ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book traces a journey that spans four decades of my life. Along the way, I have met the most remarkable people who added important new dimensions to my understanding and to my life. Many are mentioned among the pages of this book, but others are not. To all of them, I express my deepest and most heartfelt gratitude.

I owe an additional debt of gratitude to many others:

• To my partners at Bracewell and Giuliani, who have continued to build the firm with integrity and excellence. Our deep bonds of friendship, which were forged during the early years of building the firm, remain today.

• To the American Leadership Forum national trustees and the local chapter founders and executive directors, who served over the years and who devoted their commitment, energy, and resources to the enterprise. I wish to particularly acknowledge Dennis Mullane and Harry F. Merrow, Chairman and Executive Director, respectively, of the very first independent American Leadership Forum Chapter. They had the courage and foresight to step forward in the earliest days and acted as my mentors and guides throughout my tenure with the Forum.

• To the staff of the American Leadership Forum national office and the Executive Ventures Group, with whom I was privileged to be associated.

• To all the American Leadership Forum fellows with whom I worked, and whose growth and development served to inform and illuminate my own.

• To Peter Senge and Betty Sue Flowers, who were my collaborators on this book. But for their dedication and deep caring, this book would never have been completed.

• To Charles and Beth Miller, who generously provided encouragement and the opportunity to write in the inspirational setting of their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

• To Mavis Jaworski and my children, Joe S., Leon, and Shannon, for the care, interest, understanding, and moral support they provided over the years that I worked on the manuscript.

• To my executive assistants on the first edition, Mary Dabney, Sheila Sutton, and Cinde Hastings, for their valuable support.

• To my executive assistant, Deborah A. Moore, for her dedication and valuable support on the second edition.

• And finally, to Kazimierz Gozdz and Susan M. Taylor, partners of mine at Generon International, for their wise counsel during the writing of the second edition.