Have you seen the Jim Carrey movie, “Yes Man?” I’m reading the book by Danny Wallace on which it is based. The movie is a fictionalized version of Danny’s true story.

Danny lives in London and, as the book begins, he continually declines invitations to go out with his friends, his girlfriend has left him and he spends a lot of time alone. On a bus ride home from work, he sits next to a stranger to whom he pours out his woes. The stranger listens silently and then gives Danny the advice that changes his life: “Say yes more.”

Danny commits to saying yes to every request. Fortunately, no one asks him to kill anyone and he does have to get friends to whom he confides his plans to not take advantage of him.  As a result, Danny has many funny, touching, interesting adventures including winning—and losing—25,000 pounds (about $40,000 dollars) in a lottery. He even says “Yes” to one of those email invitations to provide his bank account information in exchange for 75 million dollars from a Nigerian Prince (he escapes that fate).

What I want to highlight, however, is something Danny discovers quite to his surprise: He doesn’t have to say yes that often because people rarely ask him to do something in a way that clearly calls for a “yes” response.

Mostly, people ask for what they want obliquely: “Would it be any trouble if…” “I was thinking it might be possible to…” “Don’t go to any trouble…” This is a dilemma for Danny. He wants to say yes, but he often has to read the mind of the other person to discern if he was really asked to do anything.

Ipoint this out because it reminded me of something I learned long ago about negotiating but it applies to any situation: People often don’t get what they want and need because they don’t clearly ask for it.

Of course, one reason people don’t ask clearly is because they’re fearful of hearing “No.” People tend to take “No” personally and it can bruise one’s ego.

The dilemma is, as Danny again discovered, that trying to avoid hearing no also decreases the likelihood of hearing yes.

So if you want to increase the likelihood of getting more of what you want and need, I suggest you ask for what you want by using the words, “Will you…” Don’t use words such as “Can you…” Could you…” or “Would you…” “Will you…” communicates clearly that a response is called for. Of course, the person you’re asking may still say, “No.” But at least you’ve been clear in your communication and that clarity alone will make it more likely to get what you’re after.

And who knows? You may be lucky enough to run into a Danny Wallace who will say yes to everything.

With best wishes,

Larry

Photo by JennyHuang

“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” – Isaac Newton

I’m not perfect, and sometimes I think I know more than others. This is a highly fallible position to be in, even with all the experiences I have been through it is still limited and I can always learn something for everyone. Depending on what school of philosophy you look to “true knowledge” is never attainable (or at least a very difficult thing to obtain) and given this viewpoint it is an individuals goal to be open to all experiences with no prejudices and biases.

Given this, one of the toughest personal traits to develop is humility and the ability to put one’s ego aside and learn from other individuals. It’s a very easy thing to say out loud that you are humble but its a very hard thing to internally convince yourself you are truly equal to everyone and to take the time to actually learn from all people.

Without getting to philosophical I had a very humbling experience this week after having lunch with Russell Bik who has by far one of the most impressive and experienced backgrounds of anyone I’ve met before. Russell Bik, is a Cal Poly grad, serial entrepreneurial (was on the early teams of Intel and Sun Microsystems), CEO of multiple Kleiner Perkin’s portfolio companies, and a venture adviser to the Kleiner Perkin’s fund.

During lunch I forced myself to put all preconceived biases aside and attempted to suck in every bit of knowledge he shared with me. We talked about a whole range of topics such as the startup vs. corporate lifestyle, best practices of teams, advisors, negotiation, and courage.

Here are a few of the lessons I took away that I want to share with everyone:

Startup vs. Corporate Life and Career Decisions (Which I’ve wrote about before here)

• You don’t want your only work experience to be a string of failed startups
• It’s good to have corporate experience with a growing company
• Of course there are always exceptions to the rule (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc)
• The reality is most startups fail
• You don’t want to have just corporate experience though, you need a blending of entrepreneurship and corporate
• The downside to corporate experience is you feel like you need to play in the proper channels/bureaucracy vs. in a startup culture you get things done no matter what

Working in Teams

• Companies are all about the right mix of team members
• Each discipline of the team (engineering, production, business) is all equal in taking the company to realization and need to be compensated as such.

Value of MBA’s

• There are 2 main benefits to a MBA
• You experience what is possible and you become not afraid to attain that reality
• Develop relationships with other Alums from that school

Grades and School

• Grades tend to fall once you experience the real world and understand the skills needed to compete in this environment

Advisors

• Listen to people who have been there and done it before, only the ones who have actually experienced that particular situation

Negotiation

• Look very closely to the body cues of people and how they react to the things you say (check out this presentation for more info)

iPhonAsia Comment: On March 8 iPhonAsia reported on a rumored Apple/China Unicom summit that began the week of March 9. Details > HERE. This meeting has now been confirmed by a China telecommunications industry insider. As reported in the

China Unicom Exec. Director Gang Li

article below and through several China news services, a China Unicom executive contingency, led by Executive Director of Mobile Communications Gang Li, and Yu Yingtao, head of China Unicom’s handset management center and its procurement subsidiary Vsens.com, arrived in San Jose on March 8th. The objective of this summit was to take iPhone negotiations to a serious level. As outlined in a March 8 iPhonAsia post, the negotiation points likely included (some may have been resolved before March 8):

• The issue of a subsidy payment from China Unicom to Apple for each “on contract” iPhone.
• Whether Apple will agree to disable WiFi on iPhone in China. WiFi on mobile handsets does not conform to China’s WAPI standard of security
• Exclusivity. Whether China Unicom will have exclusive selling rights in PRC.
• Whether Apple will agree to pre-load iPhone with applications popular in China (e.g. Youku vs Youtube).

Gang Li

A report via ccw.com.cn (< details in Mandarin 传联通就引入iPhone达成协议) indicates that the China Unicom delegation remained in discussions for a full two weeks.  We hope they had time over the weekend to do a little sightseeing, particularly with San Francisco, Monterey, Carmel and Pebble Beach so close by. The China Unicom team did not return to Beijing until March 18. It is therefore quite possible that the China Unicom team remained in town for the Apple 3.0 presentation delivered on St Patricks Day (March 17).  This event was held in the Town Hall meeting room at Apple’s Cupertino HQ. Conveniently, there is a conference room upstairs where an executive group might comfortably watch the presentations via closed circuit TV. This discretion might be necessary as the Press was on hand for the 3.0 event and a group of well dressed Chinese gentlemen might cause a few members of the media to make the connection.

The report below, via China Tech News, suggests that an iPhone launch will not happen on May 17 (W-CDMA 3G trial launch day in 55 major cities) but only after more testing. iPhonAsia has previously suggested that May 17 could be a target day for an iPhone in China announcement, with a scheduled launch later in the Summer. We will hold to that prediction. 

China Unicom Says “No Comment” To iPhone Agreement With Apple

3.20.09 via China Tech News - In response to media reports this week which stated China Unicom has signed an agreement with Apple to introduce Apple’s iPhone into China, a spokesperson from China Unicom says “no comment at the current stage”.

However, according to a China Unicom insider quoted by local media, the two companies’ negotiation about the introduction of iPhone has gained much progress, though the details are not available.

A delegation led by China Unicom’s vice president for mobile communications marketing, Li Gang, went to Apple’s U.S. headquarters for a negotiation on March 8 and the delegation returned to Beijing on March 18.

The insider says the two sides have gained major progress in the negotiation, but they have not reached any agreement. There is one thing for sure: the iPhone handsets will not be launched in China on May 17 when China Unicom is due to launch its first batch of WCDMA mobile phone numbers, because even if the two companies decide to introduce the iPhone into China, the companies still need time to purchase the iPhone handsets and test the compatibility between the handsets and the WCDMA network of China Unicom.

Michael Gurian
Leadership and the Sexes: Using Gender Science to Create Success in Business
Event: HR that Works Webinar
Date: September 11, 2008 at 10:00 a.m.

Leadership and the Sexes: Using Gender Science to Create Success in Business By Michael Gurian with Barbara Annis Wiley; August 2008; $27.95 978-0-7879-9703-8; Hardcover

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Lately I have been obsessed with the ASA job boards. This is for one very solid reason–I must needs find a job. Between looking at postings, looking at the departmental websites, and being terrified that the only job offer I could possibly get would be at a teaching college in Texas (no offense Texans, just the one place I really REALLY don’t think I’d ever want to live), I’ve spent very little time thinking about what to do if I ever DO get a job offer. Thankfully, part of my fellowship includes taking part in seminars on the academy — including how to get a job. Today’s seminar was on Gender and the Academy. While there were several interesting points, there were two that I was most interested in.

1. Letter of Recommendation Writing:

Letters written for males and females differ greatly. As evidence, see this article, abstract below, by Trix and Psenka:

This study examines over 300 letters of recommendation for medical faculty at a large American medical school in the mid-1990s, using methods from corpus and discourse analysis, with the theoretical perspective of gender schema from cognitive psychology. Letters written for female applicants were found to differ systematically from those written for male applicants in the extremes of length, in the percentages lacking in basic features, in the percentages with doubt raisers (an extended category of negative language, often associated with apparent commendation), and in frequency of mention of status terms. Further, the most common semantically grouped possessive phrases referring to female and male applicants (`her teaching,’ `his research’) reinforce gender schema that tend to portray women as teachers and students, and men as researchers and professionals.

One of the speakers (a sociologist who studies inequality in organizations) suggested that in order to handle this occurrence, you should have a frank and open discussion with your letter writers about what you want them to include. Rather than just give them your vita and your statement for the job, give them talking points — the things you would like them to stress. Of course you can’t demand they address these things, but it is beneficial for two reasons: (1) You can get a better letter that includes the information that is most relevant to the job search; and (2) It makes it easier on the letter writer — especially those who are not intimately familiar with your work.

2. Job Negotiation:

Women tend not to negotiate like they should when they are offered a job. Keep in mind, if you ARE offered a job, the place REALLY WANTS YOU. It is a long process to pick a candidate, and if you are the candidate picked, they do have some investment in getting you to accept. This is highly important because of the Matthew Effect. Basically, if you start out with a lower wage or getting little, you will continue to get little as you advance. Women (and anyone, really) who do not negotiate a good and competitive starting salary, will continue NOT to get all they can as the years go on. This is one reason for the discrepancy between men and women in terms of salary (of course, it’s not the ONLY reason by far).

The speakers suggested the book, Women Don’t Ask. I haven’t read this yet, but feel I should in short order, as I am hopefully about to have to do some negotiation in the next few months.

Some pointers:

• Wages: Call the library and find out what recent hirers have gotten from the department that is trying to hire you. Adjust this for inflation. You should be asking for that much to start.
• If you get an offer, call everyone else that you have applied for and let them know that you have an offer on the table. Tell them you were excited about their job opportunity, and want to know where they are in their decision. This is important for many reasons. You may want a different job more. With more than one offer you can play them off each other. Remember THIS IS A NORMAL CONVERSATION TO HAVE with the chair of the department.
• If you can’t negotiate money (and even if you can), there are other things to negotiate for. Partner accommodation, Family Leave, teaching releases, sabbaticals, computers, tenure clock put on hold if you have children, and more. These are options to think about.

The important thing to remember about negotiation is that you can’t get it if you don’t ask. You are not a bitch for asking, but you are an idiot if you don’t. That was my favorite quote of the day.

Just keep telling yourself, they want me here. They WANT ME.

COPING WITH LONELINESS

One of the hardest things to cope with in life as a single is loneliness. It can become an emotion that can drag you into depression, if you allow it to get the best of you.

Loneliness can be worse for people who have been around others all their lives, and then all of a sudden they are alone. It can be caused by divorce, death of a spouse, child, parent, grandparent, or it can occur when losing a job.

Other things, such as failure at something, heartbreak, separation, sickness and many more problems can tend to bring on depression. Finances are a major cause of stress and depression, until they are straightened out.

DON’T WITHDRAW

The best way to cope with loneliness is to stay active and don’t withdraw. Sure, there is sadness and you want to be alone, but don’t do it all the time. Balance your life between work, recreation, family, friends, and spiritual needs.

Withdrawing from friends or relatives and feeling sorry for yourself can cause serious emotional problems. The ambition to do things you once enjoyed, may have been lost. Now, you don’t know what to do with yourself do you?

Your spirits may be low and sadness has set in. Negative thoughts tend to creep into the mind. Hopelessness, inadequacy, and insecurity may be on your mind. Your self-esteem and self-confidence could reach a new low level.

Be quick to identify the symptoms and try not to let them get the best of you. Seek professional help if this tendency continues to exist.

SAY NO TO CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY

A chemical deficiency or emotional upset can cause depression. You can overcome it with professional help, or the help of friends and relatives. Don’t give up. Analyze your situation and take a good look at yourself in the mirror. What do you see? If you don’t like what you see, set about to make changes to improve it. Don’t procrastinate!

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY

Get up in the morning, look in the mirror, and tell yourself that you are going to have a wonderful day. Smile at yourself in the mirror. Think highly of yourself. A positive attitude can do wonders for your outlook on life. Rebuild or maintain your self-confidence and self-esteem through a positive attitude.

THE STORY OF GEORGE

One day while sitting on a bench in a shopping center, I saw this person walking towards me. There he was, all six foot two inches tall, wearing a big, black cowboy hat, golfing knickers and plaid socks. As he approached, I saw a big smile on his face. When he got near, I said “hello.” He responded, with a warm grin, “hello.” As we entered into the conversation, I learned he was seventy-eight years old and told me he was still working part-time and was an avid golfer. One conversation led to another, then he began to talk about his smile and happy attitude. You could just feel the excitement in his voice when he told me this story.

He said, “Every year I go to South Carolina to play golf. Last year when I was there, this woman approached me and began talking.” She said, “I remember you from last year.” He didn’t remember her, but didn’t say anything. The she told him, “I remember your smiling face and the warmness in your voice.” He said he smiled at her again and said, “I get a great enjoyment in my life being friendly and always smiling.” Later in the conversation, I learned he had no health problems and was a fun loving individual who had a very positive outlook on life.

Perhaps you could have this as one of your new goals in life. If so, write it down and post it on the mirror in your bathroom. Look at it each day, and reaffirm your desire to have a good attitude. Above all, be positive and show your radiant smile to others. You can do it!

TAKE ONE DAY AT A TIME

Remember to live and take one day at a time. You cannot do anything about yesterday and tomorrow is another day. Keep yourself occupied doing the things you enjoy the most.

Find friends to talk and be with. Don’t let four walls close in on you. Network with people who have a positive attitude in life as it will do wonders for you.

Try to plan your days with a full round of activities. It is hard to concentrate if you happen to slip into depression. You may have to force yourself to keep your mind in a positive mode. If your mind wanders to the negative thoughts, immediately try to revert them to positive things. Sure it is hard to do at times, but not impossible, if you really try. Just concentrate and keep telling yourself, I can do it.

Always have a purpose for your day. Those little negative self-pity thoughts have a tendency to creep into the mind, so find things to do at night and on weekends with friends or relatives. The nights and weekends can be devastating when alone. Try listening to soft music and pray to GOD for help.

USE YOUR TIME WISELY

There are one hundred sixty-eight hours each week and twenty-four hours in each day. Provide yourself with activities you enjoy to keep yourself busy.

EAT REGULARLY

Many people who are depressed fail to eat regularly and go without meals. The body tends to slow down without proper food and water. Don’t sit and brood over negative situations because it will only get worse. Eat a well balanced diet of fruit and vegetables. Either do it at home or go out to a restaurant. Better yet, share it with a friend. This may be hard to do at times, but it’s not impossible. Many people have done it before you and there is no reason you cannot do it too.

EXERCISE IF YOU CAN

Some people fail to get proper exercise and their bodies seem to slow down. If you are capable of exercising, do so. Set a time each day to walk, or some other form of exercise. Consider purchasing a treadmill to walk on inside if the weather is bad. Many shopping malls encourage people to walk within their facilities. Use this as a means to meet other people. If you are a runner, schedule time in your week for this exercise. The main thing is to keep your mind and body active. If you are handicapped and can’t exercise, find those activities you can do if possible.

In all cases of exercise, see your doctor before starting or restarting an exercise program.

CONSIDER VITAMINS

Your doctor can advise you on any vitamins that may be required to help you overcome depression or any other medical problem. If he cannot help, seek other professional help.

YOUR SELF-IMAGE

Your self-image is so important to retaining self-confidence and self-esteem. How you think about yourself on the inside will show on the outside. People can pick up your mood changes in the tone of your voice over the phone or in person. Others who know you are quick to recognize your moods. How you walk, how you talk, how you dress, how you feel about your self-image are all key factors in a positive attitude.

It is important to maintain contact with friends and or relatives. Many women develop a network of other women to talk about their problems and emotions. Men tend, in many cases, to stand alone, or seek the affection of a person of the opposite sex. Many have found that friend and others never do. The necessity of having someone to talk to can mean the difference between a temporary or possibly a deep depression. Remember, you must keep yourself upbeat and as happy as possible. You can do it!

Try to surround yourself with positive people and if those you talk to are negative, use your influence to cheer them up. Sometimes this will rub off on you and your spirits may improve and will make you feel better.

A purpose in life is so very important to your health and peace of mind. Analyze what your purpose may be in life. Is it to help yourself or others? There is a reason you are here on earth. Do you know what it is? Sometimes you may wonder what you are here to do. Are you happy at what you are doing? Would you be happier at doing something else with your life? If so, you need to work on making the changes. Rework your goals in life and always remember to never give up.

Create your own happiness and not loneliness!

Go for it! You can do it!

From our book, “Creating Your Own Way to Happiness

by Robert Bruce and Lee Ann Kirby

There are three points in the sales process where a deal is likely to slow down: after you’ve made your formal presentation, after you’ve presented your proposal, and when your contract has gone to Legal. Because the last of these is less a matter of “selling” your decision-maker and more a matter of getting the prospect’s attorneys to get on with it, we’re going to focus here on the first two situations, since they’re the ones requiring us to use our skills to close our buyer.

Let’s start with what strategies we can employ to try to prevent a deal from slowing to a crawl.

Establish dates for next steps – yours and theirs. You should, of course, be doing this at every point in a sales engagement, but it becomes even more critical after you’ve reached the presentation/proposal evaluation stage. Why? Because it’s at this point that the dynamic changes for the prospect. Up until now, you’ve both been in “discovery mode” – you’re learning about the prospect’s business, and he’s learning about you, your company, and your solution. It’s a safe, non-threatening place. With your presentation and proposal, you’ve moved into “selling” mode. The prospect is aware of this, and any concerns, worries, or fears he’s kept to himself will begin manifesting themselves – often times as unresponsiveness. That’s why it’s particularly important at this stage to agree to speak or meet by a specific, agreed-upon date. Failure to do so gives the prospect an out.

Insist on delivering and presenting your proposal in person, and with the decision-maker present. A proposal is a selling tool, but just like a tool you might use around the house to fix something, it won’t get the job done unless its owner is there to make it do so. With your proposal, you are proposing the terms of your business relationship. Your prospect will most certainly not agree with or accept everything you’ve proposed; wouldn’t you rather have him “object” with you there, so you can help him resolve his concerns, rather than while he’s reading it alone, where you can’t?

Now let’s explore some tactics we can use in conjunction with these strategies. Each of these, with the exception of the last, presupposes you’ve been able to have reciprocal communication in some form or another with your prospect – which may sound circular, since, after all, your deal may have slowed down precisely because you can’t get a call back.

Uncover the Real Reason for the Indecision/Delay

We’ve all at one time or another been on the buying side of a transaction – as consumers. Think back to what you felt when you were faced with making a decision on a major purchase – a car, a house, a piece of furniture, an investment. How did it feel? Despite knowing the purchase you were about to make made sense, you likely weren’t quite ready to commit. You needed – wanted, in fact – to share your concerns with the salesperson and have them resolved. Well, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. When your prospect demurs, find out what’s holding him back and help him resolve the issue. It’s a win for both of you.

Convey the Consequences of Doing Nothing or of Delaying

Revisit the goals and objectives they revealed in your earlier discussions, and why they told you the purchase had to be made now – and why it couldn’t wait (prospects often lose sight of these things when faced with the daunting decision of making a commitment). Have him think about what it will cost him: lost opportunity, lost time, lost ground to competitors, special terms, discounts, etc. Communicate subtly that the world doesn’t stand still just because they do. Remind him of what he said he wanted, why it was critical that he have it, and what he won’t get if he continues to delay. Also, since no one likes the feeling of being in an indecisive state, you might try something like, “Wouldn’t it feel better to make a decision, one way or the other, rather than having it continue to hang over your head? Let’s work through this together”

Find Out Where You Stand, and Why

If the prospect is reluctant to open up, well, you may have a deeper problem: you may not have developed a “trusted advisor” relationship. Granted, this is not always possible, especially with prospects who value being neutral among vendors over developing an advisory relationship with one trusted vendor. In this case, approach the situation by first asking a closed-ended question, such as, “Are we closer to working together, or not working together?” If the answer is, “closer to not working together”, you’ll need to probe for why. If the answer is, “closer to working together”, you’ll want to uncover what it will take to get to “working together”.

Send a “Surrender” Letter

When all else fails, and it looks as if your prospect has simply gone underground, try sending what I call a “surrender” letter. It says, in so many words, that “I give up, since it seems that you’re no longer interested in engaging us.” In the letter, you express your disappointment that after both parties had invested so much time and effort, neither one will reap the benefits of a working relationship. You then ask for feedback on where you failed them in conveying the value you could provide (to request a sample of such a letter I recently composed for a client, click here ). If you’re lucky, the prospect will feel guilty enough to respond (probably by email), and you’ll learn why. With this knowledge, you may then try a last-ditch effort to save the deal.

Action Item:

Review your list of stalled deals and determine which of these tactics would be appropriate to try. For deals in which you’re about to make your presentation, be sure to agree at the end of the presentation on next steps with precise dates. For deals for which you’ve already presented and are preparing a proposal, insist on delivering it in person. If you get push back, explain the value to the prospect of discussing it together – that you’ll be able to immediately clarify anything that requires clarification. Employ these strategies and tactics, and you’ll see your sales cycles shorten, and your sales figures go up.

Sales Solutions Founder and President Craig James has over 12 years’ experience in sales and sales management, primarily in technology and software. He has sold products and services ranging from $1,000 to $250,000. He knows salespeople – what motivates them, what holds them back, how they operate – and how to get them to improve themselves, and their value to their employers.  He may be contacted at info@sales-solutions.biz

The U.S. should be willing to negotiate with Iran and other unfriendly countries without setting pre-conditions. It makes no sense to negotiate only with friendly countries. Compromises cannot be achieved if issues are not discussed.

Creating Your Own Way To Happiness 

If you are single, thinking about a relationship or marriage, are married, divorced, widow or widower this book may be just right for you. There are many self-help ideas, home-spun stories, Biblical quotes and other information all designed to help when you are creating your own way to happines.

Introduction: 

When you woke up this morning how did you feel? Were you still tired for some reason? Are you stressed out? Or, did you wake up with a lot of energy and looking forward to a wonderful day? Do you feel like you need to make some changes in your life and if so, do you know what they might be?

From the Co-Authors
This book was written to help people from young adults to senior citizens. If you let God control your life then enjoy His fruits of happiness. Contained are many home- spun stories and Biblical quotes. As you read through the book there are various quizzes to let you learn about yourself and others. One reader said: “I really enjoyed it, especially the bit about maintaining a happy relationship-marriage. It’s good that Chuck and I are doing something right! We’ve often been told they envy the relationship we have. This is but one of many comments we have received. 

Items contained in the various chapters,

Are you ready to make positive changes in your life? If so, what will they be and when will you begin? Many people go through life being unhappy, but they can make changes to their life and become happy, only if they want to.   

In this book you will read about improving your life like: things to consider before a relationship or marriage: you as a child, a possible negative side, relationships with friends, making the right choices, creating your own vision for the future, your relationship(s) or marriage(s), considering the right choices, setting goals, maintaining a happy relationship or marriage, becoming enthusiastic about your life, how important communication is in your life, your image, honesty, teamwork with others, networking, negotiation skills, controlling stress, becoming divorced, coping with loneliness, caring for a sick loved one, coping with death of a loved one, living single, budgeting your income and expenses.  

From the Co-Authors
This book was written to help people from young adults to senior citizens. If you let God control your life then enjoy His fruits of happiness.

 Contained are many home-spun stories and Biblical quotes. As you read through the book there are various quizzes to let you learn about yourself and others. One reader said: “I really enjoyed it, especially the bit about maintaining a happy relationship-marriage. It’s good that Chuck and I are doing something right! We’ve often been told they envy the relationship we have. This is but one of many comments we have received.

About the Co-Authors
Robert Bruce is retired from the U.S Air Force, as a corporate Executive, Business Owner, author of 3 books and Professional Speaker. Lee Ann Kirby is a retired Federal Management Employee and co-author of this book. They have a combined 95 years of marriage, 6 children, 11 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren and a combined 147 years of life experiences, but they still remain students of the human condition wielding the written craft to enrapture the mind much like an artist wields a brush. The pages are a blank canvas on which to draw from a talent heralded by many and matched only by an imagination that rises to the task. Creating Your Own Way To Happiness is the first in a series of recent pursuits with work progressing quickly on the follow-up.  

Available at: Amazon.com, Barnes&Nobel.com, skyangel.com,and at many bookstores either as on-the-shelf or special order.It is also available as an open book on Google.com