Comments from reviewers and friends

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Rick: Yes, without a doubt, people who purposely practice the Golden Rule will score higher on SQ tests.

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Bill: I believe that moral character, empathy, emotional/social intelligence, grounded spirituality, balance, humility, and adherence to the Golden Rule are all tied together in a self-actualized person.  This type of person will always be likeable and succeed over the long run.  It is ego that overshadows any worthwhile characteristics that people may have, making a person very unlikeable.

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Jonathan: People following their bliss tend to have their contribution acknowledged by others and be financially well-rewarded - if for no other reason than they are so productive when relatively unstressed and creative doing what they love - that they are naturally more inclined to be generous in acknowledging and helping others. 

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Perhaps the best liked individual that I ever met was a five star British admiral. Why? Because he fully engaged with everybody he met with humor and intelligence regardless of rank. That powerfully raised their own positive expectations of what they could achieve in their job - to a level far above the level that they themselves had ever thought possible. And they all loved him for it. 

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Bill on book dedication:  "We also want to dedicate this book to one of dad's good friends in California, Van Sloan.  They met several years ago when they accidentally (serendipity?) realized their two most important ideas about what drives success in school, work and life were really two different sides to the same coin.  Van's concept of SQ (the non-discriminating measure of social intelligence quotient as opposed to the discriminating IQ measure) and dad's idea of likeability, are both pointing to the proverbial "one thing" that is important.  (Incidentally just google "SQ" or "likeability" to read more about these success drivers).

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Recently Van suggested that dad write a book titled," The Real Jesus."  Van's idea was to put aside all the supernatural beliefs about the historical man Jesus and just make the case for society operating on the basic principals of Christianity from the wisdom of Jesus.  The biggest part of this book idea was to get people to consider not doing anything to increase the growing divide between the two main groups of people, but rather living life with more of a Jesus-like consciousness and being driven with the Holy Spirit inside.  This is another way of saying, live your life with an abundance of SQ or likeability.

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With this inspiration from Van, and during our fifth edit of this book, we  both concluded that this other book already has already been been written -  this is the main idea we both want to communicate in "Pearls of Wisdom: A Smart Dog's Tale."  Mention of this here in the book dedication seems to be the best way to write a book about the real Jesus."

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Golden Rule at the Bible's Matthew 7:12

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This well known verse presents what has become known as the Golden Rule. In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads: Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you: do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

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Also at Matthew 5:48 is a similar statement by Jesus: "Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

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From Wikipedia:  The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as one's self would wish to be treated. It is a maxim that is found in many religions and cultures.[1][2]

The Golden Rule can be considered an ethic of reciprocity in some religions, although other religions treat it differently. The maxim may appear as either a positive or negative injunction governing conduct:

• One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself (positive or directive form).

• One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated (negative or prohibitive form).[1]

• What you wish upon others, you wish upon yourself (empathic or responsive form).[1]

The idea dates at least to the early Confucian times (551–479 BC) according to Rushworth Kidder, who identifies that this concept appears prominently in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, and "the rest of the world's major religions".[3] The concept of the Rule is codified in the Code of Hammurabi stele and tablets, 1754-1790 BC. 143 leaders encompassing the world's major faiths endorsed the Golden Rule as part of the 1993 "Declaration Toward a Global Ethic",

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