Mandela's Way: Lessons for an Uncertain Age

A simple summary of the basic principles of Mandela's life. Excellent introduction to Mandela without slogging through very lengthy biographies. Also great reading on leadership and for business groups.

Richard Stengel's account of Nelson Mandela's natural leadership abilities is truly inspiring. I wish that I could come close to having the spirit that he portrays of Mandela in this personal reflection of a great human being.

A well written, easy to get absorbed in, account of Mandela's evolution. An account of his life told by someone who grew to not only respect, but also love him. It humanizes the legend that is Mandela.

I learned great lessons that would shape and make me a better person. I have been wondering how leaders began their life. I have no doubt that what formed you as a child would have a great impact on your future.

Honestly, I almost put the book down when the author first made the statement that Barrack Obama is the heir apparent to Mandela. There is no comparison with Mandela's honesty, integrity, and thoughtfulness to Obama's - "If you like your plan you can keep it". History will show Mandela as a man of honor and I believe history will show Obama as an expensive politician and no more. 27 years in prison to implement change is still beyond my comprehension.

I particularly liked the easy style used by the writer. It was as if I was there with him and as a result I got a better understanding of the man, Mandela, his thinking, his view of life and people, his likes and his dislikes. This was book that brought me closer to a man I wish I had the opportunity to meet personally.

There are 15 short chapters, referred to as 'lessons' in Richard Stengel's new book, "Mandela's Way: Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love and Courage," I confess that after reading the first four of them, "Courage is Not the Absence of Fear," "Be Measured," "Lead from the Front" and "Lead from the Back" I felt that I had the idea and was very close to putting the book down. The themes seemed clear and were already striking me as unnecessarily redundant. Mandela is a truly remarkable person, one who has lived at least three lives; One before his 27 years as a prisoner of the Apartheid regime in his native South Africa, the second while actually in prison and the third since his release. He has changed through each and has become the patient, calm man whose vision is always the 'long view' as opposed to what he regards as the less-than-useful 'short view' that he had when he was younger.
I decided to finish the book anyway. At 239 short pages, it seemed a small investment to see if there was still more to learn about him.
Stengel got very close to Nelson Mandela. For an extended period, he was by his side nearly constantly and had many, many more conversations that Mandela had originally agreed to. Clearly, the picture developed by Stengel became as important to the subject as it was to the author. The unusualness of the man is clear and while few others could be expected to arrive at his style, way of thinking and manner of approaching friends and enemies alike, one comes away from this brief but important book with the sense that it is, in the end, unusual people with unusual ways who achieve unusual (and in this instance, unlikely) things.
Viewed as a traitor by some former comrades, Mandela managed to shape a new reality in South Africa by doing things thought impossible. Speaking with old and viscous enemies like de Klerk, discouraging active violence which he had come to espouse at an earlier time, listening with observable respect to everyone - even to those he knew in his heart were wrong ... These qualities became possible as functions not just of having led two previous lives, but from having learned things he found useful from each of them.
Conventional wisdom suggests that we learn from experience. Nelson Mandela, as he is captured here by Richard Stengel, is a man who has demonstrated that experience does not, in and of itself, teach anything. Rather, experience presents us with an opportunity for learning.
No two people experiencing the same thing might come away having learned the same things from it. Nelson Mandela learned new ways to think and reason and new ways to facilitate change by taking on a seemingly trans-human calm and long view. Given the same circumstances, another man might have become more visibly angry. It is not that Mandela was not made angry, but learned to not show it. He learned the value of self-control and even of acting as a necessary means toward a valuable end.
The current nation of South Africa, as imperfect at least as every nation is, is a far better place that it would have been without the ministrations of this ever changed man.
Occasionally redundant as it may be, this revealing and worshipful tome is well worth a read by anyone interested in the specific man, the specific country or in the process of human change and development.

A lot of people like the misnamed "self-help" books. (Misnamed because as George Carlyn once said - "If you did it yourself, you didn't need help!"

I find self-help books annoying for the most part. Too pie in sky, vague, and with lots of grand quotes and way over the top explanations. A lot of times these same books grab quotes from famous people to justify their "steps" or make it appear as though this brilliant person agrees with them - when most of the time the quote is so out of context it has nothing to do with it. Too fruity, too unrealistic, too placing blame on self or others, etc.

The above paragraph is relevant to this review because this book - though the title put me off a little - every book that claims it holds "lessons of life, love, courage" etc... already raises a red flag for me. However, I like the Nelson Mandela story. His imprisonment, becoming president after so many years behind bars, one of the few transformative political figures that are still alive today. Not to mention living through and ending (at dramatically helping with the legal racisim) known in South Africa as Apartheid.

Though the chapters are named similarly to self-help books (Love, Courage, etc) the actual content is *for the most part* quite good. The book is written by someone who spent a couple of years living with Mandela every day, experiencing him every day, so it is full of good insight into the man. What follows is an easy pro/con chart to illustrate it more clearly.

Pros:
- Content is over 50% biographical/anecdotes about Mandela's daily life. You hear about his morning walks, what he did when he met a rugby team, what he did when meeting random people on the street, what he did when he met the president, why he liked his clothes a certain way, etc..
- Lots of good insight from someone close to Mandela, (the guy wrote his biography, so he knows Mandela and you get a good portion of that throughout the book)
- Positive - examples for the "lessons" are concrete with descriptions and details of events that Mandela did to illustrate the point.

Cons:
- There are a few parts where the book goes the way of more traditional self-improvement books and becomes quite annoying. Fortunately it quickly returns to the biographical aspect of his life to illustrate points and moves on.
- I am not sure Mandela would agree with some of the things Richard Stengel is saying. Since we have a 3rd party ascribing attributes to Mandela, it's not certain that Mandela feels that way. However, the author is close with Mandela so this should be very close to reality.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about Mandela - with a small caution about the "self-help" or "lessons" part of the book.

This is so very appropriate today. . . from the leadership skills to life skills and lessons learned. I never expected to read this. . . the book found me in a salon. I love when this happens. . . "Mandela is great because he triumphed over his flaws, not because he didn't have them." . . . and "People should know that their leaders are made of flesh and blood, that they are human." I enjoyed reading this book and couldn't put it down.

As an admirer of Nelson Mandela, I do believe that we all can learn a great deal from pondering the courage, integrity, and discipline expressed here in his approaches to life. Awareness of the horrors through which Mandela was sustained by these attitudes and approaches makes his ideas nothing short of inspirational. The brief treatment of various areas in his history is sufficient for one to grasp the scope - which was beyond even that which I already knew of him.

The writing style is another matter. Perhaps because the book is half-biography, half- 'self help', the chapters show little depth, and the author's manner of expression has no richness. I had more an impression of one taking notes than fleshing out incidents and character. There also is not a sufficient explanation of the historical events for those unfamiliar with the history to necessarily understand.

The essential messages are sound, but I did not find the book to be engrossing or stimulating - unexpectedly with so prominent and dynamic a man as Nelson Mandela as the subject.

This book contains a vivid portait of Nelson Mandela. I was not very familiar with the facts of his biography and it was moving to learn how prison tempered him, and the personal sacrifices required of him even before he was imprisoned, particularly the sacrifice of a normal family life. I was struck by how self-controlled he is, even now in retirement, and how the outward man and the inner one diverge. As a leader he was extremely careful to act in a way that would achieve his goals, and very deliberate in his outward demeanor. He did not indulge in destructive emotions. Beneath his smile, there seems to have been a stoicism that was nearly superhuman.

I don't think many people will find ideas that are totally new to them in these life lessons. Few readers will exclaim, "Act courageously as a way of becoming courageous? I never thought of that!" There aren't any truly new ideas here. But there is value in discovering how a truly great man cultivated and practiced virtues such as courage and moderation. This is written by an admirer of Mandela, and is a sincere and touching tribute.

What would Nelson Mandela do?

Toward the end of Mandela's Way, Richard Stengel asks this question. Stengel helped Mandela write his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, in the early 1990s, and this question helped him "internalize [Mandela] and his ideas." Mandela's Way is biographical, but with a moral point. How can reflecting on the life of Nelson Mandela help us live?

The tradition of biography as moral exercise is as old as the Greeks and Romans, not to mention Jews and Christians, but it has taken new form with the uniquely American literary genre of Leadership Secrets of X, usually some famous person. When I picked up Mandela's Way, I was hoping for the older form of the tradition but worried that I would get the newer one. Few things are more aggravating than the simplification of a person's life for the purpose of making the reader a better businessman. Stengel, thankfully, did not disappoint me.

As a college student in the late 80s and early 90s, I was aware of Mandela and the struggle of the African National Congress and others to end South African apartheid. I knew little about the man, however. Mandela's Way is an excellent introduction to his life and struggle, presented thematically rather than chronologically. If one metric of a book's quality is that it inspires you to read more on the subject, then this book is quite successful.

The subtitle of Stengel's book is Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love and Courage. My guess is that Stengel's publisher came up with this verbiage, as a nod to the newer form of moral biography. The lessons are simple--"Courage is not the absence of fear," "Lead from the front," "Lead from the back," etc.--without being simplistic. The way Stengel achieves this is by rooting each lesson in the context of Mandela's life, struggle, and self-reflection.

Prison dominates the narrative. Mandela spent three decades in South African prison. It molded him as a man and as a leader. It also cost him personally in many ways. Stengel takes measure of both the good and the bad in his portrait of Mandela's life. What emerges is a man who is morally tough, politically pragmatic--except on the all-important issue of a racially just South Africa, and personally resilient. Mandela's story inspired me.

"What would Nelson Mandela do?" reflects, whether consciously or not, a phrase popularized by American evangelicals: "What would Jesus do?" As a Christian and as a pastor, what strikes me is the absence of religion in Mandela's life. He is, according to Stengel, "a materialist in the philosophical sense." He believes that there is "no destiny that shapes our end; we shape it ourselves." Of course, he aligned with religious leaders such as Bishop Desmond Tutu, but without sharing their faith. And of course, the Afrikaner architects of apartheid were the progeny of the South African Reformed churches.

Which leads to this irony: Opponents of apartheid asked "What would Nelson Mandela do?" precisely because its proponents did not ask, or did not answer rightly, "What would Jesus do?

If you are looking for a book that inspires introspection, requires thorough thought yet provides insight on a hero then this is an excellent read. One caveat, the introduction compares Barack Obama to Mandela. Once past that, prepare for a wonderful read.

Richard Stengel collaborated with Nelson Mandela to write his autobiography. As a result, this fascinating little book came into being as an aside. It is a window into the personality of a dynamic, quiet, opinionated, fastidious persuader. The lessons are simple yet powerful. The read is easy, chapters short, and titled appropriately.

While reading, I totally enjoyed discovering how valuable each of these 15 lessons could be in my simple life. Mr. Stengel's talented writing keeps to the point, draws in the reader, and still honors the privacy of a man many of the people in this world consider a hero. Well done!

As someone who's not familiar with South African history or Nelson Mandela, this book was a brief introduction to that history. It is written from the perspective of Mandela's autobiographer and friend. The fifteen lessons Mandela taught the writer were supplemented with little tidbits about Mandela's experiences and thoughts. Although the lessons seem commonplace, they are nevertheless inspiring, meaningful and worthwhile. I particularly like the little (seemingly) unknown stories about Mandela that are interleaved in the lessons, giving the book a very intimate and personal feel.

After reading this book, I couldn't help but be inspired by Nelson Mandela's experiences. It has also piqued my interest about South Aftican history and the story of this remarkable man. Overall, a well-written, inspiring read to pick anyone up!

MANDELA'S WAY by Richard Stengel, though not an autobiography
(the author had written one with Nelson Mandela back in 1993), gives
you a lot of information about the man who has been called the
"grandfather of South Africa."

In fact, it feels like you are learning from this leader as you read every page, which
is appropriate given the book's subtitle: FIFTEEN LESSONS ON LIFE, LOVE
AND COURAGE.

I liked how Stengel related these lessons to every stage of Mandela's
life, ranging from when he was a youth to his long stint in prison and
running through his present life as an elder statesman . . . in addition, I
appreciated how these lessons related to things that any leader
could relate to--regardless of environment . . . for example, there was
this tidbit:

* Throughout his life, Mandela took risks to lead. If he were a soldier, he would
be the one jumping out of the foxhole and leading the charge across the field
of battle. His view is that leaders must not only lead, they must seen to be leading--that is
part of the job description. It is almost as though he is afraid that anyone would ever
say or think that he was unwilling to take those risks. Even in personal relationships,
he believed that you should take the lead. If there is something bothering you, if
you feel you have been treated unfairly, you must say so. That is leading too.

With respect to what it takes to become a leader:

* He always put in the hours because he wanted to truly understand things and
examine issues from all sides. He was never facile enough that he could feign
knowledge that he did not actually possess. As a result, he often aligned
himself with those he thought were brighter and quicker than he. He wanted
to learn from those he thought had true expertise, and he was never shy about
asking them to explain things for him. And by asking for their help or counsel,
he would not only learn from them but also empower them and make them
allies. Mandela understood that there is nothing that ingratiates you with someone
else as much as asking for his help--that when you defer to others, you
increase their allegiance to you.

Finally, there was this passage that caught my attention:

* He was very keen to appear as a man of the people. At events or dinners, he would
always walk through the kitchen to shake hands with the staff. At any airport, he
would look for the ground crew to shake their hands.

What a great thing for all of us to do!

Richard Stengel is the perfect person to write these stories about Nelson Mandela. He spent a great deal of time with Mandela, gained his confidence and came to love the man, even idolize him. Stengel tries to be balanced about Mandela, looking at the best of the man and the worst, but the worst is barely commented upon, and in truth, Mandela's worst would only be an irritant in another, lesser man.

Though Stengel achieves some intimacy, this is not an indepth biography, and many questions remain, but the stories are entertaining and informative. I enjoyed each chapter and feel it was
not time wasted. This book would be an excellent addition to any high school or college freshman writing course. It generates ideas, introduces you to a different kind of energy and makes you think. It would be especially beneficial to teach American students about the African concept of "ubuntu," which can loosely be translated as "Oneness." It is the antidote to greed and selfishness.

My only disagreement with the book was when Stengel compared Mandela to Buddha, Moses, Muhammad and Jesus. This may well have been so had Mandela come into this world with the role of spiritual avatar. He certainly has what it takes. But he didn't. He came to the world in order to unite a certain portion of it and this he did very well.

Mandela is certainly a wise man, no question. An interesting, complex and ethically upright man, he was also simply, a good man. He learned many spiritual lessons in prison, to be sure, and he has much to teach us about compassion, forgiveness, calm dignity and not taking one's self too seriously. I think he is one of the most remarkable men of the 20th Century. But he cannot walk on water or speak with a burning bush. And that's just as well. What he was/is fills up the time/space in which he lived and we live with power and fortitude aplenty, giving us a stunning example of how a man can live in horrific circumstances and still remain true to his heart and true to his principles. He drew his life with exquisite skill and the picture he created will inspire us forever.

Mandela's Way: Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage
review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

Before embarking on this book, know what you're getting. This is not a biography. As a self-help book, it does not contain earth-shattering, newly discovered, unique ideas that will move you from where you are to where you want to be. Also, it is not an in-depth examination of any aspect of Mandela's life.

It is, indeed, an easily digestible, comfortable collection of vignettes written by an editor of Time magazine who has "distilled countless hours of intimate conversation [and experiences] with Mandela into fifteen essential life lessons. For nearly three years," the front flyleaf of the book continues, "Stengel collaborated with Mandela on his autobiography and traveled with him everywhere. Eating with him, watching him campaign, hearing him think out loud, Stengel came to know all the different sides of this complex man and became a cherished friend and colleague."

The book gives you but a glimpse of the man; however, if that is all you want or care about, you get solid and interesting insights.

There are several things I really enjoyed about this book. First, it offered me more than enough information about Mandela. I really needed to know nothing more!

Second, the personal insights and observations were delightful. I didn't just enjoy the information Stengel shared with readers, but even more, I enjoyed the manner in which it was shared. Stengel is a good writer, and the material flows effortlessly and comfortably; thus, reading the book is a pleasure.

Third, the stories, anecdotes, experiences, and insights are wonderfully engaging. This is truly an entertaining book.

Fourth, it is a quick read. It is a small book to begin with, and with each line widely separated from the one before and the one after, there are only 25 lines on a page. Also, with only 239 pages of content, it is a very quick read.

Fifth, although the "lessons" are not earth-shattering, as noted above, it is always nice to have some fundamentals reinforced. Lessons include: courage is not the absence of fear, be measured, lead from the front, lead from the back, look the part, have a core principle, see the good in others, now your enemy, keep your rivals close, know when to say no, it's a long game, love makes the difference, quitting is leading too, it's always both, and find your own garden.

Jill Guntur of New York ended her review of the book at the store.com in this way: "This wonderful book takes you through the life of Nelson Mandela from his childhood, through the freedom fighter days, into prison and the incredible journey of 27 years that could not destroy his soul, and then into his life after and his second marriage. It is an inspiring book and is beautifully written." I couldn't agree more.

I found this book quite good. It seems the author and Mr Mandela have done collaborations before and after working on his autobiography, he felt compelled to work on what actually made him tick, hence the fifteen lessons that he learned from Mr Mandela that has worked throughout his life. One thing I learned about it is that there was one man he didn't like particularly, yet when asked what did you like about him, he answered was his way to do a job and keep doing it. He could have looked at the negative of it, but chose the positive part and that he tends to keep it that way especially while in prison, upon leaving and then leading a country that wasn't always charitable to him. interesting insight into the inner workings of a great man.