If you are reading this foreword, “Congratulations!” You have in your possession, a life-altering vehicle. If you internalize the contents that follow and apply the lessons learned with honest commitment, the timely and timeless wisdom offered will give you the change only a few readers experience through the pages of a single book.
Having devoted my career to studying leaders and winners in every walk of life, I consider it a privilege to add a few opening comments about John Addison’s extraordinary masterpiece. To write about leadership with authenticity and credibility, the author, of necessity, must exemplify—by his own actions—the critical traits that define true leadership. John Addison has lived the principles he shares with us in his unique, inimitable “homespun” style. His warmth, humility, stewardship attitude and lack of hubris are legendary among all those, like myself, who have come to know his core values over a long period of time. Pure and simple, John “walks his talk.” He is the real thing, sine cera, without wax.
It is one thing to write a glowing, one-line testimonial about a colleague’s new book. It is another thing, entirely, to attempt to do justice to great book in the foreword. I realize that many eager readers skip the foreword and go straight to Chapter One. (I do that often, myself.) But if you are reading this, here is what makes this work one that only surfaces once in every decade, if that often:
It has been said that “the greatest teachers are themselves the greatest students,” and I can say, emphatically, that John is a lifelong student of what differentiates an empowering, inspiring leader from the command and control leader of the past. There are several major differences that make this book so relevant and special.
First, you must read and re-read the Prologue. It is the essence of the message. Print it and share it with everyone in your sphere of influence. The five lines that define John’s philosophy of living a life of purpose should be mailed or texted to everyone in the world with a smart-phone.
I don’t like to make comparisons, but, in this case, I feel compelled. This book, Real Leadership: 9 Simple Practices for Leading and Living with Purpose is as impactful as my late friend Stephen Covey’s global blockbuster The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. What excites me about Real Leadership, is that it is the story of a common man who becomes uncommonly successful by focusing on solutions to the problems we all face and by bringing out the best in everyone he encounters, which he refers to as “shining your light on others.” It is not about leadership theory as taught in Ivy League schools or in think tanks. It resonates with us, the readers, who are trying hard to believe that “things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.”
Each of the nine (9) simple practices, that are featured in the nine chapters, is a priceless gem in its own right. Together they remind me of a present-day, easily understandable version of the classic essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of my favorite philosophers. Addison encourages us to seriously engage in the action steps at the end of each chapter. While action steps are common to many self-help books in recent generations, I believe these are believable and achievable if we make the effort to convert these actions into a conscious, daily regimen. As every Olympian I have trained has discovered, practice makes permanent. No train, no gain.
I have been up close and personal in observing John Addison’s incredible journey for nearly thirty years. I consider him a colleague worth emulating and a lifelong friend. When you read this book, you will understand why.
Denis Waitley, author