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BOOK REVIEW: Business inspiration in digestible doses

How is My Driving? Motivational Tips for Success in Business and Life, by Larry O’Sullivan

The book opens with this quotation from personal coach Steve Chandler: “Anytime a thought, a sentence or paragraph inspires you or opens your thinking, you need to capture it like a butterfly in a net, and later release it into your own field of consciousness.”

And this is exactly what Larry O’Sullivan has done in this book. As a former private banker with FNB, with 40 years’ experience, he was exposed to the realities of business life.

Far from the glorified, airbrushed version of the Hollywood movies, I have never met anyone who has had a smooth ride to success. It is therefore hardly surprising that so much of the best writing about business rates the ability to correct and keep on going as the determinant of success.

Combine Chandler’s insight and O’Sullivan’s experience and you have the essence of "How is My Driving?”.

The book is divided into 16 parts ranging from “Attitude” to “Passion”, “Success and Being the Best”, “Service”, “Balance in Life”, and much in between.

Each section is a collection of short (half-page) insights and inspiring stories. These have been gleaned from decades of reading and gathering this type of material.

The chapter “Mistakes, accountability, and excuses” contains a quotation from Donald Porter, vice-president of British Airways: “Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.”  

A wise man once said: “Admitting a mistake defines. Not admitting a mistake denies. Lying about a mistake destroys. Repeating a lie will not make it true.” The chapter opens with the quotation: “An apology is the superglue of life. It can repair just about anything.”

Quoted from the book “Art and Fear” is a story of a ceramics teacher who divided his class into two groups. One was graded on the amount of pottery they could produce, and the other on the quality. The highest quality posts were produced by the “quantity” group, not the “quality” group.

It seems as if the “quantity” group were continuously learning from their many mistakes, while the “quality” group never produced enough to get to quality.  

Try, try and try again

Trying, learning and failing… and then trying again, is far more effective than thinking about the perfect product. This is as true with pottery as it is with business.

In the chapter “Service Ethos” O’Sullivan relates the unusual practices of Danny Flannigan, a former navy pilot who flies for United Airlines. He welcomes every passenger aboard his plane, and goes way beyond the call of duty to do things others have never considered doing.

For example: calling parents of children travelling alone to comfort them; sending handwritten notes to frequent flyers; and taking photos of dogs in cargo to assure their owners that their pets are safe.

When Flannigan was asked why he does this, he replied: “I want to treat them like my family, and it works.” His unique way of relating has rubbed off on his crew, who also provide exceptional service. He added value to his job description, his life, and those of his passengers, O’Sullivan points out.

The chapter “Values” has a story of an African-American girl born into poverty to unwed parents. She never met her father, who abandoned the family before she was born. She lived with her grandmother, then her mother, and was abused by her cousin, uncle and a family friend. She ran away from home at 13, and miscarried a year later. Today she is probably the most influential woman alive – Oprah Winfrey.

She never allowed past nightmares to get the better of her, rising bove the nightmares to become a wonderful role model to millions around the globe.

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is that little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow,” says Mary Anne Radmacher.

Too many inspirational writers and speakers believe that “anything the mind of man can conceive, he can achieve”. This is a recipe for failure and disappointment. O’Sullivan’s work treats this issue through the story of Willy Loman, from Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman.”

Willy spends his life chasing his dream of being the best salesman in the world, and so spends his days oscillating between hope and despair. He lives with the delusion that the next sale will make it all worthwhile. He tortures himself with the belief that if he were only more persistent or more confident, he would hit jackpot and be a success. In the play he never achieves success, and ends up committing suicide.

“Willy did not stop to… analyse why he was failing. He didn’t take time to consider where his strengths or passions actually lay.”

Business can be punishingly hard. The business world is tough. You cannot expect any favours. You have to keep pushing on. To do that you need daily inspiration, in small digestible doses.

Larry’s book is exactly that. Keep it next to your bed, on your desk, or in your car. Consult it daily. You will be pleased you did.


Readability:    Light +---- Serious
Insights:        High +---- Low
Practical:        High -+--- Low

* Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works. Views expressed are his own.
 
   

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