Life is a wonderful adventure. If only it came with a guide so we could avoid the mis- takes made by others before us. This is my attempt at giving you that.

So, here they are. I hope some of these turn out to be handy for you and your children.

These clues can make you a better lover, a better parent, a better leader and a better son or daughter. They will help you give memorable gifts. They will draw a lesson from The Beatles’ enduring success toward your own. They will teach you how to prioritize.

I don’t believe in fluff, so each clue is brief because I believe most ideas can be communicated rather concisely. As Mark Twain wrote, ”I would have written you a shorter letter, but I ran out of time.” Or as we say in Spanish, ”lo bue, si bre, dos ve bue,” which translates to, “the good, if brief, twice as good.”

I have tried to ensure they are not too brief. When I left for college, almost three decades ago, my mother gave me a copy of H. Jackson Brown’s Life’s Little Instruction Book. It was a fabulous book, which inspired me to write this one. Yet, for example, its instruction #93 says that ninety percent of all your happiness or misery will come from the life mate you choose —a decision it does not explain how to make. In brief, while I loved it, Life’s Little Instruction Book is a little too little in some parts. I have striven to go a bit deeper, especially for some of those crucial clues –for example I have a whole clue devoted to how to pick a mate. Also, every person is different, which is why I have called these clues rather than instructions –you may find some clues you disagree with, and that’s OK.

Americans are the unhappiest they’ve been in 50 years, a poll conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago found. Just 14% of U.S. adults say they’re very happy. The proportion who say they are not too happy is the highest percentage on record since 1972. A record 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs last November. If you are one of the 86% of people who are not very happy, this book may help.

Fair would be to ask what qualifications I have to write a book like this. I have made many mistakes and have failed just as much as the next guy. So why did I write this book?

First, it is precisely because I have failed repeatedly that I have learned a few clues about life. I have been fired. I have lost most everything I owned. I have lost love. My ideas have been rejected too many times to count before they gained acceptance. In fact, I have learned so much about mistakes that I am writing an entire series of books about blunders you can’t afford to make.

Second, I have had a few successes along the way (see my bio in the back of the book for details).

Third, despite my faults and peaks and valleys, I have lived an overall extremely happy life. In fact, when my mother blessed me by writing a book about my life on my 40th birthday, she titled it “Life is Wow”, and put a photo of me with my typical face of joie de vivre, or “amazement at life,” on the cover.

Fourth, I have helped raise three happy children who are already showing they are winning at life. My oldest triple-majored in college in math, computer science, and history with a Trustee Fellowship, interned during college at NASA and the Federal Reserve, won an award at Harvard for her research on the influence of American Middle East policy on Anti-American sentiment and terrorist attacks, inter- viewed Wolf Blitzer and most presidential candidates as a student journalist, and before she finished col– lege, had job offers from Princeton and Obama’s former Chief Economist. My middle one represented his school at the Robotics World Championship, just started at Caltech (which is consistently ranked one of the top schools in the world), and is an accomplished pianist, bassist, runner, and mountain biker. My youngest son scored the first goal in the winning final that won his team the championship in one of AYSO’s largest regions in the nation and has won top spots in long-distance races. They consistently tell me they are happy. And yet, they still make many of the same mistakes I made before them.

Enjoy the book. Most of all, enjoy this incredible life and the opportunities we are given. There may be 101 clues to living a happy life, but each of us gets only one life.

—Alex Bäcker, Altadena, California, February 2nd, 2022