My Book Launches Today and I'm Grateful

Today is launch day for Outsmart the Learning Curve!

The chapter “Get Help” describes why doing anything transformational by yourself is impossible. Writing this book proved that point. I'm deeply grateful to these amazing people who helped turn this vision into reality.

First, a heartfelt thank you to the courageous individuals who generously shared their stories:

• Martha Niño, who made the incredible journey from a silenced undocumented immigrant to a trusted Fortune 500 manager, published author, accomplished public speaker, and creator of her own foundation dedicated to giving hope to immigrant students.

• Helen Wells, who was dissuaded from following her passion for art at 17, was rejected from art school at 29, and after another decade, finally quit her day job to become a self-supporting artist.

• Jason Lee, whose parents drilled into him since early childhood that he would become a doctor. A struggle with organic chemistry coupled with a vision that came to him during a concert led to this 26 year-old running an eight-figure real estate business.

• Jeremy Schifeling, who went from a failing kindergarten teacher to a sought-after consultant at Harvard, Stanford, and nearly every top MBA program in the world.

• Chase Friedman, a buoyant 25 year-old who was paralyzed in a freak accident and stunned doctors with his amazing recovery.

• Jason Christie, a promising “golden child” of medical research who somehow failed on his first seven attempts to get NIH grant funding before making a career out of life-saving contributions to the field of lung transplantation.

I’m also incredibly thankful for the many people who supported me, cheered me on, and bravely gave me the cold, hard truth about my work as it progressed.

First, my patient, kind wife, Mary Sipher, who has the skill to switch careers and become a copy editor, if she only had a glimmer in that area. Next, a heartfelt thank-you to my daughter, Ali Sipher, who may have been my most valuable critic and confidant through this process. A special thank-you also to my sister, Lynn Sipher, who helped shape the book by applying her compassionate lens on the world to every word she reviewed. And, of course, I can’t forget my talented and supportive writing coach, Nicola Kraus, who guided me through every step of the publishing process.

A deep thank-you to all the people who reviewed early drafts, who were gracious enough with their time for interviews, or who collaborated on ideas and suggested potential subjects, including Michelle Azimov, Andrea Butter, Charles Cushing, Sarah Dobson, Amelia Duran-Stanton, Lee Epting, Irwin Epstein, Jonah Gutenberg, Bruce Jacobs, Jeremy Kahn, Randy Komisar, Ryan Lindner, Prashant Mahajan, Lori Mazan, Kathleen McShane, Lisa Morgan, Lori Pappas, Daniel Parris, Kate Purmal, Denise Robinson, Bill Rogers, Ari Roisman, Melina Schaefer, Daniel Sipher, Devan Sipher, Josh Sipher, Christine Tao, Laura Thompson, Ben Villagra, Madelaine Claire Weiss, Beth Wolff, David York, and Heather Yurovsky.

I think the book can help people struggling with their career or finding their way. Please take a look and share it with those you think might benefit.