Winning Smart After Losing Big: Revitalizing People, Reviving Enterprises

By Rob Stearns

Book Overview

Rob Stearn' inspiring perspectives come at a time when many businesses, organizations, and individuals seek practical insights regarding how to recover from major losses. Why do some companies rally after competitive disasters? Why do some individuals rebound after personal defeats? Winning after losing big is hard. Stearns' refreshing approach stimulates recovery by provoking you and your enterprise to reinvigorate your thinking and your response to losing. Rob Stearns understands losing and winning. As a successful entrepreneur and executive, he also experienced the trauma and loneliness of professional and personal defeat. Winning Smart after Losing Big will stimulate you and your organization to: - Adjust your traditional thinking about suffering a loss - Separate the act of losing from the consequences of losing - Recognize when you are losing - Choose when to lose - Identify the causes of your loss - Explore your thoughts and feelings about your loss - Escape the loop of reliving your loss - Redefine what winning means to you - Rely on yourself to select the right help - Create personal independence at the moment when you need it most

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1893554767
• ISBN13: 9781893554764
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Length: 125 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Winning Smart After Losing Big

A MUST READ FOR MANAGEMENTReading "Winning Smart After Losing Big" inspired me to contact to author - Rob Stearns. Rob was gracious enough to meet with a colleague and me over coffee in Cave Creek, AZ. My objective was to learn more about this inspirational book and the man that crafted and lived the words. Rob is the real deal. He boldly went were most business leaders fear to go - to candidly discuss and admit to losing in the big game of business and life. What makes Rob and "Winning Smart After Losing Big" special is that he provides the reader with step-by-step guide leading you past losing to winning. He uses examples from his personal experience coupled with real world chronicles of ordinary people that have survived crippling defeats only to rise and win yet again. "Winning Smart After Losing Big" and its message might have been written in an earlier generation by thought provoking authors such as Norman Vincent Peale or Earl Nightengale. Business schools should make this book required reading.

I've bought multiple copies to give away. Only two

other books (of the hundreds I've bought in my life) can make that claim. It's that good.I'm a huge fan of aphorisms, truisms and axioms and that's the core of this book. The aphorisms are bound to together by a short and sweet text. The author's real life losing experiences give him the authority to write the truth. He doesn't even list in full detail his background and the depth of his losses. No numbers but you know how far he fell. But his website gives you the detail: former CFO of a public company, Wall Street hot shot with an Ivy League education. What was most helpful is that the book provides an analytic framework of how to win smart after losing. Going through my two most recent losing events (stock market and divorce) I had the help of a friend who was able to express some of the insights from this book but it wasn't bound together by the research and time Stearns put into this book. It's all right in this book. One place.In the notes he said he interviewed many people but only a few brief discussions are in the book. He edited out the bulk and, on reflection, I don't think the book would have been as good if it was a long list of "war stories."Thanks to Bill Kristol for his review of this book in "The Weekly Standard." That recommendation - along with the title - prompted my purchase.

Winning Smart

This was a stimulating book - clear, concise and not too full of psychobabble. It dealt practically with recovering from loss leaving the responsibility on the individual. I also felt that it was encouraging and honest. It did not make me feel good, but admitting my flawed thinking rarely does.This book is full of the obvious truths. In such, it is easy to understand. Chapter 3, Recognizing Your Loss, is one of them. I agree that we are often not honest with ourselves and hang on or ignore our losses. The observation in Chapter 2 that life is a series of wins and losses is another truth I had not thought of. It is encouraging to know that we have lots of experience in dealing with loss. Another obvious truth often overlooked is that we recover incrementally. We always seem to want it all back the way it was. That is not looking forward and not progressive. Learning and recovering from loss should make us stronger and as such, we should be looking to a future with more than the past.This is a good quick read, encouraging and practical. I recommend it for anyone dealing with the loss of something or someone important.

WINNING SMART AFTER LOSING BIG

We're often taught that losing is a natural part of life, but we're not usually tutored in what to do after a loss has occurred. Mr. Stearns examines different types of loss, both personal and professional, and presents a clear course for moving forward positively, whatever the loss source. Insightful and touching anecdotes add texture to this fine read. I am already thinking and acting a lot "smarter" as inevitable loss touches my life.

Winning Smart

I have a pre-publication copy of "Winning Smart" and I am impressed with the combination of fresh insight and common sense that Mr. Stearns has provided. The idea that major loss is universal is actually somewhat comforting; it helps prepare us mentally for accepting and recovering from bad fortune. Some of the basic principles Stearns discusses are obvious, others give one pause. He understands that we're all different and yet still brings tremendous clarity to the thoughts and actions we must all address to recover from the big blows life inevitably hits us with.