The Manager's Handbook

FOREWORD

by H. Irving Grousbeck

We drink from wells we did not dig; we are warmed by fires we did not kindle.

—H. Irving Grousbeck, paraphrasing Deuteronomy 6:11

President John F. Kennedy, in an address shortly before his death in 1963, was discussing the then‐current debate among scientists, and in Washington, about the feasibility of sending a human being to the moon. Kennedy cited a short story, written by the Irish author Frank O'Connor, one of his favorites. In that story, a young boy passed a high wall every afternoon on his way back from school. He gazed up at it each day, wishing he had the courage to climb it, so he could take a shortcut home. The afternoons, and the seasons, passed. Finally, one spring day as he neared the wall, he threw his cap over it. That commitment having been made, with great effort he succeeded in climbing the wall. Only with that mindset, concluded President Kennedy, would our country be able to reach the moon.

You've made the commitment to manage and lead, but that alone does not make you successful. That is what this book is for; to help you learn the necessary skills to succeed at managing. It is one thing to have the will to climb a wall, another to know how to do so.

As a professor, I'm often asked the following question: “Are entrepreneurs born, like .300 hitters in baseball are said to be, or can they be made?” My observation is that while the desire to lead may come from elsewhere, the skills required to lead are within one's ability ...