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Winners Dream
A Journey From Corner Store to Corner Office
Winners Dream offers a guide to achieving your goals by following the life and example of Bill McDermott, current CEO of SAP, the biggest software company in the world. By identifying your winning dream, you can find the motivation to overcome all obstacles in your path and help others along the way.
- Anyone who wants to make it big
- Anyone who dreams of becoming a CEO or hopes to one day found his or her own company
- Sales and strategic managers
Bill McDermott is the CEO of SAP, a global leader in software with branches in over 130 countries. He is on the supervisory boards of numerous companies, such as Under Armour and ANSYS, and is also on the advisory board of the Knowledge is Power Program.
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Winners Dream
A Journey From Corner Store to Corner Office
- Read in 15 minutes
- Contains 9 key ideas
Synopsis
Winners Dream offers a guide to achieving your goals by following the life and example of Bill McDermott, current CEO of SAP, the biggest software company in the world. By identifying your winning dream, you can find the motivation to overcome all obstacles in your path and help others along the way.
Key idea 1 of 9
There’s only one thing that all winners have in common: a big dream for which they’d sacrifice almost anything.
On what foundation do the world’s highest-achieving individuals build their success? Is it a good upbringing, full of the luxuries provided by a moneyed family? A ruthless desire to win at costs?
Actually, it’s neither of these. As you’ll see in the story of the author and hugely successful CEO Bill McDermott, success derives from something else entirely.
The author’s spectacular business career certainly wasn’t written on the wall during his early childhood in lower middle-class New Jersey. But it’s from this childhood that he draws the outstanding quality that guarantees success: the relentless pursuit of a big dream despite all obstacles.
Among the first steps on the road to achieving this dream is an early exposure to work and a willingness to take risks.
Seeing his dad getting up early every morning to work multiple difficult jobs to support the family, the author developed an unflinching work ethic at a very young age. It was then that he decided his dream was to become a successful businessman.
So, from the early age of eleven, the author began working several hard jobs himself – often more than one at a time – ranging from newspaper delivery to waiting tables and taking the nightshift at gas stations.
At the age of 17, the deli where he was working was robbed and stripped of all its wares. Confident in his ability to rebuild the deli, the author decided to take a chance, and bought it from its frustrated owner. In the end, his determination and steadfast work ethic made the deli more successful than before.
Key ideas in this title
- There’s only one thing that all winners have in common: a big dream for which they’d sacrifice almost anything.
- Passion and planning trump age and experience in getting your dream job.
- The key to sales is empathizing with customers and answering their direct needs.
- A leader’s primary objective is to keep her team happy, motivated and performing well.
- Money isn’t everything: in addition to rewards, you need to appeal to people’s intrinsic goals to motivate them.
- The most successful companies never stop transforming themselves to meet the changing market.
- The only way you can make effective changes in strategy is if your staff trust you to make the right decisions.
- Winning isn’t about the goal; it’s about the journey.
- Final summary
