S uccess in life and in business is actually simpler than it looks. Not easier, always, but simpler. It’s a matter of getting from A to B. A is where you are now, and B is your chosen objective. A leader’s job is to get to B. A leader demonstrates his commitment to get to B by his willingness to be “who he needs to be” and do “whatever it takes in the form of necessary required actions” to get to B. A successful leader accomplishes this feat by mastering his “inner stances” which are presented in detail in the next chapter as well as throughout this book. What’s the fastest way to get to B? What’s the most effective way to get a result? It’s simple geometry. It’s a straight line. It’s a straight line from A to B, as in the shortest distance INT R ODUCTION 4 DUSAN DJUKICH between two points. From where you are to where you want to be. Straight-line coaching has become the method of choice for leaders, professionals, and executives from all walks of life. As a result of their experience with this technology, most will tell you that they have been trained to solve their own problems and are in a position to assist others in solving their problems as well. And this is one of the major skills of a straight-line leader. A straight-line leader is extremely effective at solving problems in life. They solve their own problems and they assist those they lead to become adept at solving their problems as well. My extensive work over the years in the development and refinement of straight-line coaching methodologies has always been a matter of simplifying the problem. The straight-line coaches I have trained assist others in their quest for increased personal and business performance. We keep it simple. In simplicity lies fresh strength. We assist our clients by waking them up to the straight line that’s always there. It’s the straight line that they usually don’t see. Why can’t they see it? Again, it’s because of geometry. They are traveling in a circle—usually a vicious circle, going around and around, repeating the same old unworkable behaviors, performing the same actions and hoping for different outcomes in their personal and business lives. This endless circular movement is what the mind does when it’s stuck in the past, living Groundhog Day over and over, trying to “improve” over past performance. But improvement is not what’s needed. What’s needed is for the circle to be opened up and straightened out... for a new line to be drawn from where you are to where you want to be. The Geometry of Success 5 And we’re going to create this straight line a little differently. We’re going to put your pen on point B first (your future) and then draw the line back to point A (your present moment) so that now you have brought the future into your immediate present-time actions. The future is solely created in the present. The future can’t be created in any other place but the present. What an individual creates “now” determines what the new “now” or what we call the future will look like. Otherwise you are living in a circular world and your future is always stranded out there as something you want but don’t have. And it’s that demeaning habit of continuous wanting (it’s your lack) that keeps your confidence and vitality low. Wanting what you don’t have robs you of the very energy that would get it for you. This continuous wishing, hoping, and wanting will replace a relaxed, focused mind with a worried mind... always getting out ahead of itself. This book delivers the distinctions that straight-line coaches use when coaching their clients. These distinctions have been tested repeatedly for their proven reliability in creating breakthroughs in business and other areas of life that require high levels of performance. They open up your whole being and give you the space and strength for potent, new, decisive action. These distinctions are not theories. When someone tells me, “I like your theory,” I realize he doesn’t quite get it. These d