"A man draws lessons from a serious bike accident in Berridge’s memoir.
In March 2019, the author was out with the COGs (Coorparoo Older Guys), his biking group, in a Brisbane suburb. He’d left his wife, Lucy, in bed and was chatting with his biking companions about his sons, Luke and Charlie, and an imminent, much-anticipated business trip to the United States when suddenly his life changed: He suffered a bike crash. “I remember the terrible sensation of my shoes being wrenched from their cleats and my hands being ripped from their grip on my brake levers,” he writes, “as my body weight surged forward, catapulting from my bike.” The force of the crash seriously injured him, compressing two of his vertebrae, fracturing his left shoulder, wrist, and three ribs, and damaging his spinal column. His business trip was canceled and all aspects of his life became immediately focused on dealing with his injuries and recovering (“Physically everything in life is just harder,” he writes simply). As Berridge takes the reader through the details of his recovery, he links the details to the broader life and business lessons he’s gleaned from that long and difficult process. This is a standard memoir gambit, and the author deploys it wonderfully in frank, readable prose that feels very approachable. Some of the insights can be predictable or pat, such as, “by navigating our tough moments, we discover who we are,” but enough of the material is detailed and genuine enough to make it worth the reader’s time. Berridge repeatedly returns to the idea of embracing uncertainty, whether regarding an accident like his, the death of a loved one, or the fear of losing a job. “Strengthening your ability to tolerate that uncertainty,” he writes, “is integral to your resilience, and success.” Readers don’t need to be in traction to learn a lot here.
A powerful and heartfelt motivational work."
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