Healthsouth: The Wagon to Disaster

This book, written by one of the founders of HealthSouth and its first CFO, is an easy and entertaining one-night read. It gives an insight to the personality of the HealthSouth CEO and provides an insider's view of events that led to one of America's largest corporate scandals. It details how actions of a single greedy man with a powerful personality managed to start a company and oversee its enormous growth while simultaneously acting to cause its near destruction. It shows the pressure that management can exert on employees and how good, honest people can succumb to that pressure and do the wrong thing. Their initial small misguided actions started the involved executives on a "slippery slope" where subsequent actions became increasingly egregious; culminating in an accounting scandal that nearly destroyed what should have been a thriving company. It also identifies the enormous personal costs paid by the author and the others involved. Their actions ruined their reputations and careers, destroyed their wealth and put them in jail. This book clearly shows the necessity of doing the right thing. It is an outstanding read for anyone in a position where others will rely on the integrity of your work as well as an "eye opener" for those about to enter the workforce for the first time.

I have always told my family that "Life is about choices". I just finished Wagon to Disaster and absolutely loved it. It is an easy read and really drives home what can happen if you chose the wrong road in life. It is a powerful story because it is told mainly by Aaron Beam who was there right from the start. He allowed a more powerful personality in Richard Scrushy to overcome his (Mr. Beam's) better judgement and then he ended up paying the price for it. They had it all, money, wealth and fame but are left with virtually nothing --all for chosing the wrong road. I would thoroughly recommend this book and have asked that it be available on the Kindle as well.

This is an awesome book about Richard Scrushy. I highly recommend it! I've been so impressed that I've gotten others to read it as well. I really can't add anything to Dr. Rudd's review, except to say follow the "pull the wagon" club on Facebook!

Growing up in Birmingham I saw first hand the rise of Healthsouth. Mr. Beam's book goes behind the scenes to reveal the "true" Richard Scrushy. He unveils the hold money and power have on society today. Mr. Beam goes on to explain his role in the corruption that ran rampant through Healhsouth. This books gives an interesting look at how companies can appear to have it all, when in reality nothing can be further from the truth. In an era of coporate fraud, The Wagon to Diaster gives the reader a great "inside" look at how it all begins.

For anyone familiar with the rise-and-debacle epic of Alabama-based HealthSouth corporation, this is a compelling, eye-opening account of what went on beyond the press releases and news flashes. It comes not just from the inside but straight from the top, and it tells the tale right from the outset. To anyone who has no idea before opening this book as to just what HealthSouth was and is and who Richard Scrushy and Aaron Beam might be, it's still a great read. Think of a John Grisham novel with all its drama of corporate greed and chicanery behind closed doors in an industry that already had good reason to be paranoid. Combine it with a Michael Moore documentary (but without Moore's bent to score political points) with its clear-eyed tracking in gritty detail of the grand-scale mismanagement that caused the downfall of a billion-dollar enterprise and led to a tragedy for millions of stakeholders. Then you have some idea of the impact of this concise, well-crafted summing up. I highly recommend "HealthSouth: The Wagon to Disaster" to all readers who appreciate a true story well-told and who have a taste for the vanity of human affairs. A solid four stars.