By: Gary Polson, CEO

I was so inspired by Senator John McCain’s life and death. His life is a reminder of America’s greatest values: service, devotion, sacrifice and honor. He is a real American hero.

Actually, he was more than a hero. He was a loving father. In her eulogy, Meghan McCain shared how she loved her father and felt his love. John McCain committed to Washington, DC and traveled the world in his role as a Senator. Yet, he found a way to be a wonderful father. He is a role model of how you can make a big contribution in your career AND have a meaningful family life. Rest in peace.

Gary Polson is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman at Cydcor, the market leader in outsourced sales. With more than 25 years of business operations experience in accounting, legal and senior management, Gary has propelled Cydcor to unprecedented achievement with clients, culture and philanthropy since 2001. Under his leadership, Cydcor has increased its revenue more than six-fold since 2001 and has been recognized as “…the most respected sales outsourcing company in the world” by Datamonitor and The Black Book of Outsourcing, and one of the “Best Places to Work” by the Los Angeles Business Journal for eight consecutive years. Gary’s passion for excellence and never-satisfied approach has led Cydcor to earn both industry and employer recognition. With Gary at its helm, Cydcor has built its reputation on maintaining long term relationships with clients by consistently delivering results and by going above and beyond to help Cydcor’s clients gain market share and grow.

In honor of President’s day, Cydcor chose to review Lincoln by David Herbert to study one of America’s finest leaders throughout history.

Description of this book: This biography covers the life of Abraham Lincoln, the 16^th president of the United States.  Lincoln was raised in rural Indiana in a poor household.  The book follows Lincoln’s perspective as he picked himself up through poverty and through political savvy made his way into prominence quickly.  The book examines his character, his key advisors, and reveals his human flaws as well as his greatness.  The author, David Herbert, is a Pulitzer Prize

Cydcor recommends this book to future leaders because: Biographies and autobiographies are excellent sources of inspiration for anyone looking to achieve professional goals. Lincoln is an especially beloved figure for Americans because he was raised in poverty and came from a disadvantage to well educated men raised in wealthy homes in cities.  In many ways, Lincoln is the best representation of the American dream, that hard work and persistence will always pay off.  Cydcor highly recommends any manager to take time to read and learn about prominent figures in our culture, not just for inspiration but to improve critical thinking skills and improve confidence.

Our favorite part: Herbert does an excellent job of making sure to incorporate the realities of being president into the book.  He explores how decisions were made based on the information available to him, rather than taking the traditional route of glorifying the historical figure retrospectively.  It is important to look at leadership objectively and understand that decisions must be made regardless of whether you have all the facts.  Leadership is about being able to make the best judgment calls you can at the time it is necessary.

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