Winning Smart After Losing Big: Revitalizing People, Reviving Enterprises [Paperback]

Rob Stearns (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

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

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Every executive should read this book. Stearns writes with superb skill about topics that scare us." -- James E. Schrager, Univ. of Chicago Graduate School of Business

"What a book! This gem about loss, leadership, and victory is an absolute winner." -- William Kristol, Editor, The Weekly Standard

About the Author

Rob Stearns is an entrepreneur and President of Progo Communications. He frequently provides commentary for news, financial, and sports broadcasts around the country. Additionally, he counsels businesses regarding leadership and the phenomenon of loss and teaches at W P Carey Graduate School of Business at Arizona State University. During the previous twenty years, Mr. Stearns was Head of Investment Banking at UBS Securities, Managing Director of Mergers and Acquisitions at Lehman Brothers, and Chief Financial Officer of three, Fortune 500 companies. He earned a JD from DePaul University, an MBA from The University of Chicago, and an AB from Harvard University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 125 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893554767
• ISBN-13: 978-1893554764
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,719,458 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Winning Smart, May 20, 2003

By 

Mark (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winning Smart After Losing Big: Revitalizing People, Reviving Enterprises (Paperback)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Oversimplified and underdeveloped, June 6, 2006

By 

Jake Bell "Your Role Model" (Phx, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Winning Smart After Losing Big: Revitalizing People, Reviving Enterprises (Paperback)

I have to admit, this book did inspire me. When I read it, the ideas expressed were so overly simplified I thought, "Hell, I could write a self-help if this is all it takes."

We've all lost something at some point. We're all going to lose something again. However, Stearns's black and white assessments of winning and losing don't really apply to most of the situations you'll face. Simply put, Stearns says a win is when you get something you want or don't get something you don't want; a loss is the opposite on either side. What if you think you want something and later realize you don't, such as wanting to sleep with that girl you had a crush on in high school, but later learning she has chlamydia. Is that a win because you got to sleep with her or a loss because you caught an STD you didn't want?

Because the book is so sparse on examples of the ideas he's pushing, you are encouraged to think of your own from your own life. As such I found myself thinking of things like my career, in which I was successful, but ultimately was unsatisfied with the work and decided to get into another profession. Did I win because going into my career I set modest goals that I met and exceeded? Or did I lose because the joy I'd expected never manifested itself?

Speaking of the examples, this is where the book could have taken off but failed. Stearns has a few interesting stories, the best of which is his tale of venturing into post-Soviet Russia to tap into the scientific minds behind the Red Empire and bring their inventions to the West only to learn that the best invention to be had is a theorhetical self-defrosting freezer. This story really seems to be the heart of Stearn's theme, but is briefly touched only twice. Another story about his father is touching and serves its purpose, but the only other anecdote comes in the form of two stories about two friends who followed similar losing paths, with one ultimately pulling out of his tailspin and the other dying. The vague nature of the stories misses the point completely.

Without real-life stories, most of Stearns's ideas come off as nebulous and half-thought out, with MSPaint quality charts and graphs allegedly illustrating his points.

If you're at all curious, check this book out at the library. For seventeen bucks, you can pick up plenty of other better written books with more than 100 pages of content.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Winning Smart After Losing Big, April 17, 2004

By 

John P Hoeppner (Carefree, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winning Smart After Losing Big: Revitalizing People, Reviving Enterprises (Paperback)

A MUST READ FOR MANAGEMENT

Reading "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.