Retired Air Force Sergeant Robert Madden thought his wars were behind him, but as he entered Tres Rios, New Mexico, a new war was just beginning. When Madden stops at Tres Rios on his way to California to pursue a doctorate in education, he didn't expect to stay past lunch. A run-in with a local drug lord halts all of his plans. To escape from a corrupt police force and legal action, Madden is given a choice in punishment--state prison or a year teaching troubled kids at the local rural sc...

With the demands of technology, transparency, and constant connectedness, and calls for higher performance, leaders from the front line to the C-suite face complex dilemmas that cannot be easily denied or postponed. These perplexing, recurring issues are familiar to anyone in a leadership role today, including: How do I balance my functional or business unit goals with the needs of my peers and the whole company? How do I support and promote others while still advancing my own career? How ...

ROB MADDEN HAS A SCORE TO SETTLE, AND HE IS SAVING VENGEANCE FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT."Do you hear me, Rob? We know who killed your wife and daughters and where they are."Rob Madden, still holding the cell phone in his shaking hands, tried to grasp what DEA Special Agent Bonnie McCord has just said. Three years ago, his wife and two young daughters were brutally murdered by terrorists as payback for his Special Operations drone strikes on al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen.For Mad...

"For God's sake, kill me!" Cried undercover DEA Agent Bonnie McCord to members of the Sola Mesa Drug Cartel members as they repeatedly raped her. In Bolivia, where DEA agents are prohibited, her supervisors took the risk of assigning her deep in the heart of the drug-producing region to collect critical intelligence on cartel operations. Her cover was blown by both the US Embassy and a vindictive jilted suitor. Would she spend the remaining days of her life as a "trophy whore" for the Sola...

All companies use information to set strategies and accomplish business objectives. But how many CEOs and CIOs would say they are satisfied that their companies get maximum value from information? Not many. How many have a systematic plan for evolving their information capabilities to the next level? Fewer still. SAS has developed an Information Evolution Model (IEM) to aid companies in assessing how they use information to drive business. The model outlines how information is managed and ...

The Unstoppables is a book about entrepreneurs. Locally, it is about teaching how to become one and mastering secrets to boost any stage business. Globally, its about how this nation can launch thousands more for the future. Based on co-author Graham Westons experience at Rackspace, from around the business world, as well as fascinating case studies from such people as the Navy SEALs and Israeli Special Forces, The UnStoppables shows how the best practitioners think continuously about two ...

Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common ...

Each of us has but one life to live on this earth. What we do with it is our choice. Are we drifting through it as spectators, reacting to our circumstances when necessary and wondering just how we got to this point anyway? Or are we directing it, maximizing the joy and potential of every day, living with a purpose or mission in mind?Too many of us are doing the former--and our lives are slipping away one day at a time. But what if we treated life like the gift that it is? What if we lived...