The 405 Aired Sept 17th, 2025

More thoughts from How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie today.  Don't let the little things eat you up with frustration and worry.

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Episode Transcript

OK Solberg (00:00):
I wanna again welcome you to the 4:05 Coffee
Break. Guys, get you a cup ofcoffee, glass iced tea, bottle
of water. Let's see what'shappening. Spring wheat $5.21 a
bushel. 550lb steer calf,dollars 4.14 a pound. Butcher
hog in Iowa, 61 cents a pound.And a lamb that's fat, in

(00:26):
Billings, weighing 100lbs willbring you $2 and a nickel. But
Guy's theres more, much more.
I wish I could, but I know Ican't. Yeah, I just made that
up. I wish I could, but I know Ican't. Nothing profound, but it
is true and it has a nice ringto it. I wish that I could read

(00:47):
you the entire chapter from Howto Stop Worrying and Start
Living by Dale Carnegie.
Yes, do. But alas, time will notallow. But it's probably just as
well. If I read you this onechapter, I'd just wanna read you
all the chapters. Now guys, youknow I have extra copies of this

(01:10):
wonderful book and I'm givingthem away free of charge to the
first people who ask.
Guess what's happened thus far?No one has asked. It would seem
that all of us are worried aboutsomething, but nobody wants to
do anything about it. Maybe I'mwrong. Please correct me if I

(01:32):
am.
The chapter in the book that I'mtalking about is chapter seven
titled Don't Let the Beatles GetYou Down. It starts out with
this line. Here's a dramaticstory that I'll probably
remember as long as I live. Hegoes on to tell about a man,

(01:53):
Robert Moore, of 14 HighlandAvenue, Maplewood, New Jersey. I
learned the biggest lesson of mylife in March 1945, he said.
I learned it under 276 feet ofwater off the coast of Indo,

(02:13):
China. This man was in World WarII, and he was in a submarine, A
Japanese convoy was coming ourway, and suddenly they were
dropping depth charges at oursubmarine. For fifteen hours,
they sat motionless in thisshallow water that should have

(02:37):
made their position a certaindeath sentence. Yet for fifteen
hours of ramped up tension, theysat and waited, worrying the
whole time. Worrying that thisis it, this is the end, there is
no going on further.

(02:58):
The man writes, all my lifepassed before me in review. I
remembered all the bad things Ihad done, all the little absurd
things I worried about. I hadworried about the long hours I
had to work. I worried about myold boss nagging and scolding. I
remember how my wife and I wouldargue over trifles.

(03:20):
After I made it safely home, Ipromised myself that I would
never worry again. I learnedmore about the art of living in
those fifteen hours in thatsubmarine than I had learned by
studying books for four years.It is indeed a great chapter. It
even goes on to tell how RudyardKipling, the man who wrote in

(03:45):
his poem IF, the poem's titledIF. It's a great poem.
I've shared it before on The405. If you can keep your head
when all about you are losingtheirs and blaming you, this
same man, Dale Carnegie writes,who wrote that great poem got in
a feud with his brother-in-lawover a load of hay. A load of

(04:10):
hay. The little things in life.Oh, it's a great chapter.
Its point is don't let thelittle things eat you up with
frustration and worry. He tellsof this giant tree that survived
on the slope of Long's Peak inColorado. It had lived for four

(04:31):
hundred years. Four hundredyears. And it survived 14
lightning strikes, innumerableavalanches, and yet its demise
was from a beetle.
A little colony of beetles thatwere so small you could crush
one between your thumb andforefinger. He goes on to write,

(04:52):
don't let the little beetles ofworry be your demise. The
chapter ends with a great storythat I have remembered for
decades. Remember, guys, I readthis book about forty years ago,
and I'm still reading it. But Iremembered for decades when it
comes to the littleinconveniences of life, the
author tells of Charles Seafred,highway superintendent for the

(05:18):
state of Wyoming.
They were to meet somewhere inthe Teton National Park. But the
author was driving in a car thattook a wrong turn, and Mr.
Seafred had to wait over an hourin a mosquito infested area that
would have drove a saint insane.But now mister Seafred, he

(05:42):
patiently waited, and while hewaited for us to show up, he
made a little whistle from alimb of an aspen tree nearby.
When they arrived, was hecussing the mosquitoes?
No, sir. He was playing with hiswhistle. The author writes, I

(06:02):
have kept that whistle as amemento of a man who knew how to
put trifles in their place.Okay. End of quotes from the
book.
Remember, I have extra booksgiven them away to the first
people who ask. Let me closewith a bible verse. Listen.
Therefore, do not worry abouttomorrow, for tomorrow will

(06:24):
worry about itself. Each day hasenough trouble of its own.
Matthew six thirty four. Ah,yes. Don't worry. Let's see if
we can make that happen. Sountil next time, as you go out
there, remember now, don't bebitter.