old, working for a “boiler room” organization which called up people to donate money to another organization. He was taught the fundamentals of sales and got “addicted” to commissions, and as he and some others were underage kids, the Attorney General of Ohio shut that down twice while Deryck was there.

Deryck went to school because he was a teenage father and, after dropping once out of college, went back in because he wanted to coach and needed a degree for that. It was then that he realized that, while he wanted to teach, he wasn’t motivated by the idea of working for a paycheck, so he got out of teaching and got into the mortgage business. He made some “big boy” money until the mortgage industry crashed in the early 2000s, then went into insurance, after which he then became a “serial entrepreneur,” owning an insurance agency and a marketing firm which is one of the fastest-growing companies in Columbus, Ohio in 2020, as well as a coffee store and being a community volunteer, author and speaker.

Deryck remarks that he had always been “the leader of the pack,” when growing up, particularly as he was the first in their group to do such things as drive a car and get a job. He had been a sales manager at the age of twenty, which reflected this “knack for leadership,” particularly since he was managing older people.

Deryck’s life experiences are a living testament to the philosophy he espouses in Go Play, noting that, as kids, whenever Mom told kids to “go play,” she didn’t specify what the kids should play with, so the kids were pretty much free to do anything they wanted. This is an attitude that Deryck remarks is something that adults don’t do “often enough,” as adults consider their life experiences and expectations of what they’re supposed to do whenever they select the things they decide to do - which is typical of the “vast majority” of people, in Deryck’s experience. “The go-getters don’t really care what people think,” he says.

Failure and stress, as well as mental health considerations as depression and anxiety stemming from failure, are, in Deryck’s opinion, some of the blocks that keep people from just going out and playing. “If you get knocked down and you’re really determined to succeed at it, you’re just gonna get back up,” he remarks. He also remarks that the people around one are likely to have failed themselves, which leads to their not having faith in one, which means, essentially, that one’s own circle of friends, acquaintances and family are likely not going to enable one to ascend. Deryck admits he feels “different” from those in his immediate circle, and while he has attempted to bring some of these along with him in business, they have decided to not go with him. “If you’re not gonna keep up with me, I’m gonna leave you,” Deryck notes after mentioning that, as he ascends, he no longer expends the energy to “reach down” to help those in his circle. Not allowing others to influence one’s decisions or actions, is, the key to doing what one wants to do, Deryck emphasizes. “They’re not you,” he remarks; “you are the only person who is you in this world.”

Deryck admits that he’s been broke before, has had failed relationships and has failed “a million times.” “I’m lucky because I get hurt all the time,” he remarks, “I get bruised all the time. And if luck means that I get back up again, then I guess I am lucky.” He also notes that luck occurs when hard work meets opportunity, and which is why he continues to put the hard work in and continues to be willing to take on the opportunities that come his way.

Deryck admits that a lot of the concepts in his book are “brand new” concepts, as this is all about setting one’s mindset. The twist here is bringing the reader back to the reader’s childhood, when the reader was seven and immersed in the mindset of just playing, of just doing while not listening to people, rather than failing when others say you fail. In addition, Deryck includes stories from his own life. “If you’re going from level to level continuously, like in a video game, then you’re winning,” he remarks, “you’re continuously improving.” He also made the book a short one, at one hundred pages, as he didn’t want readers to finish it, rather than for a racer to get to “Chapter 7” and then just put it on the shelf, never to be read again. (He’s working on two follow-up books which are, essentially, the other parts of the original, three-hundred page book which he conceptualized.)

Where the book is concerned, Deryck notes that one of the reasons it is relatable is that it can bring the reader back to the state of childhood where everything is possible, as well as that it shows how relevant the concepts are to one’s daily life, thanks to several stories that highlight these concepts. (Deryck then gave the story of the lumberjack who came out of retirement, and commented on how this would apply to everyday life, as well as how two of his present businesses came to reside in the same office, due to his willingness to change directions.)

Where today’s environment is concerned, Deryck remarks that the year 2020 is “an example of why people need to ‘go play,’” remarking that the situation, for him, was one he hadn’t encountered before. He gave the example of starting a vacation with his wife on March 15 of that year, then needing to return on the 16th to coordinate the continuation of his business, as the state of Ohio ordered businesses to close down that day. He had his tech team set things up so that his people could work for home, and he remarks that those were some of “the best decisions I made in a 24-hour period.”

Deryck advises those who have an idea to “act on it.” “What’s the worst that can happen?” Deryck asks, adding that it just might not be as good as it was, and one would still gain some wisdom and knowledge and experience if it doesn’t pan out.

Purchase from Amazon: 

Go Play: The Ultimate Road Map to Winning the Game of Life by Deryck Richardson

James Buckley on Soccer and the Math Behind the Perfect Goal

In this interview, James Buckley, Jr. talks to Alexander “The Engineer” Lim, host of AuthorStory by alvinwriter.com, about his book, It’s a Numbers Game! Soccer: The Math Behind the Perfect Goal, the Game-Winning Save, and So Much More!.

“Everybody loves something.” ~James Buckley, Jr.

James has had a “very lucky career,” as he liked writing and sports since he was a child, and feels very lucky to be able to combine both interests in his work. Most of his work, such as biographies, is non-fiction for young readers, and he enjoys telling young people stories about the world they live in. James also loves introducing young people to the sports that he loves, mentioning that young people are just starting to jump into sports, while the adults who have been in it all their lives have a lot of insight into these. The It’s a Numbers Game! series shows how to combine math with a sport, to help kids better understand and enjoy the sports so highlighted.

Where writing is concerned, James jokingly remarks that, whenever he lacks inspiration, he looks at his refrigerator, which has all of his bills attached to this. The reminder of all the bills that need to be paid “cures writer’s block pretty quickly,” he notes. His favorite advice to young would-be writers is to “start in the middle,” and then get on to the end and the beginning later on, as well as writing about the things they are interested in and know about. Writing is something that comes easy to James, and is an activity he enjoys.

James, who started playing soccer at the age of seven, went over the history of the game briefly, going over the establishment of two different kinds of ball games (rugby football and association football) in England, and association football being called “soccer” in the United States, as the game that is presently called “American football” was already popular. He notes that immigrants brought soccer into the United States, and even today, he plays soccer whenever he can. He also shared that, during a recent World Cup, his city hosted a mini-World Cup, and there were enough players to form twelve teams.

James remarks that, when kids talk about sports, they talk about numbers, so math is a natural entry to start a conversation on a sport, adding that math and sports are usually a part of kids’ lives, and that it’s easy for kids to become familiar with math concepts if these are shown within the context of a sport. The book shows the basic math involved with the sport, such as averages and percentages, as well as such physics and geometrical concepts as triangles, vectors and diagonals, as a soccer game involves a lot of this.

Soccer doesn’t have as many statistics as sports like baseball, simply because there aren’t that many data points in soccer, which is a very free-flowing game, compared to other games, according to James, who then gives examples of some baseball statistics. That said, new statistics are presently being added to soccer, to create deeper levels of analysis, thanks to the statistics revolution that is presently taking place in sports. 

James notes that a soccer fan will pick up the book because it’s about a sport of interest, and then learn some math that one didn’t know before, while a math fan will get depth on some things that one would not be familiar with. Soccer has sixteen “Laws of Soccer,” which makes it a simple game to play, and which thus makes its basic easy to learn and understand, and is one of the reasons why it is so popular. The math involved is also easy to understand, compared to, say, baseball, which requires calculus to generate some of its statistics. Soccer thus makes concrete, to an eight-year old, esoteric (to that child) math concepts, as that child can see these play out, every day, in real life, James adds.

James appreciates readers, particularly those who read his books. “Readers make writers’ lives,” he notes.

Purchase from Amazon: 

It’s a Numbers Game! Soccer: The Math Behind the Perfect Goal, the Game-Winning Save, and So Much More! by James Buckley, Jr.

Sharkie Zartman on Winning at Aging & Staying Fit, Free, and Loving Your Retirement

In this interview, Sharkie Zartman talks to Alexander “The Engineer” Lim, host of AuthorStory by alvinwriter.com, about her book, Win at Aging: How to Stay Fit, Free, and Love Your Retirement!

“We have been given the gift of time.” ~Sharkie Zartman

Sharkie is a former member of the USA volleyball national team who has, since then, become a member of the Hall of Fame in three different organizations and has coached different teams to two state and one national title. “This is exactly what I wanted to do,” Sharkie remarks of her athletic experience, adding that knowing how to train and take care of one’s body is important. She adds that she didn’t think that much about nutrition when she was starting out, and notes that this was at a time when the research on the power of food was yet in its infancy. Sharkie has, since then, studied up on nutrition and now has a good grounding on which foods can help one get to one’s physical goals.

Writing books are an extension of her teaching, Sharkie notes, adding that she started out because she needed textbooks for her courses and couldn’t find the right ones which would fit what she taught. Sharkie decided to focus on ageing because she realized the “poor attitude” present society has towards ageing. “Ageing is inevitable, but we can control how we age and the rate at which we do so,” she remarks, adding that her work involves changing people’s perceptions about ageing, particularly now that the senior population is increasing. Writing books on ageing also is a way for her to help seniors live their senior years productively and more positively, as she notes that seniors feel that they can’t do what they want to do, and use the excuse that they’re too old to not do that. Sharkie, however, points out that there are people today, in their 70s and 80s, do the same things that people in their 20s and 30s do. “We can control our choices and attitudes, and that’s huge,” she remarks. “And I want to remind people of that.”

“Exercise isn’t optional, as we get older,” Sharkie remarks, noting that our bodies and brains need to be active and mobile, adding that activity increases the amount of oxygen the brain receives. “Ageing is an individualized process,” she notes, adding that, if one wants to live to the fullest in one’s senior years, then one has to step up and be active and empowered.

Where Win at Ageing is concerned, Sharkie looked at athletes as well as such aspects as nutrition, and analyzed the mindset these athletes had. She thus came up with the acronym RAP, which are important attributes for anyone trying to reach their goals. These attributes are:

Resiliency - not getting upset and down and complaining, stepping up and doing what needs to be done

Accountability - being responsible for one’s own choices, particularly when some of the symptoms that come up when one ages could be due to the decisions one made in the past

Passion/purpose - that which makes one want to live life, as well as looking at what’s positive in life

“Our quality of life is our responsibility,” Sharkie remarks, where wellness is concerned, “because doctors can’t be with us all day.” Where the mind-body connection is concerned, “this is huge.” Sharkie, for her part, focuses on the mental, physical, emotional, social and spiritual aspects of ageing to enable her clients and students to lead active senior lives, using the story of a person who got into an experimental cancer drug study as an example of how powerful the mind-body connection actually is. This connection, Sharkie notes, might not give people “everything,” but it does give people the opportunity to live the best lives they can.

Sharkie admits that the spiritual aspect is probably the most important part of how to live a fulfilled life. This is also the most difficult aspect to teach, as a lot of people believe that they need to be religious to be spiritual, and she best links this up as spirituality being part of the human experience. She recommends some sort of yoga or meditation to get in touch with one’s inner self, and staying away from watching the news, as the latter “is depressing.”

One of the things people can do immediately, to lead active senior lives, is to make oneself a priority, Sharkie notes: “Hey, whose life is it anyway?” Sharkie also adds that one should realize that one is in charge of one’s life, and that one can pick one’s own team, which includes those people whom one would want to be around - a good social network, in short. “Psychic vampires,” who are people who drain one’s energy, should be kept away from as much as possible. Maintaining communications with people, the social contact, is thus very important, particularly during these times of the Covid pandemic.

“You can have a full and vibrant life regardless of age,” Sharkie remarks, adding that, while it will take work and persistence on one’s part, it’s worth it.

Purchase from Amazon: 

Win at Aging: How to Stay Fit, Free, and Love Your Retirement! by Sharkie Zartman