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Writing a book is an incredible undertaking, especially if you’ve never done it before. It takes years of research and experience, then months, if not years, of writing and rewriting. This book has emerged from the thousands of hours of seminars I’ve given, and the countless suggestions and observations from the thousands of men and women I’ve had the privilege of working with over the years.
My life has been one long, continuous process of personal and professional development, including reading thousands of books and articles, listening to thousands of hours of audiocassette recordings and attending innumerable courses and seminars. As Tennyson says in “Ulysses,” “I am a part of all that I have met.” I have been influenced by more people than I can even count but I want to thank some of them for making this book possible.
First, let me thank the many fine men and women who have attended my seminars and lectures over the years. Their insights, observations and experiences have been invaluable to me and indispensable to the writing of this book. You know who you are, and my gratitude to you is unbounded!
Specifically, I thank the late John Boyle for opening my eyes to the power of the mind in determining everything that happens to us. I thank Earl Nightingale for his wonderful insights into the potential of the average person and Denis Waitley for summarizing the principles of success in his Psychology of Winning audiocassette program. I’ve been greatly influenced in my thinking by many wonderful thinkers, writers, and speakers such as Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard and Tom Peters, as well as by Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins and Wayne Dyer.
I am extremely grateful to my friends at Nightingale-Conant Corporation, Vic Conant, Kevin McEneeley, Mike Willbond and Jill Schachter, who have worked with me over the years to assure the quality of the audio recordings of these ideas.
I’m especially grateful to my seminar sponsors, John Hammond, Dan Bratland, Jim Kaufman and Suanne Sandage, who have made these principles available to many thousands of people by conducting public seminars with me in every major city in North America over the years.
In my company, past and present, there have been, and are, several people who have helped me immeasurably. My heartfelt thanks to Victor Risling, who worked with me on the road for years, starting early and staying late, and who made a vital contribution to my career in its formative stages. I thank my friend and partner, Michael Wolff, my marketing director, Donna Villerilli, my executive assistants and secretaries, Mavis Hancock and Shirley Whetstone, without whose help in typing and retyping the manuscript, this book might never have been completed.
I thank my friends at Simon & Schuster, especially my editor Bob Bender, for their support and encouragement in the preparation of the manuscript, and without whom this book would not have been possible. Perhaps the most important person of all in this whole process has been Margaret McBride, my literary agent, whose faith and confidence in me and my work served as the critical spark that ignited the writing of this book in the first place. Thank you, Margaret.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in life is that no one ever does it alone. We are all dependent on others for virtually everything. I would like to thank so many people, but I would run out of space, so let me conclude these acknowledgments by thanking my wonderful wife, Barbara, for everything, but especially for patiently putting up with me over the months as I pounded away at this book. And to my dear children, Christina, Michael, David and Catherine, who were continually shortchanged for my time. I promise to make it up to you.