Chapter 8: Fundamentals: Building Foundations for Everything We Do

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated, but it takes courage... to listen to his own goodness.

—Pablo Casals,
cellist

What Are Fundamentals?

A fundamental is something that is an essential part of something else—a foundation or basis. Nothing can be achieved without the fundamentals. Because we live in such a hurry-up-I-need-it-yesterday world, we sometimes want to skip over the fundamentals. We don't want to give them the attention they deserve. However, there's a favorite saying of mine that goes, "Stick to the basics and you never have to go back to them." When we get away from fundamentals, our results suffer. The basics keep the foundation strong. When the basics fall, everything else comes down with them.

The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one's appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship.

—Amelia Earhart,
aviatrix