Destination; Remarkable.
Surviving the Dark Side of Success
Destination; Remarkable. draws on an entrepreneur’s dramatic life experiences to deliver lessons on what not to do in business.
Part memoir, part business book, entrepreneur Mary Grothe’s Destination; Remarkable. contains warnings about the dark side of success.
Written by a successful entrepreneur, this book is filled with tips on marketing, sales, and management. It also tackles heavy workplace issues like working oneself to exhaustion, neglecting family because of work, and feeling emptiness in the face of success. It notes that some professionals busy themselves with work to recreate early chaotic home environments. And it names potential missteps in one’s career, including avoiding confrontation, lacking empathy for one’s employees, or having unrealistic expectations. Its analyses are keen; hard-won lessons are imparted, such as to avoid treating a top-line revenue goal as an idol.
But the book also tackles broader life issues outside of the business realm. Grothe weighs in on what makes a meaningful life, warning that accolades, sales records, and parties alone won’t do it. She emphasizes the tension between material success and spiritual fulfillment throughout, drawing on personal experiences for support.
The book’s personal stories are confessional and candid: Grothe recalls overcoming a traumatic childhood and struggles with substance abuse in order to prosper as an entrepreneur. There are tales of tragedies, relapses, and work as a waitress; through them all, Grothe pushes forward. She writes about finding religion; she went on to found her own company and to help other startups reach profitability. Instances of burnout, stress, and misguided priorities are also recorded.
However, not all of these personal anecdotes advance the overarching story; the book’s details about minor health issues, for example, are not made to complement its business focus, nor are discursive scenes, as with that regarding a house-hunting expedition and with a rumination on a tattoo. Further, the book’s coverage of other people is often clouded by a sense of bad blood; attention is given to cataloging the misdeeds of others, for example, rather than to attempts to understand others’ points of view. Grievances bog down passages, and as the offenses of others mount, dimensionality is sacrificed.
The book’s internal design is a more consistent feature. The pages evoke airports and flight tickets, with chapter numbers shown in the rotating digits of a departure board, complementing the book’s central conceit. And the book’s conclusion does an able job of encapsulating its core lessons—though the afterward, with its encouragements to follow Grothe’s blog, is more diffuse and concerned with personal brand building.
Destination; Remarkable. draws on an entrepreneur’s dramatic life experiences to deliver lessons on what not to do in business.
Reviewed by
Joseph S. Pete
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
