WILSON, Larry 1930-

PERSONAL: Born 1930, in Louisville, KY. Education: Graduate of University of Minnesota.

ADDRESSES: Home—Minneapolis, MN. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

CAREER: Entrepreneur and training and management specialist. Founded Wilson Learning Corporation, 1965; founded Pecos River Learning Centers, 1983 (later became Pecos River Change Management Division of Aon Consulting Worldwide).

AWARDS, HONORS: Named Senior Fellow in Education and Alumni of the Year, University of Minnesota, both 1984; Ambassador of Free Enterprise, Sales and Marketing Executives International Academy of Achievements, 1991.

WRITINGS:

(With Spencer Johnson) The One-Minute Salesperson: The Quickest Way to More Sales with Less Stress, Morrow (New York, NY), 1984.

(With Hersch Wilson) Changing the Game: The New Way to Sell, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1987.

(With Hersch Wilson) Stop Selling, Start Partnering: The New Thinking about Finding and Keeping Customers, Omneo (Essex Junction, VT), 1994.

(With Hersch Wilson) Play to Win!: Choosing Growth over Fear in Work and Life, Bard Press (Austin, TX), 1998.

Also wrote Changing the Game Together: Inventing the Company That Will Put You out of Business, Aon Consulting, with Hersch Wilson.

SIDELIGHTS:

Larry Wilson's writings and work as a business consultant are based on helping individuals and organizations embrace change and positive motivation to stimulate growth. Wilson founded Wilson Learning Corporation and Pecos River Learning Centers, which became the Pecos River Change Management Division of Aon Consulting Worldwide.

Wilson's first book, The One-Minute Salesperson, was written with Spencer Johnson. It tells readers that feeling good about yourself is essential to being an effective, successful salesperson. The book links feeling good about yourself to feeling good about your work, and ties liking that work with wanting to help people. An audio tape based on the book features Socratic dialogues between "Every Salesperson Who Has Lost His Enthusiasm" and "Selected Professionals Who Are Fulfilled." A Publishers Weekly critic called the material "best suited to psyching up the sagging salesperson" but of value to newcomers to the profession as well.

Subsequent books by Wilson have been coauthored with his son Hersch Wilson, who works as a senior vice president at Pecos River Change Management. Their 1998 title Play to Win!: Choosing Growth over Fear in Work and Life is based on concepts used by Pecos River in work with some 500,000 clients. It urges readers to focus on thriving instead of just surviving. This involves emotional and spiritual growth, as well as acceptance of new ideas. Sections of the book include a "two-minute drill" with the steps "stop, challenge, and choose," and the search for "Loving Service." Writing for Booklist, David Rouse likened the author's approach to Abraham Maslow's theory of self-actualization. Rouse described the book as "presented effectively in low-key, straightforward fashion."