And that ethic, that kind of honor and self-discipline and integrity -- those are the values that we associate with small towns like this one.

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And some people are self-absorbed, lack personal goals, associate with the wrong crowd in the wrong places, or constantly blame others for failing to get ahead in life, rather than taking the right steps to escape from this context.

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"Nothing could be less content-neutral than doing self-help law, " says Stephen Elias, associate publisher at Nolo Press, a privately held Berkeley, Calif. book and software company that publishes WillMaker, Small Business Legal Pro and other self-help guides.

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It rewards saving, thrift, hard work, innovation, honesty, thinking about others, self-discipline, creativity and all the other qualities you normally associate with decent people and financial progress.

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