SISTER WISDOM : build a better life

Obstacles Welcome: Turn Adversity to Advantage in Business and Life

by Ralph de la Vega, President and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets.

4 out of 5 stars

How does a book about being a successful business executive translate into something helpful for a Mom, writer, and homemaker?

Turn Obstacles to Opportunities

De la Vega's message is simple but profound: you're going to face obstacles in life. You can either spend your life ducking and running, cursing and complaining, drifting and resenting, or you can see the obstacles as opportunities and use them as stepping stones toward the life you want to have.

Ralph de la Vega faced his obstacles early on. He came to the United States alone as a ten-year-old immigrant after his parents were denied permission to leave Cuba. Four years later his parents joined him in America, and in that time between ten and fourteen Ralph got his first chance to practice what would become his life philosophy: learn to welcome obstacles and make them serve you.

From Business to Home

There are plenty of business stories and applications of de la Vega's philosophy to the business world in the book, and while the issues that affect the daily work of a CEO aren't the same as the issues that affect me, I still pulled some valuable lessons from the book. That's de la Vega's vision for what he shares, that it will help not just business executives but everyday people with everyday problems. And if we applied his principles for success, we'd all see a lot more goal-reaching and a lot less whining.

For example, de la Vega talks about "pivotal points" in life. These are the times when we face big changes or challenges and, says de la Vega, these "life-direction changes" are "the greatest opportunity for learning and growing." His advice is to quit trying to avoid the challenges and instead to "seek them and embrace them."

Key Points Worth Remembering

A few other key points that translate well from the business world to the personal/home world:

• "Embrace obstacles because they provide opportunities to grow in your personal and professional life."
• Opportunities often come disguised as problems.
• "Be comfortable with being uncomfortable... be willing to venture outside your comfort zone." (This concept really helped me to deal with some writing jobs I wanted to tackle but wasn't familiar with.)
• "Unlearning is also a part of getting better." (How many times have we all acted insane, doing the same thing and expecting different results? This concept is a great reminder to me: if it's not working, try changing! Especially as a parent, you have to willing to unlearn the old ways and learn new ways with each new phase of parenting.)
• "Dreaming big makes you more likely to succeed as long as you match your dreams with hard work."
• "Only you can allow limits to be imposed on your dreams."
• "Your communication must be clear, concise, and consistent."
• A vision won't work without a plan, and "the plan should identify specific steps you need to take to achieve it."
• "To create anything of value, you must sacrifice."
• "Create an environment that makes contributing easy." (I'm working on how this translates to creating a home environment that makes it easy for my children to contribute.)
• "Focus. Leaders concentrate on critical things, not everything." (Substitute "effective home makers/writers/mommies" for "leaders." Makes me feel a lot better about ignoring the dirty baseboards and ceiling fans in favor of reading aloud to my kids, spending quality time with my husband, finishing up an article I'm inspired about, or taking a ltitle extra time to rest and regroup. Critical things, not everything.)

Writing Style and Repetition

The only element of the book that keeps me from giving it a full five stars is the writing style and some needless repetition. The writing style is just a bit stiff, sometimes awkward, and full of more business jargon and abstract terms than it has to be to get the message across. And de la Vega tends to repeat his stories as he draws different lessons from them, which kind of makes my eyes glaze over until I get to the new material. A bonus: I love the"Takeaway Messages" at the end of each chapter which succinctly state the, well, takeaway messages.

Bottom Line: A great book for folks in the business world, and one I think any manager or executive could learn from and enjoy reading. Not as great for the Mom-Reader model, as getting the concepts requires a bit of wading through business waters; but if you're a Mom with a business background or an ongoing entrepreneurial interest/activity of your own, this is a great read that will offer you wisdom to apply in your personal life, parenting life, and business life.