The Pioneer's Way

Book excerpt: Senseless school shootings, cure-defying epidemics, threats of environmental disaster: these are the kinds of headlines that riddle the news every day. The challenges we face range from the horrific to the heartbreaking. We wonder, when will it stop? Frustration and fear won’t bring about beneficial change. Passionate men and women are needed to step into the gap and serve as change agents even though many assume that there are few areas left in which to innovate. While many advances have been made, there is still a need for everyday people to create, innovate, and impact their spheres of influence to advance the common good. Motivated by curiosity, conviction, and a conquering spirit, they can move to fill unoccupied spaces to nurture, persuade, understand, and solve some of society’s lingering dilemmas. Those who do the initial significant work in these areas are the ones who bring about such needed change. They are pioneers. The Pioneer’s Way establishes a working definition of the pioneer, explores pioneering versus leadership, and offers essential characteristics of the pioneer. These are illustrated by colorful examples of pioneers both past and present—motivating readers with inspirational, frontiering stories, while equipping them with the journey’s essentials for moving forward to make needed, significant change. Readers will journey down a systematic path that will help them navigate unfamiliar territory so they too can respond to the pioneer’s call and answer it through effective, beneficial action in both their lives and the lives they touch.