A Bounty of Books

Obstacles Welcome chronicles Ralph de la Vega's journey from Cuban immigrant to the president and CEO of AT&T Mobility. He uses six "pivotal points" from his career to share lessons he's learned about turning obstacles into advantages both in the business world and in life. De la Vega gives advice on important skills such as effective communication, how to be an effective leader, creating and maintaining a guiding vision, and learning from both obstacles and mistakes. His overall theme is that anyone can succeed in life, if only he/she maintains discipline, focus and a positive outlook.

Overall, I found Obstacles Welcome extremely hard to get through. I devour books, and this one took me over four months to finish because I just did not want to pick it up and trudge through it. The content was full of clichés and stated and restated way too many times. There was too much unneeded elaboration and not enough personal examples; the personal examples that were included were vague and did not provide the sense of reality to back up the principles given. There is good content in Obstacles Welcome; however, it just is not enough for a book. A pamphlet or a two hour lecture would be more than enough to cover the unique content in the book. The most positive thing I can say is that the "Takeaway Messages" at the end of each chapter were an effective part of the book.

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255