"This book gives good advice—strategies for how to avoid the bad things, do the good things...and hopefully have a few laughs along the way."

—CRAIG SHIRLEY, presidential historian and New York Times bestselling author

A MAN ISN'T BORN A COWBOY. HE BECOMES ONE. HE MAKES A CHOICE.

When you're running out of sunsets, don't waste the sunrises you have left.

And right now, America as a nation and we as individual citizens are at its own moment of truth.

Do we cowboy up or do we quit?

There is no escaping this choice or putting it off, no wishing it away. We have procrastinated long enough, and the problems have only gotten worse. It's not just about addressing a laundry list of those problems and coming up with solutions. If it were that easy, we would have done it long ago.

It is fundamental, foundational.

We keep hoping that the politicians, especially the ones in Washington, will finally fix things.

There are only two things wrong with that. First, they are the ones that created the mess in the first place and, second, they couldn't fix a flat tire, let alone all the problems they have created.

No, in the end it will have to be the American people who fix what ails America.

We all need to roll up our collective sleeves and clean out all the horse manure and cattle crap that has piled up for decades in this country. From the halls of government to the executive suites at our corporations, the ivy-covered universities, Hollywood studios, and every other place in our culture and society that have been polluted and corrupted. And this cleansing and fixing needs to start at the very beginning in every home in America.

You don't need a college education or advanced degree to read and understand what I'm about to tell you in the following pages. You don't even need a high school diploma, for that matter. All you need is common sense, a desire to pick up a manure fork, and—together with your fellow Americans—do what needs doin' and fix what needs fixin'.

Common sense is not passed down in the genes from generation to generation. It is taught, passed down from parents to children. Returning America to its former greatness and rediscovering the tried-and-true values that built this country won't be accomplished by an election. It will only be accomplished by you and me. It is as fundamental as being able to tell the difference between right and wrong ... and then acting accordingly. Everything else in a free society branches out from that tap root which is sunk deep into the soul of America. And while the tree of liberty that connects us all isn't healthy right now and is in danger of dying, it ain't dead yet.

We, the people can save it if we just get back to basics.

This book is about those basics, told in stories from the old guy at the end of the bar.

Common Sense Cowboy's 12 Rules for Life