You Can Make It Happen: A Nine-Step Plan for Success

by Stedman Graham

Overview

For the people who know Stedman Graham as one of the nation's most quietly active community business leaders, it may be hard to envision the time when he was held back by considerable self-doubt.
He was. He grappled, also, with his share of daunting obstacles to the success he has worked at length to enjoy. Graham explains, "You are not your circumstances; you are your possibilities." He is tenacious in his commitment to the idea that all can overcome adversity and build self-esteem by determining who they are, creating a vision of success for themselves, and then working doggedly to realize this vision.
In formulating his Nine-Step Plan for Success, Graham draws candidly on his experience as a professional athlete, the founder of the not-for-profit Athletes Against Drugs, and as a corporate and community leader who sits on the national boards of Junior Achievement and the Urban League. This plan is grounded in his conviction that the circumstances of your past are not nearly as significant as your belief in your capabilities and your determination to carry through a plan to accomplish your goals. Graham explains, through revealing anecdotes from his own life and the experiences of others, how the negative effects of a poor self-image can be incapacitating at worst, and limiting at best. You Can Make It Happen shows how to chart a course that can enable you — just as it enabled him — to superimpose success over all of the doubts, insecurities, and life difficulties that threaten to keep achievement elusive.
Step by step, You Can Make It Happen demonstrates clearly how to

• Decide who you are
• Swim with the stream
• Create a vision
• Keep on keeping on
• Take the high road even if it is the hard road
• Weather the seasons of change
• Build your dream team
• Step out of your comfort zone
• Commit to your vision

An inspirational as well as an instructional book, You Can Make It Happen is a moving message of hope from a compelling new voice in our culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780684838663
Publisher:	Free Press
Publication date:	02/05/1998
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.44(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Stedman Graham is chairman and CEO of S. Graham and Associates, a management and marketing consulting firm based in Chicago. He is the author of ten books, including two New York Times bestsellers. Graham lectures and conducts seminars for businesses and organizations around the country. He is a former adjunct professor at Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and is currently a visiting professor at several other universities. Active in philanthropy and community work, he is on the international board of Junior Achievement, is founder of Athletes Against Drugs, and is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago.

Read an Excerpt

You Can Make It Happen

A Nine-Step Plan for Success

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By Stedman Graham

Free Press

Copyright © 1998 Stedman Graham
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0684838664

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Excerpt

STEP 1: CHECK YOUR ID

Increasing Self-Awareness

There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.
Howard Thurman

None of us are defined by our circumstances, nor are we defined by how other people perceive us. It is up to each one of us to define ourselves, and that is a life's work.

Each of us has the ability to lead a dynamic life by pursuing our unique goals and dreams. There are no limits to what you can accomplish when you know who you are and have faith in what you can do.
Stedman Graham

My contemplation of life...taught me that he who cannot change the very fabric of his thought...will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.
Anwar Sadat

At some point in our lives, most of us need help in overcoming whatever it is that is holding us back, whether it is racism, sexism, elitism, or any of the obstacles that stand between you and your dreams and aspirations.

Self-knowledge is where success begins. The first step in developing fundamental self-awareness is to examine the things that influence your behavior, both those that hold you back and those that push you to pursue a better life. This understanding gives you the power to change and control your behavior in a more positive and effective manner.
SG

Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four c's. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of these is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.
Walt Disney

If you want to create a vision for your life and then follow that vision, you must have confidence. You have to feel that you deserve success. People with positive self-images believe in themselves, in their abilities, and in their power to control their own lives. You gain confidence by concentrating on the talents and attributes and personal history that make you special and unique.
SG

We cannot afford to settle for being just average; we must learn as much as we can to be the best that we can. The key word is education - that's knowledge - education with maximum effort.
Bill Cosby

You must acquire the knowledge, training, and skills to find solutions to the life problems you encounter and to find the process for success. You develop competence by slowly building upon your skills, first in one area and then another, through hard work and perseverance.
SG

Plant the seeds of expectation in your mind; cultivate thoughts that anticipate achievement. Believe in yourself as being capable of overcoming all obstacles and weaknesses.
Norman Vincent Peale

You must feel capable of defining, creating, and controlling your life. You can do this by working on your self-discipline, by making a list of personal goals and objectives. Start with something small, do it, and then challenge yourself to do something else. As you master each of these small goals and objectives, over time you will work up to much bigger ones, proving to yourself and others that you have the power to control your life.
SG

Opportunity is limitless. Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier.
Charles F. Kettering

When you have a sense of your own identity and a vision of where you want to go in your life, you then have the basis for reaching out to the world and going after your dreams. Most of those who succeed in achieving their goals do it by creating an environment for opportunity. They open themselves to positive change by becoming positive, energized people. They believe in themselves, giving others cause to believe in them.
SG

Copyright © 1998 by Stedman Graham

Continues...

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Excerpted from You Can Make It Happen by Stedman Graham Copyright © 1998 by Stedman Graham. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

Julius Irving "As a person who has achieved success as a professional athlete and business professional, I believe this book explains success as a process that anyone with the desire for it can follow. Stedman has demonstarted real insight and intellect in You Can Make It Happen."

John H. Johnson Publisher, Chairman & CEO, Johnson Publishing Company, Inc. "You Can Make It Happen is must reading for all of us who want to understannd ourselves better and live better lives. If I were a young man starting over, it would be an invaluable blueprint for success."

From the Publisher

Best known as Oprah Winfrey's boyfriend, Graham here expresses his individual identity as a successful businessman and social activist. With a B.A. in social work, a master's in education and a varied background in the military and in sports (having played basketball for both the U.S. Army and a European professional team), as well as years spent working within the federal department of corrections, Graham turned his attention to sports marketing and management, founding his own company, SGA Inc. Living up to his theory that there must be achievement in each of three "Circles of Success"-relationships, career and community-he also founded Athletes Against Drugs and serves on several community and charity boards. Here, Graham shares his nine-step plan for achieving success in the three circles. Discussing self-awareness, forming a vision, setting goals, taking risks and building a support network, he leads readers through his "Success Plan." Although he begins by promising that "it's not complicated," he proceeds through a lengthy and complex explanation of each of the nine steps, plus numerous workbook-type assignments requiring substantial effort on the reader's part. While this book contains all the typical elements of motivational and inspirational material, including personal stories (his own and many others'), what's missing are those less easily transmitted sparks of excitement, enthusiasm, humor or charisma that allow the best of these books to actually motivate and inspire. BOMC and QPB alternate selections; Money Book Club main selection; first serial to McCall's. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Motivational tips from a renowned minority business leaderand Oprah's once and future love.

Library Journal