Jerry Colonna, my friend, coach and mentor has written a wonderful book on Leadership. I listened to the audio book and I have ordered several copies to give to founders. The book is Reboot: Leadership and the art of growing up. I was privileged to attend one of the first workshops that Jerry and his team organized in Devil’s Thumb Ranch in Colorado in 2014. Jerry has taken his life experience, all that was shared in a number of those workshops and all the coaching sessions that he and his team have gone through and condensed them into wisdom through this book. It was a fantastic listen. I was laughing and crying, I was inspired by the courage of Jerry and the founders whom he has worked with and I was finally able to rest back on my own purpose of working with founders. I highly recommend the book to all, not just founders and investors. This book is for everyone because everyone is a leader.
Jerry has been on shows with a number of people whom he has coached or worked with, here are some of those recommending the book. Tim Ferriss with Jerry Colonna, the coach with a spider tatoo. 10 percent happier with Dan Harriss. Brad Feld interviewing Jerry. I wish every founder I work with has the opportunity to engage with Jerry. It would be a transformative experience for them. I wish my Dad had met Jerry because my dad was an entrepreneur and I struggled to understand the challenges my dad was going through as a founder. I wish he had a coach like Jerry. My dad is no more and a lot of what I do is a tribute to my dad the Entrepreneur.
I have been sitting on writing a blog post as a tribute to my Dad, the entrepreneur. I need to have the strength and courage to finish that post. It is long overdue. Jerry played a significant role is unwrapping some of my purpose and also the connection I had with my dad. Did I mention that Jerry through his coaching and the book has the super power to make any leader cry? He is called the CEO Whisperer for a reason. I have cried on many such occasions. Read the book, if you think being open and authentic about what you feel is a sign of weakness as some of you would be thinking right about now. This book is going to be of immense help to you.
The sign of strength comes from being vulnerable, people centered and kind. Everything that founders do, feels like bravo, macho, disruptive, ego centered, man against and world thing. I can tell you with all due respect that is not how winning is done. This is also the reason why I feel Women Founders are a lot more balanced as founders, as they don’t have any challenge in being caring, vulnerable but strong. Some times I get the feeling that women founders feel that they need to act like men to prove that they can do this company building thing. The truth cannot be farther from that. We are all made differently, men, women, founder, investor, etc but understanding what we are put on this planet to do is the big question. We muddle through this question or a number of us never get a chance to ask that question, they are the unlucky ones. The lucky ones are those who are thrown into the fire pit and the only way to get out of that fire pit in one piece is if they ask that question and work through it. I was one of the lucky ones. Read the book and it will make you get lucky as well.
