When I was young, I was a competitive and scholastic student. My goal was to get an A in every class, both in high school and college. I’d drop a class if it looked as though I wouldn’t get an A. Ultimately, my statistics grade took me down a notch and taught me...
In the FBI Academy, we trained how to run down and tackle individuals who resisted arrest. I was a lousy runner and came up at the rear of every race. The idea that I could run down or even catch up with a suspect produced snarky comments and rolled eyes from my...
I’ve always been afraid of water. To confront those fears, I decided to learn how to scuba dive, even before I learned how to swim! I would use visualization to achieve top performance if I hoped to get out alive. One of the requirements of a scuba dive certification...
As the spokesperson for the FBI in Northern California, there were long stretches of the day when eating became hard to fit in, as were bathroom breaks. Each day was a full onslaught of updates on important cases, calls to return, emails to read, and interviews to...
The word “can’t” is probably the only four-letter word I never heard in my 24 years as an FBI agent. I learned early in my career that negativity would impair my ability to analyze a tough case that looked impossible to crack. Once you allow a negative thought to take...
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