TAKES MORE THAN HEART

A former pilot shares his account of medical trauma, career changes, and finding a new purpose in life.

In 2008, the author, a 56-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran and commercial airline pilot, suffered a sudden and severe heart attack while mountain biking in the foothills of Washington state’s Cascade Range. A dramatic rescue by passing hikers and emergency medical technicians, six days in the hospital, and cardiac stent surgery saved his life, but further procedures and weeks of rehabilitation took a heavy toll on his family. Worst of all, the heart damage meant that he could never again fly a plane. Determined to avoid “Geezerville,” Mellen tried teaching career and technical education at the high school level and took nonflying jobs in the aviation industry, but none of these positions lasted. Ultimately, he became a motivational speaker and high school baseball coach—both roles in which he felt he could make a difference in the lives of others. Mellen’s prose style is frank, conversational, and peppered with pop-culture and sports references as well as self-deprecating humor. The motivational and leadership-related material is earnest and its ideas are largely solid. However, the advice is this book is far from unique, and the author often repeats key points or expresses them with clichéd phrases such as “failure is not an option,” and “today is a gift”; the text also contains several distracting and overlong digressions. However, the author does make his deep gratitude and appreciation for his health care providers and family members clear as well as his genuine care and concern for his students and colleagues. He also refreshingly acknowledges some of the detrimental effects that cultural ideas about manliness can have.

Familiar but tried-and-true advice on leadership and motivation.