At the Helm: Business Lessons for Navigating Rough Waters

Champion sailor Peter Isler (with help from business writer Peter Economy) shows how victory in sailing's America's Cup race demonstrates lessons that can be applied to success in business. The same practices that contribute to winning the sailing race also lead to business triumphs. Isler distills the principles of good sailing into seven key rules. These fairly familiar rules include making a total commitment, creating a strong team effort, being ready to change, leveraging every opportunity to your advantage, expecting the unexpected, pushing the limits and having the right inner attitude. However, the parallels between sailing and business make the book especially interesting, as do Isler's compelling examples from his sailing experiences. He also includes apt quotes from other sailors with business backgrounds. We at getAbstract.com (who are bravely resisting the urge to make ocean-going puns here) recommend this book not only to top executives, but also to general business readers, especially those who like sailing. Ahoy.

I really liked this book. I never realized just how much of a business sailboat racing is, or that it costs $60 million to run an America's Cup campaign. That's more money than most small businesses will ever see in a decade! Anyway, the authors have written a great book about some of the world's top businesspeople, who just happen to be some of the world's top sailors, too. Ted Turner, Roy Disney, Elizabeth Myers -- they're all here -- and they all have terrific lessons in business leadership to teach, and for us to learn. Buy this book! You'll learn a lot, and you'll have a lot of fun doing it!

This book solidifies many beliefs I have had throughout life that sailing prepares one well for all aspects of life, including the business world. Peter has selected a great group of successful businessmen who have great stories to tell. This book will be used as a gift to several of my clients come Christmastime.As a Star sailor, my favorite story involves Malin Burnham retiring from a race for hitting a mark even though no one else witnessed the event. It cost him the Star World Championship, yet he never thought twice about doing it any other way. This is a great example of an era when ethics and a man's word was everything. We can only hope that it may become that way once again. Thanks, Peter for a very good book.

This book has some incredible lessons to be learned. Yes, I am briefly interviewed in the book, but the rest of the book is the good part. Very well written with some great excerpts from some of the most effective CEOs and executes in the US. Also has some great anecdotes from Peter's America's Cup experiences. Definitely worth reading. Can improve both your racing and the way you run your business. Both enjoyable and extremely useful.

I simply loved reading this book. Too many books on leadership and management seem to be full of made up stories with little or no relevance to the real world, or they are just downright boring. That is definitely not the case with this book! Not only is the advice real, but it's exceptionally useful to real businesspeople in real businesses, and it's fun to read.And while the business content is first rate, I really loved reading Isler's exciting stories about sailboat racing. It's just like you're there on the water sailing with him -- wind in your hair and salt spray in your face! If you've been following the America's Cup on TV, you know that these guys and gals know all about leadership and team work -- in a BIG way.Kudos to the authors for a fresh take on an old (and often stale) subject!