S D Lawendowski was born in the small town of South Bend, Indiana, in 1931. He spent his childhood in "nearby" Kankakee, Illinois. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he studied psychology and philosophy. He received his Ph.D
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from Columbia University in 1965 with a dissertation on how to develop leadership skills. His first book, The Psychology of Leadership, was published by McGraw-Hill in 1966. He has written over 30 books on topics ranging from marriage to coping to achievement to parenting.
He has also written heavily about leadership and human motivation, including books such as Leadership Without Easy Answers (1990) and The Power of Will (1997). His most recent books are Love is Not Enough (2008), Six Degrees of Love (2011), and Awakening Love (2013).