Abstract
Dr. NO, my new book, is a memoir of my roller coaster ride from building sand castles on the beach in New York as a small child to receiving the Nobel Prize from the hands of His Majesty King Carl Gustaf of Sweden in 1998. This book describes how the son of uneducated Italian immigrants, barely able to speak English upon entering elementary school, was able to climb to the top of his medical profession. I discovered science early in life and my passion never waned, steadily growing throughout my education in college, graduate, and medical school. My training and basic research focused on the chemical pharmacology of inflammation and cardiovascular disease. The key to my success was my passion, perseverance, and the will to never give up. I also learned that “thinking outside the box” was a critical factor in my success. Don’t do what everybody else might be doing. Go instead where no one has gone before. It’s easy to follow in the footsteps of others, but it is far more difficult to create those footsteps yourself.