Yawar started life in Hyderabad, India, went to the best school at the time, Hyderabad Public School, trained dogs and horses, excelled in staddle seat equittion and dressage and played polo. Went to work at the age of 19 to Kwakwani, a mining town on the bank of the Berbice River, Guyana and spent 5 years in the Amazonian rain forest, River, Guyana and spent 5 years in the Amazonian rain forest. Worked for 10 years in the tea gardens in Anamallais and started a consulting company specializing in leadership development. Over 27 years, he has traveled the world and trained more than 200,000 people. He is a consultant and advisor to big names in the business world as well as business families, starts-ups and NGOs. He has written 8 books and more than 100 papers on a range of subjects and speaks internationally on leadership, family business consulting, Islam, politics and Human Resource Management. He speaks five languages. This book is a distillation of lessons learnt in 55 years living a life blessed with encounters with truly wonderful people. This is a tribute of thanks to all those who touched his life, to honor them. For the teacher, the best thinks is a student who practices what he learnt.

We are living in exciting times (2009). I am not sure if everyone will agree with my description of these times as 'exciting', but I know the entrepreneurs will. This book is for them. I have been an entrepreneur, formally (in the sense of owning my own business) for the past 26 years. I started while I was in a regular full time job and worked at learning and building a management consulting business for 12 years. This book is the result of a lot of questions that I have answered over the years. Today, as I look at the world around me, the landscape of the so-called global meltdown, I see opportunity.

”In my practice of helping business leaders develop a winning culture, the thing that I have been most keenly aware of, is the need to hire winners. It is true that good training can achieve much. But it is equally true that no matter how good the training course or the trainer there are some things which can’t be ‘trained in’. Losers will never become winners because of training. The qualities, characteristics, behaviors, values and beliefs that make a winner must necessarily be hired. Effective interviewing is the best and perhaps the only way to ensure that this happens. Skills can then be taught by focused training. ‘Hiring Winners’ is a step by step about how to hire the winners to make your organization a winner.”

Mirza Yawar Baig is the Founder & President of YAWAR BAIG & ASSOCIATES™, International Speaker, Coach, Trainer, Author and Facilitator specializing in helping people become leaders in all aspects of life. His book, ‘The Business of Family Business’ shows family businesses how to transform from being ‘Person-driven to becoming Process-driven’. Yawar works as a life coach and mentor for prominent business families in India, South Africa & Sri Lanka. He transcends cultural boundaries by blending Eastern values with Western systems. His latest book, ‘An Entrepreneur’s Diary’ traces his own journey as an entrepreneur and shows how to translate theory into practice that pays. Yawar’s style comprises openness, commitment to quality and value-based professionalism. Yawar speaks five languages.