January 23, 2007 - Thousands of jobs are moving to countries every month where they can be done as well for less money. We can’t stop it from happening. But we can change the way we adapt to this new reality and how we engage with it. For many people and companies, these are scary times.

In a groundbreaking new book by leadership development expert Mike Cook, called Thrive: Standing on Your Own Two Feet in a Borderless World (St. Lynn’s Press, November, 2006), the author picks up where Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat left off. Cook portrays the outsourced economy as a place where there is opportunity for everyone to win, and introduces the skills and principles important to learn in order to achieve what he calls "self-sufficiency in the context of interdependence."

Cook says the key to success in the new outsourced economy is adaptability. Rather than argue with the economic reality, we can learn how to collaborate with it. People who aspire to maintain their value in the outsourced economy can learn to become individual leaders, or self-managers, who choose to take responsibility for their work environment, their personal happiness, and their lifelong learning and career development. This new "bulletproof" employee will trade a need of security for supreme confidence.

Thrive is a call to action, by necessity - if for no other reason, for people to rise to the next level of personal awareness and growth. Cook draws his inspiration from several sources: enlightened business thinkers such as Peter Drucker and Abraham Maslow; the principles of an interconnected universe_as shown by Einstein, Fritjof Capra, and others; the spiritual common sense of Lao Tsu, the Buddha, and other champions of the human spirit; and the ancient Sanskrit concept of "dharma," which states that all of our actions should resonate with our highest self.

Written in thoughtful, literate prose, the book invites readers to participate in Five Levels of Engagement:

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