Relationship Equity

"Humanity is the core of our business." — Richard Walker As the CEO of a prominent IT consulting firm, York Solutions, Richard Walker has applied the principle of Relationship Equity to achieve tremendous business success as he builds the tech talent pool and helps professionals develop their careers. Walker describes Relationship Equity as the good faith you can build by investing in relationships faithfully and steadily, with no expectation of reaping a return. In his new book, Relationship Equity: Your Cornerstone Investment to Great Gains in Business and Life, Walker takes his readers on a journey of discovery, examining a principle with the power to revolutionize both business and personal lives. He explains that the relationships we forge with others are of supreme importance—and when you get those right, the rest will follow. "If you are a friend who is genuine," he writes, "you will have genuine friends—and lo and behold— they will want to help you just as you have helped them." Sounds simple? It's not. Relationship Equity has many nuances, and Walker explores them all in Relationship Equity. To share the story of how he developed the philosophy, he escorts his readers back to the small-town world of his youth in northern England, then onward to his corporate life at the helm of a thriving American tech company. "In our families, our businesses, our communities, our world—we need one another," Walker writes. "We are not islands unto ourselves." In his new book, Walker teaches us what he and his company are doing today to pay forward the many acts of kindness that have come his way through the years. Richard Walker has made it his business to change lives for the better, and his business reflects that.

RICHARD WALKER is the Chief Executive Officer of York Solutions, an IT consulting firm based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota, with locations in Westchester, Illinois, and Nashville, Tennessee. A graduate of the Leeds Beckett University in England, Walker co-founded the company in 1998. York Solutions is devoted to helping clients achieve their business and technology goals by building long-term, trusting relationships with them, not simply transactions. Walker has been front and center in growing those relationships, as well as launching the company's Think IT and Link to Leadership programs to help IT professionals develop their careers. He has led York's innovative Barriers to Entry training program, dedicated to enlarging the IT talent pool and helping brilliant men and women discover a life-changing new career path.

Introduction: "We're All Just People" - Investing in Humanity - The Relationship Equity Mindset - Foundations of a Philosophy - Links on the Links - Awakening to Oneself - Breaking Down the Barriers - "We're Doing Good Today, Thanks" - For Better and for Worse Conclusion: A Wealth of Possibility Addendum: "Nothing Short of a Miracle" Acknowledgments