00 - Acknowledgments

Excerpted from Business Black Belt by Burke Franklin

Dedicated to my grandfather Mason Franklin, W.W.I. balloon pilot and founder of TubeSales™, who taught me what really worked in life and business at the same time he was teaching me good manners.

Acknowledgments
Shelley Beban, our VP of Finance at JIAN, for building our finance department, taking on tough projects and telling me what’s on her mind and keeping me informed on more than financial matters.

John Bock, the chairman of my TEC group, (The Executive Committee — I meet with 14 CEOs once a month to discuss management issues and assist each other with problems) is an instrumental coach I call upon for ideas, answers and direction—especially on the tough decisions. You can call John at 415-344-2531.

Lindon Crow & Rick Itzkowich, run a seminar operation called Productive Learning & Leisure where they take busy executives river rafting, skiing, golfing, scuba diving and mountain biking. They weave a variety of compelling lessons into these fun workshops where you can learn much about your thinking and behavior as it applies to your life and business. Call them at 800-717-1817 or contact them at www.ProductiveLeisure.com

Virginia Franklin, my grandmother, who financed my early business ventures. Be very careful when you raise money through relatives. They always remember and you have to face them during the holidays. Nevertheless, she has always been my biggest supporter.

Wilfred T. Grenfell, my Ancient History teacher at Woodberry Forest School in Virginia, who was a fanatic for dates, facts, figures, names, proof, and all-around writing that someone could believe. He ruthlessly graded papers looking for content and quality. I hated him. It’s too bad there aren’t more teachers like him around because I’ll never forget what he taught me about writing good reports. It’s much of the magic in JIAN software today.
Barbara King, who made more red marks in this book than anyone. I thank her for her pointed questions and blunt comments—she made sure that I explained myself clearly and didn’t make an ass of myself in the process.

Paul Larson, founder of the Summit Organization. What makes you unique is realizing how much like everyone else you are. He didn’t care how smart you were, what you looked like, how much potential you had, or about any of your excuses for not succeeding—he expected you to produce results at whatever you did. And he wrote some tremendous workshops that got me out of my own way.

Soojin Lee, my Tae Kwon Do instructor for 6 years who taught me from white belt through second degree black belt. “Get in there, be first, and use combinations. Even if they hit you, make ‘em pay for it.” Our school won a lot of tournaments so I know he taught us the good stuff.

Darshan Mayginnes of Essence Partners for his incredible ability to be mellow at all times and for his teaching and guidance in ways to have things be easy.

Pat Napoles has edited and desktop published my stuff for years. She understands my good intent regardless of what I actually write or say. She makes all the changes on short notice when I change my mind. I know I’m not paying her enough, but she still takes great care of me. I’d marry her if she were available.

Neal Novotny our VP of Research & Planning at JIAN, for always being the stable, team player. He has the cojones to confront me when he thinks I’m out of my mind and usually has a good reason. I’d want to play rugby on his team and not against him.

Alicia Parnell, originally my assistant at JIAN and formerly our Media Relations Manager, for her constant and patient counsel when it comes to people matters and for talking to reporters, writers, and editors to make sure the story is straight.

Ed Pera, a Director at JIAN, for his “adult supervision” in financial matters and for being there to provide a second opinion regarding our employees’ performance and for seeing the invisible in the financial and retail machine.

Erik Pitelka, my assistant, who picked up the ball on this book, put in all the changes, made the arrangements for publishing it and made sure everything was right.

Alison Kaye Rhodes sat for hours as I explained on tape everything I
wanted to say and then transcribed the whole thing. She asked a lot of great questions from a “beginner’s mind” to make sure that I didn’t make any statements that only I could understand. For this effort I am deeply grateful.

David Shohfi, our VP of Sales at JIAN, for his attention to managing people and demonstration of focus, organization, and a great job in making sure that our software is available everywhere on Earth.

Judy and Julian Smith, my parents, who read this book on their ski vacation and provided editing wisdom that made a lot of sense and kept me from pissing off a few people.
Susan Snowe of Essence Partners for her constant observation and accurate comments on my behavior because she wants me to succeed beyond my wildest expectations.

Jerry and Valerie Starr, at Apple Computer for loaning me their Macintosh computer to start my business.

The illustrations in this book come entirely from the Art Parts™ collection of ClickArt electronic clip art available from the T/Maker division of Broderbund Software. For their catalog of these and many other clip art images, call 1-800-9TMAKER

Unless otherwise stated, all quotes in this book are copywrited and owned by Burke Franklin.

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