This chapter-level audiobook can help make you wealthy and happy or, depending on your situation, wealthier and happier. But only if you approach it with an open mind.

Start with this thought: Your success in your professional, financial, and personal lives depends to a great extent on your ability to articulate.

I first learned the truth and power behind that statement when I lived in a grimy coal-mining and steel-making town in Pennsylvania, where it was clear that articulate professionals were more successful than the less articulate miners and mill workers. My education continued years later at the top levels of government, business, and academe, where I observed power brokers and decision makers use their considerable skills with language to think clearly, arrive at logical decisions, and convey those decisions clearly to others. And over the years, I saw that my happiest friends and associates were able to communicate clearly with spouses and others with whom they enjoy close relationships.

In short, my intuition told me that language is the root cause of a more fulfilled life. Then along came Pete and this book.

He explained the premise in his own articulate way, converting my intuition to reality such that I agreed to be profiled in a chapter and am now the foreworder. Throughout recorded history, many thinkers have noted the importance of being articulate and the power of words; you'll hear a few of their comments in the book. Pete, however, goes a giant step further by connecting articulation to wealth and happiness and to the clear thinking and better decisions that thwart mediocrity. He quite correctly points out that we think in words, and we need more words to think with as the issues we need to resolve become more complex, as they do when we rise in any organization and our close relationships mature.