Book Review: Be Unstoppable

 One of the things I enjoy looking for are success parables: fictional stories which are meant to be instructional in matters of success or business.  

I enjoy looking for them, because most of the ones I have read are poorly designed fables masquerading as tales "cleverly" giving guidance and advice in a fictional format.  The standard industry one, once upon a time, was Who Moved The Cheese? which I read once and wondered what all the fuss was about.  Another was a similar book that I no longer remember the title of which presented ones career as a fantasy quest (as an old Dungeons and Dragons fan, I was not impressed).  The best by far I have read is The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldblatt (which introduces the Theory of Constraints).

Today we will review a success book written as a fable.

(Note:  This edition is a later one.  I have the earlier, first edition published in 2013)

Be Unstoppable takes us to Hardwork Harbor, where everyone goes to school and at the end of their schooling is given a boat.  From there, they are to make their way in the world, learning to travel different routes and building their careers. In a reflection of their careers, their boats come to reflect their owners and how they spend their lives.

Our protagonist is Tim, a recently graduate of UpToYou University, who is just starting his career.  Tim works hard upon graduation to learning the routes and winds and sandbars of Hardwork Harbor.  He begins to venture out until on his first trip to the North, he runs aground on a Harbor and has to be towed back.  Disgraced in the eyes of his classmate Ted to whom everything seemed to come easily, a remarkable ship pulls into the harbor and docks next to Tim. Named Persistence her Captain, Peter, invites Tim to dinner and makes him an offer:  would he like to learn the Master and Commander Code, the code that teaches young seamen like Tim how to become captains that chart their own course and sail the world?

His answer of "yes" - and his commitment to do whatever the code requires - leads to a day and half of conversation with Captain Peter aboard the Persistance, learning the 8 principles that make up the code (seen on the paddle above as UPERSIST).

At the time (2013) this was Mills' first book.  He uses his experiences, from starting out as an asthmatic child to rowing team to attending the Naval Academy to becoming a SEAL to founding his first product, The Perfect Pushup (Now the Perfect Fitness Company), as a background and supplement to the story.  After each of the 8 steps, he lists a personal story of how he applied this principle to a personal challenge.

The principles? 

Understand the why

Plan in three dimensions

Exercise to execute

Recognize your reason to believe

Survey your habits

Improvise to overcome

Seek expert advice

Team up

The book is a relatively easy read and - if this was Mills' first writing effort - is well done. Although the world is somewhat contrived, the characters are all authentic and real.  Captain Peter, for all the fact he knows the answers, comes across as someone one might actually meet (I suspect, undoubtedly, a compilation of such men in Mills' life).  His crew members Jacques (the chef) and Robert (the Engineer) fill particular roles to move the story forward, but are not quite the cardboard cutouts that such characters can be.  Tim, as an eager student, is written to be not too naïve - sometimes he makes connections before it is fed to him by Captain Peter which is a realistic touch.

Is there anything novel here?  If you read the principles above, you will probably find things that you have seen in other motivational or success materials.  I do think the building of the 8 elements one another works well - after all, if you do not not why you are doing something for example, why plan for it?  And his personal applications help to demonstrate each principle in action.

(Warning:  As a former SEAL and founder of a fitness company, Mills is pretty physically focused.  At least one of his principles - Exercise to execute - really is about physical fitness, and it is mentioned more than one time in other parts of the text.  The idea - that physical health helps drive performance both mental and physical - is sound; it may ring a bit hollow to those whose health is not the best.)

Bottom line, of course, is what did I think?

I re-read this book at the beginning of this year; that I can recall, this is first time since I read the book (in maybe 2016).  The things I underlined then still applied, and I highlighted a great many more.  While there is nothing necessarily novel in the book, the story is real enough that the lessons sort of slide into the general flow of the narrative - which is exactly the sort of success or life lessons fiction book that I think can relay these lessons the best.

Verdict:   Worth a read at 140 pages, especially if you are looking for a different take on principles to do better.  It is enough of a fiction book to be enjoyable and the lessons are simple enough that even 10 years after reading it, I still had things to learn.