Mandela’s Way: Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage by Richard Stengel

Mandela’s Way: Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage by Richard Stengel

We long for heroes but have too few.” This is the first sentence of our newest book recommendation.

Do you think you would be able to endure 27 years of prison and almost a countless amount of indignities heaped upon you and be able work with the people who had done this to you? Keep in mind that during those 27 years in jail he was only able to see or correspond with his family very infrequently and was not allowed to have any physical conduct with them until very late in his term in prison.

With this heavy weight on injustice on your shoulders would you be able to negotiate with the people who had disrespected you and keep you behind bars? Nelson Mandela did just that. It’s an incredible story of what it takes to overcome ingrained prejudices and produce an outcome that hardly a soul alive would have suspected was possible.

Anyone capable of these feats certainly has learned lessons that the rest of us could implement, albeit in a smaller way, in our own lives. Richard Stengel, who collaborated with Mr. Mandela on his book, Long Walk to Freedom, spent three years with him on it and this book imparts the wisdom that he learned from Mr. Mandela as a result of that collaboration.

What are some of the lessons in the book?
“Courage is not the absence of fear… it’s learning to overcome it” page 29

“He radiates calm… Lose control and you lose the situation” page 39

“Don’t hurry, he would say; think, analyze, then act” page 53

“He would say don’t postpone the inevitable even though it might not be the solution you originally wanted.” page 70

“Mandela genuinely believed in the virtues of the team, and he knew that to get the best out of his own people, he had to make sure that they partook of the glory and, even more important, that they felt they were influencing his decisions.” page 75

“You can trust your friends … You can trust your enemies… but your friendly rivals – they are the ones you need to keep tabs on” page 151

“…he knows that the price of not saying no now makes it harder to say it latter. Better to disappoint someone early.” page 163

“Look, you may be right for a few days, weeks and months and years,” he would say, “but in the long run, you will reap something more valuable if you take a longer view.” page 173

Find your own private island, such as the garden Mr. Mandela planted in prison in which you can distract yourself from the events that are pressuring you. Use that place to renew and refresh yourself.

Incredibly after what he had lived thorough he was a man who didn’t allow himself to succumb to bitterness. He took the difficult path and united a land filled with parties that had long standing grievances against each other and managed to build one nation. He wanted to show everyone that looking forward was the key to building a nation that could encompass all the people. I wish we all could learn, and live, this lesson.

I can’t do the book justice here but I hope I have provided enough enticement for you to go purchase the book or get a copy from your local library. I think you will find it as inspiring as I did.