March 12, 2012
Through a series of unfortunate setbacks and questionable decisions, business journalist Newman (coauthor of Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11) was at a crossroads as he entered middle age and decided to research the concept of failure. What he found proved to be rich fodder for this insightful look at how setbacks can actually be a springboard to success and how certain personality traits allow individuals to rebound from adversity. Newman draws on the lives and experiences of noteworthy businesspeople, innovators, and artists, including Ben Franklin, who as a young man faced numerous financial obstacles, and Thomas Edison, who overcame deafness, failed experiments, and economic difficulties to become one of the greatest inventors of our time. He also examines the lives of contemporary rebounders like Tim Westergren, the eventually successful founder and CEO of radio juggernaut Pandora; Grammy Award–winning singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, who struggled for decades before achieving artistic renown; and Jack Bogle, who suffered a rough childhood and an unceremonious firing from a prestigious CEO job before founding the legendary Vanguard Group. This engaging work is sure to inspire readers to view adversity and failure from a new perspective, much as Bogle did when he said, “I have come to regard failure as another essential of leadership.” Agent: Lisa Gallagher, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.
March 1, 2012
Some people deal with failure better than others. U.S. News & World Report chief business correspondent Newman (co-author: Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11, 2008, etc.) offers some reasons why. Looking for the quality that enables some people to bounce back from failure and adversity quicker than others, the author singles out resilience. "Rebounders" recover while "Wallowers" do not. While some view failure as an opportunity to improve, others just sit around and complain about how they've been wronged. Newman examines a series of detailed studies of people from different walks of life, all of whom qualify as rebounders. He looks at their shared qualities--e.g., having a bias toward action, being comfortable with discomfort, reserving the right to change their minds, etc. Newman's subjects include: musician Lucinda Williams; restaurant owner-operator Thomas Keller; former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre; Tammy Duckworth, an Army helicopter pilot who fought back from double amputation to run for Congress; and James Blake, a world-class tennis player who recovered his form after suffering a broken neck. Persistence of this sort is one of the qualities the author includes under the umbrella of resilience. It applies to the attitude Thomas Edison brought to the work of discovery, as well as to John Bogle's lifetime dedication to building the Vanguard investment company. Newman also discusses Cheers actor John Ratzenberger and Majora Carter, a leader in efforts to revive New York's South Bronx. An entertaining use of case studies to support self-help activity.
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