Acknowledgments
It has been a long career journey with lots of people contributing to my growth and inspiring me. While the dedication is to my wife and family, I would be remiss not to acknowledge the inspiration of my mother for my “stage presence,” theatrical aptitude, and positive outlook...her optimism has moved me through the years.
When I was getting a bit full of myself for scoring in the 99th percentile in aptitude tests, my father pointed out to me that it meant that 1 percent of the population was as smart as or smarter than me. While I may not be a math major, I've learned there are a lot of smart people out there. If I were one in a million, there would be at least 6,000 or more as smart or smarter people than me in the world. We all have an aptitude for greatness in some aspect of our lives, and the really smart people are the ones who look for it in everyone they meet.
That came from my father's inspiring and guiding me to always keep learning and be humble in my learning. He always told me that regardless of the diversity in the people I would meet in my life, there was always something I could learn from each of them. And, as I have met many different people in my career, I have learned, been influenced by, and inspired by all of you past, present, and future. Thanks, Dad, for opening me up to the wonder of people.
I am particularly thankful to Robert Meshew, a Microsoft colleague, for introducing me to Michael Hugos, author of Essentials of Supply Chain Management ...
