Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend
by Casey Tefertiller
ISBN: 0-471-28362-2 Copyright 1997
I began reading this book May 16th and finished it May 28th. 403 Pages with only 344 pages of content, the others were sources.
Why I chose to read this book?
The book is based in Tombstone, Arizona which is close to Phoenix where I’m being housed so I wanted to learn more about the history of Arizona and its orgins. I also wanted to understand some of the key players that helped shape the culture. Lastly, I enjoyed reading about the cattle trail rides and the pioneering of the west frontier thru other authors like Ralph Compton’s Trail series so the biography of the infamous Wyatt Earp seemed like an interesting read.
What I learned from reading this book?
“It is a classically American Story: The town complains about crime, the police overreact, and the citizenry turns against the law enforcers. It has been played out time and again in US history and the pattern keeps repeating” p. 161
“The Earps had their defenders, who made equally articulate arguments on the need to preserve order so that laws can thrive. This is one of human kinds oldest questions and has long inspired debate in many civilized societies. The sage of Wyatt Earp in Tombstone is engaging on several different levels. First and most importantly, is the overriding issue of law verus order, with the Earps defending public safety over legal principle. This is the question of how a just man responds to an unjust society, and it is a question that continued long after the gunfire ceased in the Arizona backcountry”. p 249
How the book would contribute to my success upon release?
This book served as a good way to view the honorable efforts of law enforcement and how sometimes when the laws in place don’t maintain order in a just and fair way tensions can get high and chaos will ensue. It taught me how important having respect fot the law is and being mindful of the need to obey laws and the judicial process to ensure power dont corrupt either sides – the enforcers or enforced.
Having integrity and honor even when no one is lookig holds great value because while you think no one is looking, someone is. Your reputation and consistency is a direct reflection and deflection of true charater interpretation. Karma or earned repect with a perpetuated success that follows.
I also learned that gambling is such that, taking changes – in the case of Wyatt and so many other gamblers – success comes and goes with gambling. Investing in long-term success has smaller immediate results but lasting consistency which steadily is more valuable than the violatility of taking chances – like selling drugs. We must know the value of risks versus rewards and knowing when something is too good to be true (in my case making a lot of quick money)to be aware – it most likely is not true (will not last for long periods of time). Knowing how to evaluate when a loss is a loss and to fold them. In the business term, a sunk cost – alludes to the fact that just because you have invested so much money in something that makes you want to spend more to realize it when is actuality it would accrue more additional debt trying to recover the losses.
