“Growing up, I understood my choices: teacher, secretary, or nurse. Then my father said, matter-of-factly, ‘Why not a doctor?’ He was the first to ask why my list wasn’t longer.

That question changed everything.

In Lift, Jeff Cunningham shows that no one rises alone. Behind every exceptional life is a first believer who sees us before we see ourselves. My father was mine. When I received my law degree, I saluted his memory. He did not live to see me become an ambassador, and later secretary of the Air Force, but his question carried me to both. The people who lift us rarely know how far their influence will travel.

In penetrating conversations, Cunningham uncovers the three hidden forces behind remarkable lives and shows how anyone can recognize them in their own. The stories are riveting and deeply revealing. Every reader will finish this book remembering the person who first saw who they could be and wondering whose life they might yet help lift.”

—Barbara Barrett, 25th Secretary of the Air Force, former US Ambassador

“This is as good as Henry Kissinger’s last book, and that was very good. Lift is a fantastic journey into the great test tube of the future called the United States: very different people, in wholly unique settings, advancing against unpredictable odds toward unpredictable outcomes, lifting all of us, and raising the bar for us all. What a great set of totally unique people for all of us to learn from in such a fun way.

Drawing on remarkable lives from around the world, Jeff Cunningham demonstrates that extraordinary achievement begins long before it becomes visible. Families, mentors, communities, and institutions shape human potential in ways too often overlooked.

Institutions don’t simply discover talent, they determine how much talent a society produces. Lift is both an explanation of that truth and a challenge to build organizations where more people have the opportunity to rise. Because in the end, we are measured not by whom we exclude, but by whom we include, and by how they succeed.”

—Michael M. Crow, president of Arizona State University

“What propels the world’s most successful people? Insightful and entertaining, Lift debunks the myth that our ‘self-made heroes’ climbed alone. What really matters is deep connections with others: a family, a team, an organization that creates a Lift culture. Whether you are a business leader, a politician, or a parent, these fourteen profiles and their hidden lessons will provide new and radical insights on what truly launches a remarkable life."

—William R. Kerr, D’Arbeloff Professor, Harvard Business School, and author, The Gift of Global Talent

“Every leader I entrusted with a major enterprise carried values formed by a family or community long before I met them. My own instincts came from mine: a family of small, hardworking farmers in rural Mississippi who helped one another through every calamity. When people ask where I draw the line between profit and the communities we serve, I tell them there is no line. That instinct came from those farmers, and Lift is the book that gave it a name. Through vivid portraits, rich history, and candid conversations, Jeff Cunningham reveals how extraordinary lives are shaped long before a résumé exists. Read Lift and you will never again evaluate talent the same way.”

—Richard C. Adkerson, chairman of the board, Freeport-McMoRan

“I have spent my career studying the global mindset of business leaders. The greatest surprise was not how different successful leaders are, but how similar the forces are that shape them.

That is precisely what Jeff Cunningham reveals in Lift. He draws on extensive research and a gift for storytelling to show that although language, customs, and unwritten rules may change, remarkable people everywhere are lifted by the small worlds around them before they lift themselves. What scholars spend decades uncovering, Cunningham makes unforgettable through the lives themselves. Lift is the rare leadership book whose lessons travel, because they hold in every culture and organization.”

—Allen Morrison, professor, Thunderbird School of Global Management, and former CEO

"The central insight of Lift is profoundly simple and deeply transformative: greatness is not an individual achievement, it is forged through relationships. Cunningham makes a powerful case that extraordinary lives take root in strong, connected communities. If we fail to cultivate meaningful human bonds, the emptiness of the online world will inevitably rush in to fill the void."

—Richard Torrenzano, CEO, The Torrenzano Group, and coauthor, Digital Assassination