Since “imitation is highest form of flattery,” I am pleased to flatter one whose success I admire.

After all, I am after success. Originality is great, but reaching my goal is issue.

However, there are limits.

Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps, winner of six goal medals and eight overall, likes hip-hop.

Some even follow word “hip-hop” with “music.”

When asked, “What do you think about when you are in water?” he responds, “When I'm swimming one thing that's going through my head is doing anything I can to get my hand on wall first.

“Sometimes it doesn't always happen but there's always a positive thought in my mind.”

“And also I'm singing a song in my head ... whatever I was listening to before I got into water.”

There’s an old saying that you can’t sit by same river twice, and until I bought a farm on banks of our river, I used to think that was a crazy statement. But I don’t anymore. In years since we moved here, I’ve sat on bank hundreds of times, and it not only seems different every time, but I've learned many valuable lessons from our river. In spring and early summer, a thick fog often hovers around river, shrouding it from view. But I find sitting on bank a great way to collect my thoughts and get new ideas, so I still make my way there nearly every day.

One morning, fog was very thick and river was totally obscured. Yet I knew approximately where it was, so I set out to find my favorite spot on its bank. I couldn’t see river at all, but I knew it was there, in fog somewhere, so I kept my thoughts focused on my goal of reaching it.