Seeing David In The Stone; Find and Seize Great Opportunities Using 12 Actions Mastered by 70 Highly Successful Leaders

ix, [1], 189, [1] pages. Illustrations, Index. Contributions from Greg Swartz, Julie Thorpe, and Dr. John A. Swartz. Inscribed by one of the co-authors (James Swartz) on the title page. Inscription reads: To Michael, James Swartz. Topics covered include The Timeless Questions; Finding & Seizing Great Opportunities; Part 1: Four Actions to Find Great Opportunities; Action 1: Differentiate Yourself for Opportunity; Action 2: Use Powerful Learning Processes; Action 3: Learn to Envision Opportunities; Action 4: Select Only High-Leverage Opportunity; Action 5: Find the Highest Meanings of Others; Action 6: Co-Create with Those Eager for Opportunity; Action 7: Sell Opportunity to Those That Are Cautious; Action 8: Find Common Meaning with and Negotiate with Opposers; Part III: Four Actions to Seize Great Opportunities; Action 9: Use Superior Design and planning Processes; Action 10: Seize Rapidly at High-Leverage Points; Action 11: Deliver Rewards; Action 12: Develop Innovators and High Achievers; and What Is Above Knows What Is Below. For the last twenty years, we have searched for answers to three timeless questions: How did some people find and seize the great opportunities of their times? What can we learn from them to help us find and seize great opportunities? How did great leaders help others (and organizations) to find and seize great opportunities? In this search, we studied the lives the works, the writings of, and the past research on many successful people, including Michelangelo Buonarroti, Winston Churchill, Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Galileo Galilei, Bill Gates, Abraham Lincoln, Fred Smith, Leonardo da Vinci, Sam Walton, Oprah Winfrey, and Frank Lloyd Wright. We discovered that these and other great innovators and achievers all took the same actions to find and seize the great opportunities of their times. It was these actions -- rather than heredity, traits, intelligence, environment, or work habits -- that made them more successful than others.…