The Power of One More: The Ultimate Guide to Happiness and Success

Edward Joseph Mylett, Jr., the author’s father, plays a small but prominent role in The Power of One More. Mylett describes his father as the inspiration for writing the book. The book’s dedication reads, “Dedicated to the man who taught me the true meaning of One More, my father, Edward Joseph Mylett, Jr” (v). Most of the final chapter centers around how Mylett’s experiences with his father influenced the one more philosophy.

For the first 15 years of his life, Ed Mylett witnessed his father suffer from the debilitating effects of alcoholism. This disease not only injured his father’s body but also harmed the delicate family dynamics of his childhood home. Mylett says that he learned how to read people to predict behaviors while a child observing his father. Mylett never knew for sure whether his father would arrive home from work sober or drunk, so he learned to observe cues and signs, such as his father fumbling with the keys to their front door, to predict his father’s state of mind.

Mylett’s father also taught him the power of giving one more each day. When his mother gave his father an ultimatum that he either could stop drinking or lose his family, his father resolved himself to get sober. He recovered from alcoholism by taking it one day at a time. This instilled in the young Mylett the belief that people can change radically, despite their past circumstances. Mylett also learned toughness and spirituality from his father, who, when diagnosed with a fatal form of cancer, never complained and always looked on the bright side during his painful treatments. His father, who died a few years before Mylett published The Power of One More, taught Mylett to live life as though every day is his last. His father’s life story and teachings are the cornerstone of Mylett’s one more philosophy.