This book is for . How? By teaching a skill that is one of the most powerful success enablers: critical thinking. Success is the result of superior decisions based on rigorous analysis and thorough understanding. Therefore, long-term success requires complete understanding of critical thinking and the ability to apply it in decision making. is a The book not only helps to fully exploit a person's success potential, it also seeks to extend it. The simple truth is that . . Consequently, improving thinking will enable us to make better decisions that lead to more success and fulfillment. Unfortunately, critical thinking is in marked decline in modern society. Feel-good approaches such as positive thinking have taken over. As a consequence, more and more important decisions are made without rigorous analyses and thoughtful reflection. It is not surprising that many people, teams, and organizations fail to reach their goals and remain far below their success potential. This book by teaching, step-by-step, the powerful concepts and tools of critical thinking. Real-life examples taken from business, finance, and sports serve as illustrations. Practice exercises are included at the end of each chapter. The powerful combination of practical teaching, real-life examples, and practice exercises creates a launchpad for achieving more success and better outcomes. From martial arts, the author adopted the concept of mastering different colored belts (i.e., white belt to brown belt) to mark the progress in learning. The focus of this book is on the foundation of critical thinking. A preview of the black belt classes of critical thinking (the subject of another book) is included at the end.