Leaders in Business Share Success Secrets
John Crean, chairman of the board of Fleetwood Enterprises, a $1.5-billion corporation, says that when you’re satisfied with what you do, “that’s as good as it’s gonna get.”
Kathryn Thompson, chairwoman and CEO of Kathryn Thompson Development Co., a $100-million-a-year privately held company, avoids negative people, maintains a positive attitude and prays before each undertaking.
Don Karcher, president of Carl Karcher Enterprises, believes that failure is a powerful teaching tool and that if you haven’t had a failure by age 29 you haven’t had an opportunity to learn a valuable lesson: You will survive!
Those are among the secrets of success shared by 12 top Orange County business leaders in Barbara Geraghty’s book “Secrets of Peak Performers” (Howland Publishing; $12.95).
The 121-page book is based on a simple premise: Success leaves clues. And by paying attention to the strengths of successful individuals, Geraghty writes, “we can bring these strengths into our own lives.”
In addition to Crean, Thompson and Karcher, Geraghty, an Irvine-based motivational speaker, provides the success philosophies and key events in the lives of:
Kathy Braun, executive vice-president of Western Digital; Kathy Bronstein, executive vice president and general merchandise manager of Wet Seal stores; Terry Hartshorn, president and CEO of PacificCare Health Services; Tom Knapp, founder of Club Sportswear; Les McCraw, CEO of Fluor Corp.; Milan Panic, chairman and CEO of ICN Pharmaceuticals; Dick Pick, inventor of the Pick System, a computer operating system; Louise Pomeroy, president of Abigail Abbott Personnel Cos., and Tom Yuen, co-founder and co-chairman of AST Research.
“I’ve always been intrigued in how successful people achieve the success that they did,” said Geraghty, who believes “we can learn from their experiences and maybe avoid some of the pitfalls they faced.”
The idea for the book grew out of a motivational talk that Geraghty gave to the International Assn. of Business Communicators in Irvine in early 1991.
In her talks to corporations and national associations over the past few years, she had already been discussing the “secrets of peak performers” but, she said, she had been using national role models such as Ted Turner, Nolan Ryan and Danielle Steel.
“Suddenly, I realized there are phenomenal success stories right in my own back yard,” she said, “and I realized it would be of greater interest for people in Orange County to hear about AST Research than something that happened in another state.”
When she set out to do the book, Geraghty felt the hard part “would be getting to sit with these people; it was actually the easiest. I didn’t think they’d open up and share their stories, but they were more than willing to tell me just everything.
“It’s just wonderful to sit with people like this. I hung on their every word.”
Although each person’s story is different, Geraghty said, there are common threads.
“They all have a personal vision of what they want to accomplish, an ability to persevere, the ability to seek opportunity in adversity, the ability to take risks when necessary and a passion for what they do--and that might even be No. 1.”
“Secrets of Peak Performers” is being sold primarily by mail order through Geraghty’s motivational speaking firm, Idea Quest. To order, call (714) 730-4761.
