The Grit Factor

This is an excellent book! I love good memoirs because they tend to teach critically important life lessons. This book is primarily about leadership and not classified as a memoir, but I see it as one (or a collection of memoirs because of the many different personal stories it contains). There are so many great lessons shared in the interviews the author conducted with the amazing and highly accomplished women who served in the military. Self-examination to look for personal weaknesses to be addressed is such an important part of everyone's life, and the author brilliantly demonstrates in several parts of the book how to do it.My most favorite line in the book is "I don't trust someone who hasn't failed. How do you know how they will react?" This was from one of the military officers the author interviewed for the book. It is a profound statement because most of us underestimate the importance of failures, and of bouncing back and learning from them. There are so many other similarly illuminating thoughts in the book, and I constantly found myself wishing that everyone would read it, particularly people who are facing any forms of adversity in their lives.The author has done a great service to society by writing this book!

A nice read from a very enthusiastic public speaker.

reading it as a men, you first think that you will have an outsider perspective... actually no. You are in it, and you wake up... so many times. The lessons are universel, gender neutral, and applicable to so many of these corporate situations that we face. Thank you Shannon. This book is a must read.

Shannon Polson magnifies the power of storytelling by reaching beyond her experiences to tap into the richness of perspective from other successful women leaders. She brings to light the incredible accomplishments of those women who led the way in often male-dominated organizations. These are stories that need to be told because far too few people understand the role women have played in recent years in front-line operational and combat jobs. This book will be an inspiration to men and women looking for role models and desiring to become better leaders. I found a gem of a leadership lesson embedded in each story, and you will too.

I give this book my highest endorsement. Shannon's writing made me laugh, think, evaluate, consider, change for the better, cry, and embrace showing up in the world in service to others.Shannon is thorough, a great researcher, interviews well, and solicits incredibly inspiring input from all of the incredibly significant women she includes in this book.Absolutely exceptional!