core sector communique

NO EXCUSES

Take Responsibility for Your Own Success

By David Neenan

with Eric Lucas

David Neenan created a major commercial construction company, raised a family, and traveled the world teaching the principles of success to thousands. But with his new book, NO EXCUSES: Take Responsibility for Your Own Success, he provides a provocative and extremely personal look at why he’s treasured most his mistakes, failures and troubles.

According to David, we as individuals are the only ones responsible for achieving success that bring meaning and joy to life. When his company faced a loss greater than his net worth, David learned how to lead an effective organization. When an immune disorder made it almost impossible to stand, he learned how to heal himself. When he was 10,000 miles from home doing mindless work, he learned how to gain a vision.  With No Excuses, David reveals the basic roadmap for how to be successful in business and life. As the founder, chairman, and CEO of a nationally prominent design and building construction company that has surpassed over $150 million in sales, David shows how wealth is more about patient accumulation than compensation.  Drawing on a variety of sources including existentialist philosophy and the teachings of Buckminster Fuller, David explores issues ranging from small business growth choices to interpersonal communications to sustainability in the construction trade – all with a sense of humor and wisdom gained through experience.   

David met his coauthor, Eric Lucas, when Neenan was president of the Fort Collins School Board and Eric was a reporter at the local newspaper. Lucas is now an international travel and business writer whose work appears in Michelin Travel Publications, MSN.com, and Westways Magazine. Neenan and Lucas introduce principles that may seem simple, but are not simplistic. The sheer weight and connectivity of Neenan’s stories and ideas will impact aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners greatly.

No Excuses explains:

• In the twenty-first century, businesses need to understand where their offerings fall on the Value Hierarchy and how change should become their ally: Transformation, Experience, Service, Product, and Commodity.
• Four universal techniques for Wealth Creation:  Lateral Thinking, Niche building, Leverage and Lag.
• Helped by a concept called “Precession” David’s choices and actions have yielded unintended results that have made him a highly successful entrepreneur.
• Human Dynamics—why one of the most challenging paradoxes in business is the simple thought: communication is the response you get.
• The Stone Wall: Four things you can do during moments of hardship and difficulty—how to change yourself, how to change the system, how to get out, or just plain suffer!
• Sustainability in business and society: Why waste is the ultimate issue when it comes to sustainability, including the reason why he still cleans out the no-flush water saving urinal at his company even though he’s the chairman! 

Ultimately, David explains how struggle and despair can bring purpose to your life, career, or business—as long as you’re in motion. No Excuses describes Neenan’s challenges, failures, and lessons through personal stories that portray a colorful life. If you’re wondering how to get in motion and take responsibility for your own life, this book offers invaluable advice.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

David Neenan is the founder and chairman of The Neenan Company, a nationally prominent design/build commercial construction company that employs more than 250 people and surpasses $150 million in sales. Neenan and his colleagues are the originators of Archistruction, a design-build philosophy that blends many in-house professional disciplines to deliver high value to the client.

He is also the creator of the popular Business & You self-improvement workshops, which have reached thousands of people in more than a dozen countries. He has conducted in-house training for companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Remax, Walt Disney, Hilton Hotels and AT&T, and he is an executive in residence at the Colorado State University School of Business.

David lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, and Del Mar, California, with his wife, Sharon. They have four daughters.