Life Skills Primer: Essays on Leadership

Young people in the twenty-first century face a complex world creating challenges unthinkable even twenty years ago. Challenges such as a global economy, social and cultural change, and the incessant pace of technological growth create a muddy environment for anyone living on our planet, including experienced adults! Whatever our cultural, ethnic, or social background, we face similar challenges and must learn to cope, not only to gain a competitive advantage, but also to survive. Remember the old proverb give a man a fish feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime? This proverb distills the true meaning of what represents a life skill. Life skills are not about temporary fixes or doing what is best for today. Life skills are about long-term positive change, which can provide a foundation for a healthy productive life. That is the impetus for this book; to identify skills needed for long-term success given the challenges evident in early twenty-first century society.