ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It is impossible to write a book without a great deal of help from very willing and understanding people. This book is certainly no exception to this rule and I’d like to thank a few of those people here. If I missed you it wasn’t intentional, and I do thank you.

My highest thanks go to several people but especially to Joe Vitale, an interesting man and an amazing author, for all he did to help this book come to life, and to Matt Holt, my editor at Wiley, who was so easy to work with and who helped me navigate this process so willingly. To Robert Greene, author of two of the most important books on persuasion ever written, The 48 Laws of Power (Penguin Putnam, 2001) and The Art of Seduction (Penguin Books, 2003), a very special thanks for spending several hours with me as he was in the midst of finishing his next book. I’d also like to thank Angela Dailey, psychologist and friend, for her valuable contribution, and to thank all of the other contributors who I interviewed to make this book great. Kathy McIntosh, thanks for helping me edit. Your contributions were invaluable.

To all of my clients and students, thanks for asking such great questions; you make thinking fun! Thanks to Steve Watts (an amazing persuader) for being a great friend and for helping me prove or disprove a lot of the ideas that you’ll find in this book, and to all the great salespeople I’ve had a chance to work with, especially Todd Carlson, John Miller, Ryan Valentine, Nattalie Hoch, and Angela Karp. To all of the Below The Radar Wizards, thanks for all the encouragement. Thanks go to Jana Kemp, who listens as fast as I think and talk. Caitlin Stellflug, thanks for keeping the office running while I was writing.

My most important thanks go to everyone I’ve ever persuaded in any way. Thanks for the experience and the feedback. You truly made this book possible.

There are a number of people who have been ever supportive of all I’ve done in a very full and ever-changing life; their encouragement was invaluable during this process as well. Rod and Casey Schlienz, Bill and Sandra Braseth, Ted and Sherri Goodier, thanks for always being there. To Dr. John Stukey, who is, as I write this, serving our country honorably in Iraq, and whose support I’ve never had to think about because it was always there, thank you. Of course no acknowledgment would be complete without acknowledging the contribution of the Nurnberg DST team, “The Regan Years,” and The Four Horsemen. Those ideals that we began building way back then will be very evident here.

In the Preface I describe a time in my life that was very confusing but led to over 20 years of research that have gone into this book. During that time, there were four people who I respected and trusted and who always helped me learn and see what was possible, and who supported me even when they disagreed. For that Shawn and Linda Lee, Kevin Lee, and Richard Dailey, thank you.

Finally, to my wife and daughter, who thought I’d gotten lost or trapped in my office, thanks for the snacks and the laughs, but most of all the understanding. You make all I do worthwhile. I love you.

 

Dave Lakhani