Book the First
Life Leadership Begins with Education
Chapter 1
A Personal Letter from the Author
Dear Reader:
If someone writes a book and nobody reads it, you could argue that the writer largely wasted his or her time writing that book in the first place. With this in mind, I want to THANK YOU for taking time out of your busy career and life to read this book; it means a lot to me.
This is no ordinary book.
To begin with, it wasn't a quick or convenient writing project. In fact, I have been preparing for the task since 1987, when I was only seven (7) years old. That's a long time... thirty-eight (38) years to be exact!
The first 18 years—from 1987-2005—were years of preliminary preparation where I learned to read, write, study, and think analytically and critically. These were the years of my formal education on up through my 4-year bachelor's degree in English. These years provided me with a variety of valuable opportunities to develop, practice, refine, and polish my skills as a writer, speaker, and thinker. In conjunction with completing my schoolwork and penning thousands of pages in personal journals and letters, I also landed jobs with a couple of newspapers, which further honed my skill as a writer.
The last 20 years (2005-2025) have been spent writing, editing, revising, and polishing this same book over-and-over again SEVEN (7) different times. That's right; you now hold in your hands the 7th Edition of the SAL Textbook, which, upon publication of the Sixth Edition in 2019, became the SAL Textbooks (plural), published in a two-volume format for the first time.
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| First Edition of the SAL Textbook Self-Published in 2006 |
The THIRD Edition was my 1,149-page doctoral dissertation, published in four volumes in 2013, the same year I completed my Doctoral degree in education.
The FOURTH Edition was a popular recapitulation of my doctoral dissertation. In other words, I took the material in my academic dissertation and reframed it for a layman's audience. This process involved eliminating the scholarly citations, simplifying the formatting, language, organization, and structure of the text and otherwise making it easier and more interesting to read. This edition was self-published by authorHouse in the late summer of 2013.
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| FIFTH Edition, self-published by authorHouse in 2015 |
For the SIXTH Edition, I finally landed an official publisher—Cambridge Scholars Publishing—an academic printing house in the United Kingdom. This time the publisher made good on its word and everyone involved came through on their contractual commitments. The SIXTH Edition was the first time the SAL material appeared in TWO (2) separate volumes—one volume for the Self-Action Leadership (SAL) Theory and one for the SAL Model, including two new subtitles, as follows: A Theoretical Framework for Existential Growth (Volume 1) and An Action Research-Based Character Development Model (Volume 2).
This edition was published in 2019. Overall, I was pleased with how this 2-Volume edition turned out, but have since grown frustrated by its costly academic price tag and other variables involved in its practical functionality.
Five years later, beginning in September 2023, the time came to undertake yet another revision (the 7th Edition). This time around, my goal is to make all the material available for FREE on the Internet. I further seek to employ the online serial publication as a means of further revising and polishing the texts, which will then be printed in hard-copy form in late 2025 as a New and Improved single-volume SEVENTH Edition. This fresh and new self-published work will be more accessible, affordable, and attractive than its immediate predecessor (6th Edition). I am thrilled that YOU now hold this newest 7th Edition of the SAL Textbook in your hands.
This are no ordinary book.
To begin with, it took 22 years and thousands-upon-thousands of hours to prepare, plan, organize, compose, edit, revise, polish, and then repeat the entire process SEVEN (7) times.
Thus, the book is a long and substantive tome.
I hope you will not let their length or seeming complexity and difficulty discourage or dissuade you from diving head-, heart-, and soul-long into them, because I know you can do hard tasks and accomplish great things... harder tasks and greater things than you realize. Moreover, I know that the principles and practices outlined in this text can change your life... if you are willing to pay the price that authentic change requires.
How do I know this?
Because incorporating the principles and practices outlined in this book has changed my own life for the better over and over and over again throughout my life and career, and I am an infinitely better human being, man, husband, father, son, brother, friend, and citizen because of these transformational changes. I also know this because there is nothing inherently special about me; but everything is special about the principles and practices outlined in this book. Therefore, if YOU are willing to apply them with the same energy, focus, and determination that I have, you will eventually reap similar benefits over time.
Of this fact I am absolutely certain.
Those who persevere in pursuing this Road Less Traveled to its final destination will discover that far greater awards await you at the finish line—and beyond. These awards include personal and professional changes to your mind, heart, and soul—the epicenters of the real magic. Accompanying these changes will be many tangible blessings in your life and career that will further evince how far you have come. Such blessings may include finding that special someone, earning a promotion, raise, or landing the job of your dreams. Most valuably, you will discover that you are a happier, more satisfied and fulfilled human being who experiences inner joy and peace the likes of which you have never experienced before.
On the other hand, if you are not intending to pursue the SAL Master Challenge just yet, but prefer to peruse this book as a more casual reader, I also invite you to not get discouraged and give up too early. If you meet with a section or chapter you find boring or difficult, just skip to another passage and start again from there. I promise you will eventually find something that will be easier, more interesting, and perhaps just the thing you need to read or learn to help you along your way at any given juncture of your career or life. Then, as your confidence grows, you can aim for a more ambitious undertaking down the road a ways... whereupon you can eventually tackle the entire text and conquer the SAL Master Challenge.
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| Christopher P. Neck, Ph.D. |
THANK YOU for honoring me and my company, Freedom Focused, by taking time to read and study what I have so painstakingly put together over the course of my entire professional career, which recently entered its third decade.
Like the SAL Textbook, FREEDOM FOCUSED is no ordinary company. Our vision is simple to state, but difficult to actually realize. Our aim is not merely to sell books and training; that is just a means to an end. Our ultimate objective is to influence the broader culture in societal-changing ways through positive and transformational individual, familial, organizational, national, and international change.
We envision a world that is more safe, fair, just, and good—even a world full of SELF-ACTION LEADERS. We are committed to being catalysts of this change and will persist in pursuing our mission to our last breaths in this world—and beyond. This vision will be realized the same way that any other vision has ever been realized throughout the history of the world... ONE mind, heart, and soul at-a-time.
I respectfully invite YOU to join us on this grand, inspiring, and noble QUEST.
All you have to do to begin is to start being honest with "The Guy in the Glass" and then...
Keep
On
Reading and taking
ACTION!
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.
For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Whose judgment upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.
He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he's with you clear up to the end,
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.
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And think you're a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass thinks you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.
You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you've cheated the guy in the glass. [2]
Respectfully Yours in SAL,
Jordan R . Jensen
—Dr. JJ
Author's Note: This is the 356th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 170th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 355 FF Blog Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS
Click HERE to access the FULL TEXT of Dr. JJ's Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection
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Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.
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