EMPOWER

A fitness and personal-development coach who’s worked with NFL players and female boxers in Afghanistan recalls his efforts to help people conquer “the disease of fear.”

Writing with veteran sportswriter and broadcaster Davis, Azim takes a strikingly different approach than Gavin de Becker did in his signal 1997 bestseller, The Gift of Fear. While de Becker used scholarly research to bolster his argument that fear sends people vital clues that help them stay safe, Azim offers a largely personal perspective, asserting repeatedly—without citing scientific evidence to support his claim—that fear is a “disease” holding people back. Azim came to America at the age of 2 with his Afghan-refugee parents—his mother, the daughter of a general, and father, who was de facto nobility—and went on to become the first Afghan American linebacker in Division 1 and to open Empower, a now-defunct San Francisco training and personal-development facility. Over time, he worked with former Oakland Raiders’ head coach Tom Cable; MMA star Jake Shields; and former Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, who contributes an introduction to the book. But the most interesting sections explain how, during visits to Afghanistan, the author—hoping to promote social change—set up the country’s first women’s boxing federation, a risky process that involved meetings with Taliban members and training in a stadium once used for public executions. Alternating between accounts of his work in the U.S. and Afghanistan, Azim emerges as sincerely well meaning. Many of his views, however, may strike readers as oversimplified and long on bromides—e.g., to reach your goals you need “to become comfortable with discomfort.” On visits to U.S. military bases, for example, he urged soldiers not to fear Afghans, saying, “These people don’t want to kill you,” although Islamic State forces include Afghans. More nuance would have made this breezy account more convincing.

A mixed effort that melds a unique view of Afghan women and an unpersuasive examination of the dynamics of fear.