Faced with an 11 hour flight to today’s training delivery event near San Francisco and as the option to ‘wear some flowers in my hair’ seemed pointless, I downloaded a new audio book to ‘sharpen the saw’ and gain new insights on old topics.

‘First Man in’ by Ant Middleton is an autobiography that summarises each chapter as ‘Leadership’ lessons learnt.
I’d watched Mutiny, tracing Captain Bligh’s epic journey, and SAS: Who Dares Wins (My Dad was LRDG and Special forces in WW2,so had an interest in Special Forces from an early age.)

I was unaware of Ants personal life and the road he’s travelled, it was an eye opener far removed from the glamour of TV. You could argue his personality is flawed and he’s made plenty of mistakes in life but his drive and determination to be the best is inspiring.

Each chapter is summarised by the life lessons he has learnt, which could easily apply to sound leadership principles.

As a leadership book per se, it might not be what your looking for. However if you have an interest in personal development, building self confidence or just want a thought provoking read that encourages you to self reflect its well worth a listen.