This week's book: "The River of Doubt" by Candice Millard.
"There is no effort without error and shortcoming."
Theodore Roosevelt
This week we're doing something different. Our book is a true story: The River of Doubt by Candice Millard, one of my favorites, about one of the most fascinating men in American history, Theodore Roosevelt.
By the time this story begins, “Theodore Rex” had already lived several lifetimes. President. Soldier. Rancher. Hunter. Conservationist. The man who led the charge up San Juan Hill with his Rough Riders.
Then, in 1912, while campaigning in Milwaukee to return to the White House, he was shot. He survived, gave his speech wearing the same bloody shirt and with the bullet still lodged in his chest. And three weeks later lost the election anyway. By every account, he sank into a real depression afterward. The most energetic man in America, suddenly had no direction and nothing to do.
So what did he do next, at possibly the lowest point of his life?
He went to South America and joined an expedition to map a completely uncharted tributary of the Amazon, a river so unknown it was simply called the River of Doubt.
It nearly killed him, and three of the people in his party didn’t survive at all. Disease, starvation, deadly rapids, and a jungle that seemed to be working against them at every turn. Roosevelt himself ended up delirious with fever, his leg badly infected, at one point begging the others to leave him behind to die so he wouldn't slow them down. This isn't a glamorous adventure story. Millard actually subtitled it "Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey."
But somehow, they kept moving forward.
That's what I want to explore this week. Not Roosevelt the president, or the politician, or even the soldier. Roosevelt the man, at his lowest, choosing an almost impossible challenge and discovering how much he could endure, and still contribute, when everything he knew and everything he was had been stripped away.
Today we'd call it a second act. And I'll be honest, that idea means something to me personally right now. I'm building my own second act at 64. Nothing as dramatic as an Amazon expedition, but the same core question remains: when one chapter ends, what do you do with what's left? Roosevelt's answer was to dare to do something huge, something dramatic. That kind of character, that refusal to fade quietly into the night, lives in all of us. We just have to go find it.
Here's the promise for the week: by Saturday you'll know the story of that journey, the lessons in resilience and purpose I pulled from it, and a way to think about your own next act, whatever chapter you're in.
Fair warning: this one gets dark in places. But there's an awful lot of wisdom and inspiration in that darkness.
Quick question to start the week: what's a "second act" you've thought about but haven't started yet?
Here’s mine, All Star Mentors. After a career in the money world and then running a nonprofit, I could have coasted. Instead, I'm learning and starting something new, at an age when a lot of people are winding down. Some days it's daunting. Every day it makes me feel alive. It gives me purpose. I hope it is helping people.
Reading ahead?
I haven't settled on next week's book just yet. I've got a couple of contenders I’m thinking of. Watch for the announcement in the next day or two, and I'll give you the weekend to grab a copy.
If someone forwarded you this, you can get the daily insights free at www.allstarmentors.com.
Talk tomorrow,
Mike
Practical wisdom for the life you're building