Business entrepreneur Len Forkas had his world shaken when his son was diagnosed with cancer, shortly after returning home from a family holiday. In an effort to help his son deal with the isolation of his disease, Forkas found a way to get a camera into the boy's classroom, allowing him to maintain both his educational progress and his friendships. It was such a success that Mr. Forkas decided to create a similar opportunity for other children with cancer, and named the charity Hopecam. After raising funds for Hopecam through a number of races and marathons, sportsman Forkas heard about RAAM, Race Across America, a 12 day bike race from California to Maryland. He competed in the event in 2012 and raised more than $300,000 for his charity. Then, he wrote a book about his experience in the race. The book is designed to use the lessons he learned about team-building in the race as a metaphor for leadership -- showing how the most important part of leading is getting the right people around you, and motivating them appropriately. The messages of this book are good. The delivery is so-so. First, Forkas tells his powerful personal story in a relatively removed way. I sped through the first 30 pages or so just to make sure his son was okay. He reveals, almost as an aside, that his son is in full remission. Then, there is an "executive summary" which encapsulates so much of the book that the bulk of the story seems incredibly repetitive. It's also not very deep. The messages Forkas tries to emphasize make sense, but without elaboration, they come off a bit like those ephemeral posters you see in generic offices ... all philosophy with little substance. When Forkas gets to the actual tale of his race, it becomes a rendition like someone else's unending vacation monologue -- too many details rather than an engaging story. What is odd is that Forkas, for all of his charitable intent, doesn't actually come off like a good guy here. The focus on racing, rather than his son, seems somewhat self-involved, and many of the chapters boil down to "the biking was hard, I got mad at my crew but I overcame that using one of these little pearls of wisdom, and I remained ahead of most of the pack." Len Forkas is competitive, and it shows. In private business, that determination to be better than others might be a driving force, but in education, it is questionable as to whether this kind of make it/break it attitude is something we should emulate. Len Forkas raised a lot of money for a great cause by taking part in a race. I guess my question after reading it is why he couldn't have raised the funds simply by making the journey.
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