To Finish First

Go for the win! Achieve excellence and be better than you’ve ever been! In his years as a professional ice-skater, Olympic Gold Medalist Scott Hamilton learned to embrace the mind-set of working hard to “beat” the competition. But it seems competition has gotten a bad rap these days. We’ve bought into the belief that it is unfair to participants to rank performance. Yet competition is in fact a good thing because it’s about working toward excellence. Finish First is a wake-up call for business leaders, entrepreneurs, spouses, parents, and even students to stop settling for mediocre and begin to revitalize their intrinsic will to achieve excellence and go for the win. Most of us feel we were made for something more, but we’re often afraid to allow ourselves to be competitive because we think our finishing first might somehow rob others of their chance to shine. This book encourages the hidden potential, the champion within all of us, to come out—which eventually brings our family, marriage, career, business, and the world around us the greatest possible good.

Presents a new collection of alcohol-induced "fratire" adventures in hedonism that convey the author's experiences of being intoxicated at inappropriate times, seducing a large number of women, and otherwise living in complete disregard of social norms.

This book fills an important gap in the history of top-level motor racing during the historic era of the 1960s and 70s. The author was at the center of it all, first as Sir Jack Brabham's right-hand man during his leadership of the Cooper team, and later when he formed his own Brabham Racing Organization. Subsequently, when Phil Kerr joined his great friend Bruce McLaren, to become joint managing director of an ever expanding company, which was to achieve unrivalled success in Can-Am racing as well as being at the forefront of Formula One, he and his colleagues had to cope with the tragedy of the founder's untimely death while testing a Can-Am car at Goodwood. The author's description of how the shattered team was saved and ultimately restored by the bravery of Bruce's co-driver Denny Hulme, already sidelined by agonizing burns to his hands, is a poignant highlight of his story. Includes a balanced mix of racing and off-duty pictures, many being seen for the first time and 15 reproductions of paintings by the renowned artist Michael Turner.

The companies that win today understand the importance of having systems in place to provide exemplary service, making people a priority over products, putting the client experience at the top of the list and valuing relationships over technology. Successful businesses approach the future with an attitude of high touch over high tech. Nice Guys Finish First provides stories, lessons, concrete takeaways and action items. The reader will go beyond finding out why nice guys finish first and discover how to be successful using the lessons provided. The book walks the reader down a path to becoming a student of Sandler's system: Invest, Inspire and Execute. The chapters break the system down into smaller pieces, guiding the reader through practical application and lessons about leadership, technology, consistency, trust and empowerment. In addition, the book examines the importance of developing a culture of happiness, creating a positive attitude, effectively dealing with failure, managing a better life and mistakes to avoid on the road to success.

The era of authoritarian cowboy CEOs like Jack Welch and Lee Iacocca is over. In an age of increasing transparency and access, it just doesn't pay to be a jerk—to employees, customers, competitors, or anyone else. In Nice Companies Finish First, Shankman, a pioneer in modern PR, marketing, advertising, social media, and customer service, profiles the famously nice executives, entrepreneurs, and companies that are setting the standard for success in this new collaborative world. He explores the new hallmarks of effective leadership, including loyalty, optimism, humility, and a reverence for customer service, and shows how leaders like Jet Blue's Dave Needleman, Tony Hsieh of Zappos, Steve Jobs of Apple, Ken Chenault of Amex, Indra Nooyi of Pepsi, and the team behind Patagonia harness these traits to build productive, open, and happy workplaces for the benefit of their employees, themselves, and the bottom line.

Now in my eighties, I met scores of famous people within the motorcycle and car racing world and became lifelong friends with many of them. I'd work and professionally road race for the Honda, Yamaha, and Bridgestone factory teams, win national championships for two of them, and be associated with Bombardier, maker of Ski-Doo snowmobiles and Sea-Doo watercraft when they undertook the development and manufacture of the Can-Am, a North American off-road motorcycle to challenge the Japanese. I'd also spend forty-years importing Bombardier-Rotax racing engines from Austria. I'd do motorcycle development projects for several other manufacturers and even a motorcycle project for General Motors, then the largest corporation the world had ever known. I'd win the Baja 500 off-road car race for another automobile manufacturer, American Motors, on a team sponsored by film star James Garner, with teammate Bob Bondurant, a former Formula 1 race car driver. But all that was yet to come and in no way could I have portended what excitement, success, and personal notoriety lay ahead in my then-young life. I'd become living proof that the United States was truly the land of opportunity. If one was prepared to be dedicated and work hard, almost any dream could come true.

This resource explains how to reach one's destiny and understand the importance of covenant relationships, leadership, and mentorship. (Practical Life)