Robin - The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make All the Difference

There are so many people whose help and guidance have contributed to making The Power of Small a reality.

First, our thanks go to Richard Abate at Endeavor, for believing in us from the beginning and for continuing to be our strongest advocate. Richard's tenacity and ingenuity helped us write what we believe is the perfect book for our challenging times.

Our heartfelt thanks go to Tamara Jones, our writing muse and a brilliant journalist. Tamara kept us honest and stuck with us through the long haul. And thanks for the brownies! Thank you to Sandra Bark, for her terrific research acumen, ebullient personality, and unfailing spirit. Even when the task seemed impossible, Sandra worked tirelessly to uncover the facts, quotes, and anecdotes that brought meaning to our ideas.

Thank you to our amazing editor at Doubleday, Roger Scholl, for providing the original inspiration for this work. Roger, you have the uncanny ability to ferret out the diamonds in the rough, to keep us on course and true to our voiceand always with kindness and diplomacy. In addition, we want to thank the many other folks at Doubleday who helped make this book possible: Meredith McGinnis, Michael Palgon, Talia Krohn, Liz Hazelton, and Roger's assistant, Anna Thompson.

A warm thank-you to Karl Turkel for his incredible and charming cover design and for finding the perfect mascot (our ant) for the book, as well as to Phil McCobb and Paul Kirchner for generously donating their time to give our ant life. And thank you to Creative Directors Alex Spak and Jill Danenberg for all their brilliant advertising ideas. Thanks to Josh Comers for contributing his comedic genius.

Special thanks to our publicist, Mark Fortier, and his assistant, Danny Estremera, who have been instrumental in bringing The Power of Small to the world in a very big way. Thank you to Evan Greenberg, Leslie Jacobus, Joe Rella, Brenda Vinton, and Davis Stewart all Allscope Media, for giving us so much of their time, expertise, and media savvy. And thank you to the talented crew at Fat Free, Mike Metz and Dennis Hayes, for designing our website, as well as Kate Noonan and our own Myles Kleeger and Lauren Reilly for helping us navigate the digital world. Thank you to Lisa Bifulco, for producing all our videos with excellence (and always on time and on budget).

A very special word of thanks to our wonderful clients, friends, and co-workers who inspired so many of the stories in our book: Steve Sadove, Dan Amos, Karl Ronn, Patricia Fripp, Scott Fimple, Annamarie Ausnes, Sandie Anderson, Tom Amico, Eric David, Danny Meyer, General Colin Powell, Michelle Alba-Lim, Molly Boren, Dr. Ona Robinson, Amy Sutherland, Anthony Pinizzotto, Edward Davis, Charles Miller III, Kenny Dichter, Tony Hassini, Paul Gumbiner, Greg Davis, Randall Tallerico, Carol Gardner, Sheri Schmelzer, Jen Groover, Warren Brown, Sandi Genovese, Don Schoendorfer, Greg McHale, Brendan Finn, Dr. Carol Kinsey Goman, Nell Merlino, Adele Horowitz, Syndi Seid, John Breen, Shauna Fleming, Michael Lucco, Greg Lucco, Matthew Greenbaum, and Stu Snodgrass.

Our extra special thanks to comedian extraordinaire Gilbert Gottfried for his wonderful foreword, mega rock legend and marketing guru Gene Simmons, the inspirational and courageous Jamie Clarke, and baseball legend and American icon Yogi Berra, whose wisdom, I'm not in a slump, I'm just not hitting, got us through some long, difficult nights while struggling to complete the manuscript.

Thank you to Maurice Lvy, the CEO of our parent company, the Publicis Groupe, for your enthusiastic support of all our literary endeavors.

And a resounding thanks to everyone at The Kaplan Thaler Group for their help, guidance, and positive spirit: our tireless assistants, Fran Marzano and Josie Forde; our brilliant Director of Corporate Communications, Tricia Kenney, and the members of her team; Charlotte Lederman for taking on the enormous task of managing all our marketing programs; Erin Creagh; and Charisse Higgins. Thank you to all the other wonderful and supportive executives at KTG: Gerry Killeen, Kevin Sweeney, Greg Davis, and Jeffrey Wolf. And a hearty thank-you to Dennis Marchesiello and all the members of the KTG Graphic Studio for their amazing talents and extraordinary efforts, including John Vila for his keen proofreading skills.

A special thank-you to our families, for their unending support and wonderful stories, which have truly enriched this book:

To my wonderful husband, Fred Thaler, and our children, Emily and Michael, who always keep me honest, and are a constant source of joy and laughter. And to my beloved parents, Bertha and Marvin Kaplan, who have believed in me since day one, and provided such a funny and cautionary tale to the book.

To my beloved husband, Kenny Koval, the man who has been my hero and best friend for nearly three decades. And to the beautiful, talented, and brilliant Melissa Koval: may your future be sprinkled with star dust.

We can do no great thingsonly small things with great love.

Mother Teresa

Larry was a computer programmer in the sales division of a major San Francisco apparel company. He was the guy who dealt with the data, fixed people's computer problems, and spent long hours creating new ways to slice and dice the numbers. In short, Larry was a self-proclaimed computer nerd.

He would watch the men and women of the sales department and admire their outgoing natures, their easy conversational skills, the way they looked so sophisticated and stylish. Larry often thought to himself, I can do that. I want to do that. But he had no idea how to go about changing his career path, and he wasn't sure he had the confidence to try. Should he quit his job and go to business school? Should he work nights getting sales experience at a smaller company? Did he need a career coach? He didn't know where to begin. The idea of changing the direction of his life seemed daunting.

Then one day, he strolled into Patricia Fripp's men's hair salon. Patricia was a pioneer in her field, one of the first to coax men out of utilitarian barbershops and into hip salons. Patricia approached her job with a unique zeal and passion. She strove to give every client a haircut that would say something special about him. Often she changed only the slightest detailthe angle of the part or the length of the sideburnsbut she was a master. She sat Larry down in her chair and went to work.

Larry emerged a half hour later with a new look. He showed up at work and all the women cooed, Larr-y! You look great. At home that night his wife said, Hon-ey, you look so handsome. Even the young woman at the corner deli where Larry bought his coffee each morning noticed, saying Mr. L., there's something different about you.

Larry's new haircut and the way it changed his self-perception started a chain reaction within him. It dawned on him that taking even small steps could have a real impact on his life. He bought some new clothes. He started going to the gym more often. He made an effort to smile more. Once he began to think of himself in a different light, others saw him differently as well. When he became friendly with some of the sales managers at work, he confided his desire to switch careers. Soon the head of the sales department offered him a junior position.

Larry not only rose to the challenge, he became the best performer the department ever had. They cut the size of his territory five times and he still outsold everyone else. Before long he was the chief sales executive of the company.

It's obvious that Larry had a natural talent for the business, and he put a lot of hard work into understanding every detail about the merchandise and his customers. His computer wizardry with a spreadsheet didn't hurt, either. But if you ask Larry what changed his life, he'll smile and say that truth be told, he owes his success to one great haircut.