Follow Here To Purchase Grit in Your Craw: The 8 Strengths You Need to Succeed in Business and in Life

Author:Robert Luckadoo

Publisher:Southern Flair Communications

ISBN: 978-0-9907856-0-6 (Print) 978-0-9907856-1-3 (Ebook)

There’s no particular harm in reminding people that they can be more successful in business and in life by being diligent, tenacious, optimistic, flexible, resilient, confident, purposeful, brave, clean, and reverent. Sorry, the last three came out of the Boy Scout Manual, with which Robert Luckadoo’s first book bears certain tonal similarities. On the other hand, there’s no particular need for these reminders given the plethora of self-help books already available, particularly when they are presented in a rather didactic style using a multitude of truisms and clichés, e.g. make your own luck, fork in the road, roll with the punch, quality time, get outside your comfort zone, you can’t get better without practice, and today’s teenagers’ mot du jour, awesome.

Fortunately, Mr. Luckadoo’s book is only part lecture on uncontroversial subjects. The book is also a memoir on key events in the author’s extremely fascinating and varied life. The reader is treated to the author’s experiences as a young farm hand, college pre-med, geology major, athletic coach, racecar driver, sheep farmer, amateur pilot, insurance salesman, and an entrepreneur engaged in the development and sale of businesses.

This reviewer’s clear favorite was the author’s experience as a Colorado sheep farmer. Here we meet Bruno, the Great Pyrenees sheepdog. Bruno, not only faithfully protects the herd from predators of various kinds, but also serves as mid-wife for sheep delivering their young. The description of the manner in which Bruno performs both functions simultaneously was both informative and inspirational. As today is the second day of The Year of the Sheep, this account is particularly timely.

Bruno is not the only animal that is a source of inspiration to Mr. Luckadoo. He learns lessons also from mules, who, like forces in Libya, accept leadership from behind, and ants of various kinds. And, of course, the book’s catchy title is derived from the birds.

A few humans are also fondly remembered by the author, most notably his heroic mother, who endeared herself to me with the following expression of ultimate pragmatism, “If you major in geology, where will you ever get a job?”

Toward the book’s end, the following remarkable statement is made: “I gave in to God’s purpose put my fingers on the keyboard and let Him take over.” Sounds a bit like Joseph Smith writing the Book of Mormon, with the author using a keyboard instead of gold plates and the Urim and Thummin. I was surprised to see that despite divine inspiration and the effort of an editor whose work was described by the author as, you guessed it, “awesome,” the word “slowy” (which spell check would have spat out) managed to creep into the text.

There are lots of references to God, his plan, and the Bible, most of which I found confusing or contradictory. I suppose the faithful will take them on faith. The rest of us will need a lot of grit in our craw to swallow them.