He tells us he wants us to have a big life and never live in fear of failure. I say this because I'll come back to this in later chapters. I get the impression this is the central theme of the book. Given it's on the cover it's a give away. I'll be comparing how his advice relates to this.
He was suspended for taking some friends to meet one of their girlfriends at another school. He was suspended for 2 weeks, 3 & 1/2 days.
But here is the crazy thing. He says his mum suffered from chronic depression. He burned his mum with it but they kept it a secret from his father. So for 2 weeks and 3 days he pretended to go to school. He only came clean to his father at 21 yo, i.e. 3 or 4 years later.
First bad advice for young people: Lie, to your father no less.
This mistake he says taught him multiple lessons. But he does not actually say that covering up the truth for 3 years is one of them. I've inferred that from the facts he presents.
He says of his school principal "A momentary combatant became, for me, a lifelong friend."
Hang on a second, "combatant". What kind of combat happened? Cause, I missed that part. As far as I can see he broke the rules and got punished.
Second bad piece of advice: People who enforce the rules are combatants. I wonder what Greg Medcraft thinks about that.
Greg Medcraft endorsed the book and is quoted in the front as saying:
I guess he would just want them to skip the bit about regulators being combatants.Alex Malley's book is all about helping young people have the courage to be he best they can. I urge them to get a copy and read it.
...and that is just the prologue.