Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life
Product Description
2008 Retailer’s Choice Award winner!
Tony Dungy’s words and example have intrigued millions of people, particularly following his victory in Super Bowl XLI, the first for an African American coach. How is it possible for a coach–especially a football coach–to win the respect of his players and lead them to the Super Bowl without the screaming histrionics, the profanities, the demand that the sport come before anything else? How is it possible for anyone to be successful without compromising faith and family? In this inspiring and reflective memoir, Coach Dungy tells the story of a life lived for God and family–and challenges us all to redefine our ideas of what it means to succeed. Includes a foreword by Denzel Washington…. More >>
Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life
The bait: The cover photographs, title, subtitle, back cover, and book flaps, all of which benignly indicate the book’s about Dungy’s football coaching style as he believes it can be applied to life. The switch: “We are blessed and privileged to write the foreword to a book that truly represents the power of God and the rewards of obedience to God’s Word,” the first line in the atrociously written foreword by Pauletta and Denzel Washington. Until this, the reader has no way of knowing this book pushes an evangelical Christian agenda. Should the reader already know Dungy’s religion?
For shame! I blame Tyndale Publishers for this. I also blame them for allowing this cobbled together book to go to press before it was ready. It was started after the February 2007 Super Bowl and was released in July 2007–way too short a time to produce a good book.
Because of this, I wanted to assign QUIET STRENGTH one star but I upped it to two because it DOES contain some redeeming/thought provoking ideas:
*”I know I can have blanket rules, but blanket rules don’t always fit every individual. I need to treat everybody fairly, but fair doesn’t always mean equal.”
*”The truth is that most people have a better chance to be uncommon by effort than by natural gifts. Anyone could give that effort in his or her chosen endeavor, but the typical person doesn’t, choosing to do only enough to get by.”
* “I knew that I had made the wrong decision. Just because a decision is deliberate doesn’t mean hindsight won’t make it clearer. And walking closely with the Lord, trusting Jesus, and looking to the Bible for guidance doesn’t guarantee that we’ll always make the right decision.”
I don’t doubt Dungy is a man of principle. Obviously his publisher hasn’t adopted his principles.
The book was a little dispointing and not what I was expecting – religion, not football or leadership, was the central theme.
There is nothing special about this book. I was curious what I’d think of it, given that I am not a Colts fan and am not religious. Despite assurances that it would be worth reading anyway, I wouldn’t give somebody else the same recommendation.
It is not a bad book, however. For a football fan, there are recollections from Dungy’s career — ranging from being a bit player to coaching the Bucaneers to coaching the Colts. Also, the “life lessons” certainly are valid — they’re just not anything an adult shouldn’t already know.
(For what it’s worth, I don’t tend to read many sports bios, despite being a sports fan, or any self-help books. Quiet Strength may in fact be better than most examples of both genres, but it simply does not live up to the acclaim it has received, in my opinion.)
I feel kind of bad because I really like Dungy and I *really* wanted to like this book. But I kept waiting for this book to say something that’s not totally predictable, and I’m done waiting. I feel like I could have written this by (a) getting a copy of his resume and (b) knowing that he’s a Christian. There’s just not much to this one, and that’s not saying anything about Dungy, who by all accounts is a great guy. But not all lives of great guy make for great books, and that’s the case in this one.
This was a present for my husband. It came in good time and he is inspired by Tony Dungy’s words