You Don’t Have To Be A Shark:

You Don’t Have To Be A Shark: Creating Your Own Success by Robert Herjavec                    Audio Book:  8hrs.,  37 mins         Hardback Book:  288 pages           

Robert Herjavec first came to my attention when I saw him on “Dancing With the Stars.”    During the background info shown on the show I learned of his success as a business entrepreneur.   I also learned he came over from Yugoslavia as a child with his parents.   None of them spoke English.    Such a brave thing to do leave the familiar for the unknown and a new life to create, and braver still going to a new culture, without knowing the language.   I admire the bravery of the people who jump in and sink or swim.   He discusses all of this in this book.   The bravery he saw in his parents and the bravery that took to go for it on Dancing with the Stars because it was a skill he did not have and he always likes to push himself to learn new things and to do new things.    He works to movtivate the reader to do the same.   He talks about how he achieved his success and how while he may be on the t.v. show, “Shark Tank,” and for the cameras he sometimes has a meltdown or if the person on the show is not willing to work to achieve their goals or don’t take it seriously – you might see his tyrannical side, he assures the reader there are genuine reasons for that happening because he is a man of great faith in the Catholic religion and emphasizes to all of his staff that you don’t have to be rude, gruff or a bully to be the boss.    He sites many scenarios and true life happenings and the way things could have gone and the way they did.    His experience working at a homeless shelter has taught him to see all people as similar even though our circumstances may be very dissimilar.   Our backgrounds bring a lot to the table and ieven if people have low self-esteem he motivates one to not dismiss the skills we all bring whether we acknowledge them or not we all have a set of skills to bring we just have to find what brings out our passion to be able to be happy in what we do.    He says if we are not happy to go to our jobs then they aren’t inspiring our passion so folks should look to find what would spark that excitement and joy and if we follow that feeling it will bring us to our happy place in life – the place where our home life and work life can find a compatible meeting and we can find contentment and fulfilment then all we wish for can be achieved.   He goes in to so many good things, sometimes he comes across a little tyrannical but then he will soothe that by saying something really profound and turning back to a nice understanding guy.    He says sometimes as a boss you do have to reign things in if you feel it is necessary – you can’t ignore something today that might cause things to go off track down the road.  He makes good points and shares a lot of his own life and emotions with the reader such as how devastated his divorce and loss of visits with his children for 2 years about drove him over the edge of sanity.  He tells you how far he went then he tells you what got him to come back get himself in check and pull himself up by his bootstraps and get going on what he needed to do to achieve all of his goals and he is a very goal oriented guy.    He feels everyone needs goals in all aspects of their life in order to keep going on and achieving and receiving that dopamine rush from pure satisfaction in things going right in your life.    A good read.   I recommend it.