Chip Gaines and his wife Joanna Gaines are stars of the HGTV show, “Fixer Uppers.” Chip loves to buy homes and fix them up and spin them or sell them for more than he paid for them by doing all the repairs and updates on them himself he saves a bundle of money and by the homes being improved upon he can get back the cost he paid for the original plus all the materials he buys (or the show buys) and turn a tidy profit on the finished abode. That is where he is now (though he and his wife have decided to let that gig go after this season so they can focus more on their family – they are expecting their 5th child) but this book tells how he got to this point in his life. He is excellent at running businesses and has had many over his lifetime, but his skill set does not include keeping up with the financial paperwork that is where Joanna comes in. She is organized and a financial whiz and she kept the books at her father’s Firestone business. Chip is a great dreamer – he can dream up all kinds of ideas to try and work out creative business ventures he is also a great motivator and has such a terrific rapport with his employees that they pretty much do anything he asks of them and even more that he doesn’t have to ask because they just volunteer. Chip has a no holds barred gungho way of going at things, which tend to go his way in the end though the road to achieve that has sometimes been rocky. He is not afraid to lose everything (and has a couple of times) in order to achieve a goal and this book tells about his many experiences good and bad, teaching experiences and learning experieces, things that have left him with scars (literally) and things that have put him on the path to bigger and better. He and his wife talk freely about their faith and cite many learning endeavors throughout their lives and how these experiences relate to stories from the bible – Chip’s drop everything, take every penny you have in the world and move to Mexico to immerse himself in the culture to learn to speak fluent Spanish in order to be able to converse with his employees who speak little English allowed him to liken this event to the story of the prodigal son. Chip’s upbeat – glass half-full attitude is contagious and I bet he would be a great friend to have. This book is full of inspiration as well as moments you will say out loud, “What was he thinking?” He is not afraid to admit to the crazy tight rope walking over a crevice type stuff he has done to the successful multimillion dollar businesses he and his wife and employees have given a thousand percent to make viable. He balances his success stories with the work that got them to become reality and through it all their faith totally sustain them. If they feel God calling them to do something else no matter how well things are going at that time,, they will drop what is to do what will be. Very fun read and highly motivational – just goes to show what a little faith can accomplish.
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