Many people never fulfill their potential, but it's not because they lack intelligence or drive. They just never develop a master plan to enjoy and achieve success. Dr. John Louis Slack shares ten proven strategies to help you build a master plan in this inspirational autobiography. You'll learn how to identify prerequisite strategies to building a master plan; exhibit qualities that make others believe in your abilities; harness social and emotional intelligence; and respond to new situations and life transitions. By building a plan and always focusing on it, Slack overcame every obstacle and achieved true success. Join him as he looks back at growing up in rural Pennsylvania and learning the importance of family, appreciating what you have, and hard work. You can't achieve personal and professional success until you learn the strategies in this guidebook to living. No matter what you're trying to accomplish, your mission will be much easier with the tools and strategies you'll find in The Master Plan: Ten Secrets to Success.

"Master Plan" 10 Secrets to Success

SUCCESS - You Can't Get There – Until - You Have Been Here!By John Louis Slack

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Dr. John Louis Slack
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-4819-6

Contents

Acknowledgments.................................................................................................xiPreface.........................................................................................................xiiiChapter I. The Family...........................................................................................1Chapter II. Memories growing up in Pa...........................................................................7Chapter III. Early Education....................................................................................33Chapter IV. Placed into First Institution.......................................................................39Chapter V. Placed in Second Institution.........................................................................57Chapter VI. Placed into Third Institution.......................................................................61Chapter VII. Place into the Fourth Institution..................................................................73Chapter VIII. Personal Development Plan.........................................................................83Chapter IX. The "Master Plan"...................................................................................97Chapter X. Pre-Requisite Strategies.............................................................................115Chapter XI. Social and Emotional Intelligence...................................................................133Chapter XII. Specific Game Plan.................................................................................149Chapter XIII. Game Plan for High School.........................................................................157Chapter XIV. Memories in High School............................................................................177Chapter XV. Undergraduate.......................................................................................187Chapter XVI. Teaching Fellowship................................................................................221Chapter XVII. Teaching..........................................................................................227Chapter XVIII. Lost Grand Teton Mountain, Wyoming...............................................................237Chapter XIX. President Ronald Reagan's Money Clip...............................................................253Chapter XX. Real Estate Development.............................................................................257Chapter XXI. The Story of Princeton Place.......................................................................267Chapter XXII. Stabbed Seventeen Times...........................................................................291Chapter XXIII. Consolidated Properties Investments, Inc.........................................................299Chapter XXIV. The John Slack Companies, Inc.....................................................................309Chapter XXV. Hobbies............................................................................................313Chapter XXVI. Founding of the American Rare Breed Association (ARBA) International Company......................319Chapter XXVII. The Blood of Life – Golf...................................................................325Chapter XXVIII. Community Services..............................................................................341Closing Remarks.................................................................................................347

Chapter One

The Family

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family"

Anthony Brandt

Introduction

In the beginning chapters of this writing, I share with the reader my family, childhood, early education and struggle to survive. Hopefully, after reading these chapters you will have a better appreciation of the value of the Master Plan that I have developed to achieve success.

Growing up in Rural America.

Let us begin the exciting journey of personal and professional improvement by first recalling and sharing a few memories of how I grew up on the farm. The process of recalling the events brought back wonderful feelings of joy and pleasure that I experienced living with my family. Chapter one reveal a small portions of how I grew up on a farm which was a unique and special experience that few children in the future will ever have the opportunity to enjoy in the 21st Century. My mother and father were married long enough to bring into the world eight beautiful children. I had two sisters, Shirley and Barbara. I had five brothers, Rudy, Richard, Robert, Jimmy, and Kenny. I was the fourth child and the second son. My Father had two brothers and six sisters. My mother had three brothers and three sisters. It turns out that my last name was not Slack according to my family ancestry records in Austria but rather John L. Slak. You will notice that my middle initial is "L" named after my Grandfather Man (Louis). Grandfather Man was named Louis Frank Slak, who was born in Trebelno Parish in Bihovic Mokronog, Austria. He was the son of Mr. & Mrs. Anthony Slak. The American people mispronounced his named so often that my Grandfather grew tired of correcting everyone. He finally decided that life was difficult enough, rather than arguing continuously about the correct pronouncement of his name. He simple changed it to what everyone called him: Mr. Louis F. Slack.

My Father, better known to the family as the "Old Man," built a little wooden frame house in the upper corner of our Grandfather's farm land for the family to live in, which we all called our homestead located in Falls Creek, Pa. Unfortunately, after some sixty-five years or so the homestead had become so rotten that it had to be torn down. However, Mark Fordora, one of our cousins purchased the land that the house was built upon. Mark maintains the surrounding area of the foundation like a beautiful State Park. Mark even left the steel wire hanging on the old oak tree where my Father had tied a tire to it so the kids could use it to swing on. The way Mark keeps up the grounds and foundation really mean a lot to the Slack family. Whenever I go home to the country, I love to drive up that dusty dirt road to walk down in the field with my brothers to the homestead where we grew up as kids. The foundation is all that is left of our home. Thank you Mark, for it really means a lot to all us kids.

After our mother left our Father to move from the farm to Dubois, she had a difficult time feeding all the kids. My mother worked as a housekeeper for the Salvation Army in Dubois. I was told that Mr. and Mrs. Hines was a good friend of our mother. The Hines had no children. Our mother allowed my two youngest brothers, Jimmy and Kenny to go live with the Hines. The two little boys were packed up, and sent out the door to live with the Hines. We did not see the two kids for many, many years later. The Hines, in effect, adopted the two boys but my Father always maintained that he never signed any adoption paper. However, the two boys changed their names to Jimmy and Kenny Hines.

I married a wonderful Italian woman by the name of Margaret (Margie) Pannullo, who came from a truly old fashioned magnificent Italian family like you would see in the movies. I met Margaret at the Timon High School dances in my...