Skip to main content

How To Dream Big And Win In Business

In Dream Big and Win, author Liz Elting shares the lessons she learned―both the successes and failures―while building a billion-dollar company from scratch. She explains why you need not only passion and purpose to win big, but also:

  • a willingness to take decisive action
  • grit
  • sweat equity
  • determination
  • positive attitude

Elting’s fascinating story began with her entirely self-funded business launch that started in a dorm room. By possessing a disciplined set of principles and focusing on carefully developing her leadership skills throughout the process, she was able to achieve her goal of becoming #1 in the translation market that was already dominated by established competitors.

Today, Elting is the Founder and CEO of The Elizabeth Elting Foundation, which creates scholarship opportunities for entrepreneurial young women, funds exciting women-led startups and social businesses, and supports women-led organizations that foster women’s success through educational programs, mentorships, community building and more.

This fast-paced, honest, authentic and often humorous book is full of practical and inspiring tips you can implement immediately. You’ll learn:

  • Why ownership is a core value and a philosophy every leader should embrace.
  • Why the key to motivating employees is in taking a personal stake in your people’s success.
  • How an effective leader pivots to accommodate each of their employees’ work styles.
  • The importance of open communication and authentic employee feedback.
  • Why it’s imperative to foster an environment where your people are free to disagree.
  • How the quickest way to resolution between your employees is through immediate action and transparency.
  • How a billion-dollar idea can stem from something as simple as asking: What’s my problem to solve?
Liz Elting

Plus, Elting includes in her book these famous leadership, business and life quotes:

“Without continual growth and progress, words such as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” – Benjamin Franklin

 “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” – Henry David Thoreau

 “I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” – Ernest Hemingway

“The ability to learn faster from customers is the essential competitive advantage that startups must possess.” – Eric Reis

“The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.” – Peter Drucker

“Change before you have to.” – Jack Welch

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” – Jack Welch 

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi 

“A diverse mix of voices leads to better discussions, decisions and outcomes for everyone.” – Sundar Pichai 

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Seven Ways To Stay Motivated

To learn how to stay motivated, read High-Profit Prospecting , by Mark Hunter . It's a powerful read that includes counter intuitive advice and cutting-edge best practices for sales prospecting in today's business world. Today, I share one of my favorite sections of the book where Hunter describes his seven things motivated people do to stay motivated : Motivated people ignore voices in their lives . These might be people in the office and friends who have bad attitudes. They're out there, and if you're not careful, they'll control you, too. Motivated people associate with highly motivated people . Just as there are negative people in the world, there are also positive people. Your job is to make sure you spend as much time with the positive people as possible.  Motivated people simply look for the positive in things . Positive people count it an honor to live each day, learn from others, and impact positively those they meet. Positive people take great satisfaction...

Six Leadership Actions To Leverage Employees' Differences To Strengthen Teams

The new book, All The Difference: Six Leadership Actions To Bridge Perspectives, Strengthen Teams, and Create Value , teaches how leaders can turn their team's individual differences into deeper trust, greater creativity, and winning results.   “The greatest risk of unmanaged difference isn’t conflict: it lies in the ideas, insights, and opportunities that may never surface,” explain the book’s authors, Susan MacKenty Brady , Stuart D. Kliman , and Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Leslie C. Smith .   They suggest that you look around your team to fully see people with different communication styles, perspectives, cultural norms, and capabilities. These differences are expressed in all kinds of ways, such as casual gestures in a meeting, a colleague's opinion on a current event, or an intense work style.   Often, those differences can lead to friction, even conflict. You may try to manage around them. But, for you and your organization to fully leverage the strengths of your team’s diffe...

How To Improve Your Connection Skills

"Connection is what transforms a dog-eat-dog environment into a sled-dog team that pulls together," says  Michael Lee Stallard , author of the book,  Connection Culture . "Connection builds an emotional bond that promotes trust, cooperation, and esprit de corps among people in the workplace." Based on  shared identity, empathy, and understanding , connection moves primarily self-centered individuals toward group-centered membership. "Without that sense of connection, employees will never each their full potential," states Stallard. The  10 ways you can improve your connection skills  are to: Recognize varying connection needs Be present in conversations Develop the ability to empathize Develop the habit of emphasizing positives Control your tone of voice Negotiate with the mindset to solve a problems rather than to win Provide autonomy in execution Learn to apply the five languages of appreciation  Apologize when you make a mistake Deve...

How Great Leaders See Differently

“Your decisions are only as good as the world you can see,” explain the authors of the new book, The Panoramic Leader: How Great Leaders See Differently . “And in a rapidly shifting business landscape, the most successful leaders learn to see more.”   Authors Cornelia Choe and Marshall Goldsmith explain that talented leaders don’t fail for lack of intelligence or experience. Instead, they fail because they make decisions based on a partial view of their environment and miss critical insights.   As you read the book, you’ll learn that panoramic intelligence is about training yourself to see through more than just your own lens. It’s learning to consider the perspectives of the full range of stakeholders who affect your company—including ones who wouldn’t traditionally be considered in stakeholder profiles. It’s about stepping back to see the bigger picture.   Choe and Goldsmith explain further that panoramic leadership consists of three lenses:   Inner Lens – How...

The Science And Secrets Of High-Performing Teams

Ron Friedman ’s new book, Superteams , is the best book about teams and team building that I have ever read and have reviewed on my blog. It’s all about what the best teams do differently.   It’s packed with counterintuitive insights, surprising science, and real-world lessons "from the most comprehensive study of elite groups ever conducted" reports Friedman. Read through it once and then keep it handy to refer to repeatedly. The 50-plus strategies for how a team does its best work are invaluable.   Friedman surveyed thousands of teams and pinpointed the precise habits that separate the best from the rest. He reports that “the results upend everything we think we know about teamwork. It turns out that the most successful teams aren't the ones that collaborate most, get along best, or put in the longest hours.”   What really sets them apart, according to Friedman, is the way they:   Manage their energy and attention. Bring out the best in one another. Keep improving...

Daily Intentions For Leaders

Everyone can benefit from the book, Dear Friend , which features bite-sized, daily notes for contemplation, inspiration, connection, and clarity. Busy and stressed business leaders can particularly benefit from the 365 profound, heartfelt reflections from author Michelle Maros , founder of Peaceful Mind Peaceful Life and cohost of the podcast, Life Happens with Barb and Michelle .   Dear Friend invites readers to go deep and use the notes as a daily practice that compounds over time, nurturing strength, resilience, and clarity.   In just a few minutes each day, this book will offer you a daily reprieve when you feel burned out, beaten down, or overwhelmed by the strains and stresses of modern life.   The heart of Dear Friend began in the quiet mornings Michelle shared with her mom, Barb. Every day, they would sit together, reading affirmations or passages from Barb’s beloved books. These small rituals—simple but powerful—set the tone for each day, grounding them in g...

How To Lead In An Era When Everything Is Being Displaced

  Today, leaders are caught in a cascade of contradictions. The technology that promises unprecedented capability also delivers unprecedented doubt. Artificial Intelligence (AI) makes everything faster, cheaper, and more capable. It also makes the most fundamental question of leadership unavoidable:  what are humans actually for?  You did not choose this moment. But you are responsible for who you and your organization become in it.   In  Re-Placed: Answering The Call Of Leadership In The Age Of AI , leadership strategist and CEO Kari Zeller offers something rare in the AI conversation: a leadership book that starts with the human, not the technology.   “The arrival of artificial intelligence doesn't have to displace us,” explains Zeller. “But it will, unless we learn to  re-place  ourselves first—to consciously reposition who we are, how we lead, and where we create value in a world where intelligence is no longer ours alone.”   “Being re...

Your 2026 New Year's Resolutions Check-in

  Yikes. It's nearly August. Hopefully, you've mastered or are achieving good progress with your New Year's resolution(s) for 2026.  If you need another resolution to tackle this year or haven't yet selected one, now is a good time to review this list below.  New Year's Resolutions for leaders : Don't micromanage Don't be a bottleneck Focus on outcomes, not minutiae Build trust with your colleagues before a crisis comes Assess your company's strengths and weaknesses at all times Conduct annual risk reviews Be courageous, quick and fair Talk more about values more than rules Reward how a performance is achieved and not only the performance Constantly challenge your team to do better Celebrate your employees' successes, not your own Err on the side of taking action Communicate clearly and often Be visible Eliminate the cause of a mistake View every problem as an opportunity to grow Summarize group consensus after each decision point during a meeting Pr...

Be The Leader You Want To Be

“By focusing in specific ways on five key leadership elements— Purpose, Process, People, Presence, and Peace —you can increase your time, capacity, energy, and ultimately your leadership impact,” explains  Amy Jen Su , author of the book,  The Leader You Want To Be: Five Essential Principles for Bringing Out Your Best Self—Every Day . Su shares both Western management thinking and Eastern philosophy to provide a holistic yet hands-on approach to becoming a more effective leader with less stress and more equanimity. She draws on rich and instructive stories of clients, leaders, artists, and athletes. And, she focuses on three foundational tenets: s elf-care, self-awareness, and personal agency . Most important, Su explores in depth, chapter-by-chapter the  Five Ps : Purpose  – Staying grounded in your passions and contributions, doing your highest and best work that has meaning and is making a difference. Process  – Relying on daily practices and routines that ho...

Know When To Change Your Decision

Leaders make decisions. Good leaders are willing to modify their decisions as changing circumstances and data dictate. If you are stubborn about a decision and think that tweaking your decision will be a sign of weakness, think again. In fact, just the opposite is true. Often, circumstances change and new information becomes available after a decision has been made. If that takes place it is a sign of strength to modify your decision to fit the new situation.