Accountability Sam

Sam Silverstein agreed to meet me for coffee this warm St. Louis morning in June. He has just has just released his book Non Negotiable The Story of Happy State Bank & The Power of Accountability. He is at home between speaking engagements, working with clients and promoting his book No More Excuses and Making Accountable Decisions. He is past president of the National Speakers Association and clearly knows a thing or two about public speaking.

It is this point that struck me as an insight into Sam’s world as he reveals just how he met the CEO of Happy State Bank and how that encounter became the case study for this straightforward business book. What is telling, for me, is the humility with which Sam confesses to being astonished as he observed the presence of this banker from Texas. Non-negotiables transform everything and everyone for the better. The book explains in plain terms why. He offers a powerful example that reads like a best-selling business parable.

Amarillo is in the center of the Texas Panhandle, a 26-county area that is bordered by New Mexico and Oklahoma. Here, where the southern plains meet the desert, is where Sam rolled up his sleeves. The book is a by-product of this engagement. Offered for the reader are the 20 Non Negotiables for this successful Texas Bank as guided by the Chairman and CEO. Offered to the reader is food for thought. Sam preaches Accountability and with his book has a powerful  substantiation of how it works.