Lynn, my co-author, and I are really excited about this book. A lot of our friends and colleagues have shared work-related stories through the years, many of them ending in riotous laughter with the inevitable "can you believe this one?" We've all had the "horror stories" about crazy bosses, dealing with difficult colleagues, having incredible deadlines, and too much to do with too little time. Probably most of you have shared similar experiences with your friends and family, maybe at dinner, at family gatherings, or over margaritas and nachos after work! The scenarios may be different, but the story is often the same.

In our work environments, many of us probably consider ourselves "average" or even "well above average," but many of us can't really identify with the really successful superwomen we read about. We may wonder how they manage to do all the wonderful things that they do. Well, they're probably doing many of the same things that we all do, just on a different scale. It's all relative! But what are they doing that we're not doing? How have they become so successful?

When you think about what you actually do in your life, you may begin to see things differently! Many women who consider themselves average are actually doing incredible things. They work, take care of family, volunteer, go to school, and take care of things on the home front. They drive their kids to sports events, work in the PTA, make Halloween costumes, prepare meals for the family, make dazzling presentations to their clients, prepare budgets, write reports, run departments, manage staffs. What we really need to do is to just learn a few tricks of the trade from those who are very successful and then follow their lead. These strategies really do work!

Lynn and I started talking about this book quite awhile ago, when I was starting to do research for my doctoral dissertation. I was always very interested in what made some people, especially women, really successful. What made them different from the rest of us? Lynn and I looked at the project from different perspectives. She has been in corporate America for about 12 years, while I have spent most of my career in education, both secondary and higher ed. I often tend to see the lofty, theoretical side of issues, and Lynn has provided a more down-to-earth counterview. As a result, when I start looking at success at the highest level, that anyone can become a CEO of a major corporation if they want to, Lynn will often bring in a more realistic approach, specifically that most people probably don't really want to be a CEO. They want to enjoy their work, be successful on several levels, have balance in their lives and, in some cases, simply learn how to hold on to their jobs in times of downsizing. This combination of perspectives has proved to be an effective mix of enthusiasm and the belief that anyone can do anything, and the realistic tasks of building the foundation to reach your goal. So interestingly enough, despite being identical twins, even Lynn and I have very different views of what success really means.

We have had different roles in the project. Lynn has done a good deal of the background research, has done a number of the interviews -- especially in the international arena (her specialty) -- and has contributed to much of the discussion which generated various directions in the work. I have done much of the actual writing and many of the interviews, and will serve as the narrator in the book. (We thought that it would be too confusing to always be saying "we, us", etc.) Frequently when I say "I" in the book, it really means "we."

As you read this book, we hope that you can see yourself in many of the same situations that we and many of our friends and colleagues have experienced. You will also most likely identify with some of the experiences of the successful women and men we interviewed. Their experiences and insight will undoubtedly help you focus in your own career path. In addition, we hope that you will find the strategies helpful in your work life, and maybe even in your personal life. We really believe in these strategies. They've worked for us and for many of our colleagues as we move ahead in our careers. So, here's to success!