Why your Big Idea isn’t ready yet (a case study in executive collaboration)
Are you working on a signature talk, keynote speech or book so you can share your Big Idea with the world?
Take note: You may be missing important perspectives that aren’t yet visible.
The fix: Invite one or more trusted thought partners to stress-test your Big Idea — and uncover the gaps you can’t see yet — as this case study in executive collaboration reveals.
In March 2020, Winsupply Inc. Board Chairman Rick Schwartz released his first book, “The Spirit of Opportunity: How Free Enterprise Lets Entrepreneurs at Winsupply Earn Their Own Success,” to hundreds of people attending Winsupply’s annual meetings and vendor showcase event in Nashville, Tenn.
As the author, Rick received many positive responses from his readers:
- “A great read and a great job! Congratulations on making the message permanent.”
- “I loved your book; you can hear your passion in every word. I laughed; I learned some detailed facts I hadn’t heard; I cried. You should be very proud.”
- “‘The Spirit of Opportunity’ is more than a book. It is written from the soul of a man that has lived and promoted the American Dream. You have taken the time, put in the energy and written for all the world to see. You have contributed to the health and welfare of America like only a few Americans have done.”
I was Rick’s writing partner for his 2020 book — the culmination of almost four years of collaborative effort including research, interviews, meetings, messaging and chapter drafts — that was inspired by his own experiences working in and leading Winsupply for nearly 50 years.
This book “is not a history of our organization,” Rick said in 2020. It tells the story of “why and how our fundamentals work and came to be, why and how they help hundreds of entrepreneurs succeed, and why and how we need to protect and defend what makes our organization unique and different.”
Each attendee at the Nashville event received a card inside their book — which doubled as a bookmark — capturing Rick’s hope: “that this book inspires all generations to carry forward The Spirit of Opportunity, and remain true to our higher calling, so that entrepreneurs forever can experience the pride of accomplishment that comes when they build their own business, control their own destiny and earn their own success.”
Minding the gaps
The 2020 book was an immediate success, used internally for onboarding, training and reinforcing Winsupply’s fundamentals, and outside the organization to teach vendors, customers, potential acquisition companies and others why and how Winsupply is different on purpose.
After a few years, the initial print run of 2,500 books was depleted — so Rick ordered a reprint of 500 more in 2024 to satisfy ongoing requests from new employees, vendors, customers and acquisition companies.
By then, however, things had changed.
A second edition was well underway since Rick had arrived at a new and rather surprising conclusion:
Some important perspectives were missing from the 2020 book.
And he was eager to capture and include them in a revised and expanded edition of “The Spirit of Opportunity.”
The takeaway for you: If you’re working on a signature talk, keynote speech or book, and you think your Big Idea is ready to go, I invite you to pause for a moment and consider perspectives you may be missing.
Who can’t see themselves in your story?
Your Big Idea currently may be smaller than you think.
Three missing perspectives
In Rick’s case, his 2020 book told the story he wanted to tell from the perspective of local company presidents at Winsupply: entrepreneurs who risk their own money, gain equity and run their own wholesaling company to pursue the American Dream, with help from Winsupply.
That perspective made sense since Winsupply exists for one reason: to build entrepreneurs.
But before long, questions from readers made it clear that other important perspectives could be missing.
With all due respect, some readers were asking:
- What about the support services organization at Winsupply — the people who help entrepreneurs at Winsupply earn their own success?
- What about the book’s connections to younger generations at Winsupply — the people who will carry the organization into the future — and their understanding of free enterprise capitalism and its link to the Winsupply business model?
- What about the challenges ahead as Winsupply faces the future since lessons from the past — learned by Rick and others — can inform decisions in the present that drive what’s next?
These questions emerged in summer 2023 after Rick requested that a focus group be convened: a dozen people at Winsupply who would reread the 2020 book and provide suggestions for additions, clarifications and improvement.
Raw feedback from the focus group — thoughtful, candid, constructive and forward-looking, 25 pages in all — jump-started Rick’s work on a revised and expanded edition of “The Spirit of Opportunity.”
The new book was released in March 2026 at the 70th annual Winsupply Inc. stockholders’ meeting in Dayton, Ohio, and at Winsupply’s Annual Meetings and Vendor Showcase at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas.
Ideas from the focus group paved the way for much of the new material in this edition, including the support services chapter, stories of earned success and Rick’s vision for the future, as well as the chapter summaries, glossary and index.
But it wasn’t quite that simple.
Rick didn’t stop with feedback from the focus group. He went even further with executive collaboration, assembling a small book committee to ensure he properly addressed these missing perspectives — now fully visible — to make the second edition even more relevant, today and in the future.
Now that these missing perspectives had been revealed, they could not be unseen.
To Rick, this was good news: the chance to broaden his story so more people could see themselves in it — and take action.
The takeaway for you: If you’re working on a signature talk, keynote speech or book, and you think your Big Idea is ready to go, I invite you to be humble and courageous and stress-test your idea.
Who, specifically, can you invite into your circle now to broaden your current perspective through executive collaboration — and encourage you to consider perspectives you may be missing?
Could your Big Idea be even bigger than you think?
The messy middle of writing a company legacy story
Once again, I was Rick’s writing partner for the revised and expanded edition. We began meeting regularly in fall 2023, often for several hours at a time, with members of his newly formed book committee for executive collaboration:
- Robert DiTommaso, president of Winsupply Support Services Group, who joined the organization in 2018
- Monte Salsman, then president of Winsupply Acquisitions Group, who joined the organization in 2006
In February 2025, Hannah Poturalski, Winsupply communications specialist, also joined the committee.
Together — with Rick leading the way — we took a fresh look at the 2020 book to address the missing perspectives in detail, with this twist:
Each member of the book committee provided their unique perspective on each of the missing perspectives.
Suddenly, there were more voices at the table weighing in on ideas, drafts and directions.
In the beginning, I admit: This new process of executive collaboration — compared to our simpler, one-to-one meetings typical for Rick’s 2020 book — felt slower and heavier. And my role as both a thought partner and a writer was a bit more complicated. It meant I had to:
- Facilitate deeper conversations
- Navigate diverse viewpoints on the fly
- Manage tangents that threatened to take us off course
- Sort through concepts, examples and opinions, and set aside what didn’t advance the story
- Synthesize raw thoughts and comments from varied voices into coherent, yet creative content
- Question and challenge to gain understanding and consensus
- Take risks while continuing to push toward — and insist on — meaning
- Stress-test chapter drafts against focus group feedback, and new ideas and input from Rick and the committee
- Continuously plan, lead, manage and follow up
Progress seemed sluggish through 2024 and even into early 2025.
Partial drafts were emerging in bits and pieces, fits and starts, only to be reworked again after the next intense — but always enlightening — executive collaboration session revealed more gaps, more connections and more possibilities: more opportunities for yet another better way.
The light at the end of the tunnel did not immediately appear.
But we were undeterred.
The March 2026 publication deadline loomed.
We just kept going.
The takeaway for you: If you’re working on a signature talk, keynote speech or book, and you’ve listened to others and uncovered missing perspectives, I invite you to build out what’s missing.
Keep going. Be ruthless!
Push through the messy middle.
Don’t give up.
Because your Big Idea could change the lives of even more people.
Every perspective in sync (how communication partnerships build thought leadership)
I’m not sure I can pinpoint the actual turning point: the day I realized that this way we’d been thinking, writing and working together for more than two years — by relying on executive collaboration — proved to be the best way to weave in those missing perspectives to help Rick build out his revised and expanded edition.
All I can tell you is this:
- The day finally came when the new chapter on support services — version 13, parts one and two, 55 pages in all — fell into place.
- When the courageous journeys of several young and determined millennials made the tough cut into the chapter of stories celebrating people at Winsupply who had earned their own success.
- And when the final chapter revealing Rick’s clear vision — for confronting the challenges ahead while sustaining the fundamentals and advancing the future of Winsupply — at last felt solid, inspiring and done.
On these days, instead of feeling slow, heavy and complicated, this new way we’d been thinking, writing and working together — this process of executive collaboration — finally felt right because all three missing perspectives were now fully included.
By every account, Rick and his committee agreed:
This second edition was indeed much better than the first.
In the Acknowledgments section of his 2026 book, Rick called out his book committee members by name, highlighting their contributions to his revised and expanded edition:
- “Robert’s insights — which connected the evolution of the service companies to the robust and broad array of support services we have today — have helped ensure that this revised and expanded edition will remain relevant to future leaders.”
- “Monte has an uncanny ability to spontaneously deliver crisp analogies and vivid metaphors that clarify the concepts that set Winsupply apart. His enthusiasm for our business model and his experience as a Winsupply leader kept the book team going whenever we felt bogged down, hunting for just the right way to express an idea. When we were at a loss for words, Monte delivered them.”
- “Hannah challenged our thinking and reminded us how much we could learn from one another. As the voice of Robert’s focus group, she helped ensure that our new and revised material would resonate with readers today and in the future.”
- “(Teresa’s) relentless questioning has always sharpened the content. Her talent, focus and discipline kept our book team on task and on schedule. Her ability to dig deeply to uncover the right facts, stories and connections made the process enjoyable once again. And her gift for storytelling, which strengthened the first edition, made this one even richer and more engaging. I could not have completed either edition without her creativity, encouragement and attention to detail.”
What about you?
If you’re working on a signature talk, keynote speech or book, and you think your Big Idea is ready to go, I invite you to:
- Pause for a moment, and consider perspectives you may be missing. Who can’t see themselves in your story?
- Be humble and courageous and stress-test your Big Idea through executive collaboration. Choose one or more thought partners you can invite into your circle now to broaden your current perspective — and encourage you to consider perspectives you may be missing.
- Keep going — be ruthless and don’t give up — after you’ve listened to others, uncovered missing perspectives and begun doing the hard work to build out what’s missing. Because if your Big Idea gets even bigger? It could change the lives of even more people.
Your Big Idea may not be ready yet — but now you know what to do next.
Engage one or more thought partners to help you uncover the gaps you can’t see yet.
Once revealed, these perspectives will become the insights you need to ensure that your signature talk, keynote speech or book speaks volumes, especially to those who need to hear your words the most.
