Page 17 - Executive Warfare

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Legendary bluesman B.B. King
begins one of his many famous songs with the lyric:

Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin’ too.

The song was not written about career development, but nonetheless con-
tains a valuable lesson for people seeking success in organizational life.
Nobody you work with loves you. If you think they do, you are “jivin’”
yourself.
I wrote this book to help people avoid mistakes, think with a clear head,
and not get lulled into believing accomplishments are all they really need
to get ahead. The higher one goes in any organization, the stiffer the com-
petition. There is little room for “love”.
But this is the page where an author thanks the many people who con-
tribute to his work which follows, and I have plenty of affection for all
those great folks.
Michele Owens, my coauthor, is brilliant, hilarious, incredibly talented,
and I am proud to have worked by her side on three books. She makes the
process of book writing a joy. My old friend and sage advisor Steve Bur-
gay always encourages me to press on and convert my history and obser-
vations into lessons. Becky Collet, a real star who has worked with me for

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