ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As you can imagine with a life of over seven decades, I have many more people whom I should acknowledge for their gifts to me along my life journey than I can do here. With deep gratitude:
To my parents, who instilled in me the love of learning, to always do the right thing, and to have the courage to go out in the world to discover and learn. They brought books into my daily life at a very young age. It was through reading books that I discovered a world bigger than me and bigger and different than my small hometown in rural Georgia. And they encouraged me to have the courage go out into that world and to find my place doing good for others.
To my teachers and mentors who saw something in me and with a helping hand and heart inspired me, guided me, listened to me, and gave me growth opportunities: Tom Aiello, Dean Maryam Alavi, David Bonderman, Professor Lyle E. Bourne Jr., Dean Robert F. Bruner, Professor Kim S. Cameron, Professor Richard D’Aveni, Professor Edward W. Davis, Professor Charles M. Davison Jr., Professor Robert Drazin, Professor James R. Freeland, Coach Ray Graves, Coach Charles Grisham, Professor Al L. Hartgraves, Professor Sydney Jourard, Professor Robert K. Kazanjian, Professor Robert D. Landel, Professor Jeanne M. Liedtka, Jack McGovern, Peter J. Norton, Coach Fred Pancoast, Dean Deryck Rensburg, Dean Thomas S. Robertson, Dean Peter Rodriquez, Professor Antonin Scalia, Professor Jagdish Sheth, Professor Sankaran Venkataraman, Ira T. Wender, and Jack White.
To the many leaders from whom I have learned, including Bradbury H. Anderson, William R. Berkley, John Brown, Tom Cousins, Ray Dalio, Michael L. Eskew, Marvin Riley, John Gabbert, Herb Kelleher, Fernando Merce, Admiral (Ret.) Gary Roughead, Sean P. Ryan, Richard J. Schneiders, Horst Schultze, John Schwieters, and William B. Turner.
To Jeevan Sivasubramaniam and Neal Maillet of Berrett-Koehler, who asked me to write this book, and to the entire team at Berrett-Koehler for being a joy to work with and being consummate caring professionals.
To my fabulous research associate Katherine Ludwig, whose high standards, love of learning, and contributions to my work over the last seven years have made my work so much better and whose friendship has allowed us to collaborate and have the joy of experiencing many High-Quality, Making-Meaning Conversations.
To the Batten Institute at the Darden School of Business for its financial support of my work and to its executive director Sean Carr for all his support over the years.
To my administrative assistant Kathy Kane, who for over 13 years has brought joy and positivity into my life as well as her expertise, high standards, and good judgment in shepherding my work.
And with all my love and gratitude to my wife, Katherine, whose love and caring compassionate support of my career and her patience during my writing of 13 books has been an immeasurable gift from her heart that has given me the courage to be.