Testimonial by Bess Kercher
Like the sunny rays cutting across its beautiful cover, this thoughtful memoir is deeply illuminating for those interested in exploring what informs a consequential life. Despite the title’s declaration, McIntyre’s story is deeply instructive. Told with great insight and spanning generations and continents, the many life experiences and subsequent questions that drive the narrative make for a uniquely engaging read. This is a story only he could tell, but its many compelling lessons are easily accessible for everyone.
When the author finds himself at a crossroads negotiating the sale of a successful business he built from scratch, while also desperate to negotiate the terms of his cancer treatment, his subsequent sense-making and reflection reveal what is truly important: people, and our connection with them. McIntyre vividly depicts many incredible relationships that infuse his life with love, adventure, faith, success, hope, and meaning. After assuming many risks to reap the rewards of a profitable business, and while calling the shots along the way, we find that the one in charge must surrender to forces beyond his control.
He who has been able to offer great help comes to depend upon accepting help from others, and the reader feels the loss of McIntyre’s equilibrium—but also understands that those life experiences that have required ingenuity, resilience, flexibility, and courage will arm him well to get to the other side of this punishing and scary time. Ultimately moving through healing and recovery, McIntyre is once again able to offer care and support to others—and he does, with newfound appreciation. As the waves of change ebb and flow, McIntyre shares an essential truth, and a valuable lesson learned: “loads are lighter when the lifting is shared.”
I was fascinated to learn the history of McIntyre’s company. Besides fitting together the puzzle pieces of a successful enterprise, the many different people who intersected with this process were a pleasure to meet. McIntyre reflects about all he learned being a business owner — “You start doing something and gather so much more along the way” — an apt description for readers experiencing this story.
If there is an answer to be found in this book [without them], it is to keep questioning and growing, doing and connecting. Apathy is not recommended; however, learning to be still and open is very much encouraged. As McIntyre writes, I like the neat and orderly arrangement of things. But when I relax, really relax, I don’t see constellations or even each star, only the darkness between them. The darkness is older and wiser. The stars are only distractions; the real wisdom lies deep beyond, in the dark. This story shines a bright light upon McIntyre’s life experiences to remind us not to fear the unknown, or to be desperate for control.
Happiness comes from immersing yourself in the questions, to never stop learning from what life brings you, and from appreciating the people who share your journey with you. Slow down and pay attention, he urges us, take it all in … think beyond bitter and sweet to the hundreds of other flavors … savor life. This is a book to which I will surely return, to spend time with its brightly wrought characters, to revisit the pleasing and descriptive writing, and to contemplate the many lessons offered and apply them to my own life.
These are words that linger, planting seeds for personal and universal understanding—a hallmark of a great memoir. It’s as if McIntyre and this book have graciously embodied the affirming instruction of his parents, “Work on it, then I’ll be along.”