Book #7: Tony Dungy - A Quiet Strength

 

A Quiet Strength

Tony Dungy

 Released: June 1st, 2008

 (Was originally written December 19th, 2022)

Bonus Book #1 finished.  

Truly inspirational read (in case the 400 quotes hadn’t given that away 😄).  

Tony Dungy is a deeply religious man.  His faith in God is unquestioned.  His leadership is driven by a sense of calmness and rational thinking.  His wife is a deeply supportive partner who has the ability to push him when he struggles to get a true sense of something as well as celebrate his victories and milestones in life.  The way he returns the favor as a husband, a father, and leader of not just the football teams he has led, but the cities and communities he has inspired, is very honorable.  

His ability to erase the walls of racial divide, and unite people together regardless of skin color is tremendous. He mentions many times in his book the sense of “Do what we do.”  He rarely deviates from course, and that’s what led to his ultimate successes — his change of culture in Tampa Bay, his support of a true work/life balance, putting family first, as inspired by his former coach and mentor Chuck Noll, the difficulties of being traded away from a winning team to a losing team, working an unreasonable amount of hours for one coach, being fired by the Bucs in the midst of growing success, losing his mom to a lifelong battle with diabetes, losing his father to infection — after a short battle and recovery against leukemia — due to a weakened immune system from chemotherapy, losing his son to suicide at the age of 19 and the impact that carries to this day because of it, his years of struggles as a coach against the Eagles and later the Patriots, building up the Colts to become etched in stone forever as a championship team.  

His leadership is commendable, and I learned an incredible about about him, his family, his players, his coaching tree, and a very different style of leadership that can lead to just as much — if not greater — amount of success than some of the more difficult leadership styles we see in the modern day.  

Overall, great read, deeply humble, and many inspiring things to take away.  

On to Bonus Book #2.