Al Weatherhead - The Power of Adversity: Tough Times Can Make You Stronger, Wiser, and Better

We all experience adversitythe seemingly insurmountable crises that occur in our lives. Whatever form the adversity takes, it is usually a source of anger, sadness, frustration, and anxiety. Not so, according to dynamic industrialist and major philanthropist Al Weatherhead. He says adversity is not a curse but a giftand that when we embrace our problems, we temper and empower ourselves to achieve unimagined success.

With insight and compassion. Weatherhead helps us understand that the question we must ask ourselves when bowled over by life's troubles is not Why me? but instead, Why not me? As tennis champion Arthur Ashe said, If I were to say, Why me?' about the bad things, then I should have said. Why me? about the good things that happened in my life.

Though he has been extraordinarily successful in life. Weatherhead has dealt with his own share of adversities, including alcoholism, rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, and family estrangementyet he found a way to emerge a better person. Using his experience, he has developed twenty-two rules for mastering adversity. The power of Adversity shows you how to find your own way through these crises to become a stronger, wiser, metre loving, and more creative human being. In the process, this pragmatic and profound book reveals the secret to achieving a greater understanding and mastery of life by harnessing the Power of Adversity.

The Power of Adversity is a courageous book in which legendary businessman and philanthropist Al Weatherhead describes how adversityproperly understoodcan be a catalyst for powerful and meaningful personal transformation. Read it and be inspiredfor yourself and for someone you love. Highly recommended.

Dean Ornish, MD
Founder and President,
Preventive Medicine Research Institute
Clinical Professor of Medicine,
University of California, San Francisco
Author, The Spectrum and Dr. Dean Ornish's
Program for Reversing Heart Disease

Copyright 2008

by Al Weatherhead, with Fred Feldman

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form whatsoever, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief passages in connection with a review.

Cover design by Steve Amarillo

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Weatherhead, Al, 1925

The power of adversity : tough times can make you stronger, wiser, and better / Al Weatherhead, with Fred Feldman.

p. cm.

Summary: Presents a different take on adversity: rather than succumbing to life's obstacles, we can use them to strengthen and improve ourselvesProvided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-57174-562-0 (5 7.25 tc : alk. paper)

1. Success--Psychological aspects. 2. Self-management (Psychology) 3. Crisis management. 4. Suffering. 5. Self-actualization (Psychology) I. Feldman, Fred, 1950- II. Title.

BF637.S8W3375 2008

2007039737

ISBN 978-1-57174-562-0

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed on acid-free paper in the United States

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What wee gave, wee have;

What wee spent, wee had;

What wee left, wee lost.

Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon (1419)

For

celia

ONE
We're Not Meant to Be Happy... We're Meant to Grow

TWO
If I'm at the Center of the Universe... Where Are You?

THREE
Don't Ask Why Me? Instead, Ask Why Not Me?

FOUR
I Suffer Passes... I Suffered Never Passes

FIVE
Adversity Builds Walls for You to Tear Down

SIX
Running Away Never Helps

SEVEN
Four Techniques to Help You Harness the Power of Adversity

EIGHT
Five Tips to Help You Put Adversity in Perspective

NINE
Problem Solving Is One of the Great Joys in Life

TEN
There Is Always a Great Idea Lurking in Adversity... Will You Find It?

APPENDIX A
Adversity Check List

APPENDIX B
Adversity Work Sheet

by K. Lance Gould, MD

Our lives and histories are commonly altered by some catastrophe, bad luck, hardship, misfortune, or disaster, sometimes of our own doing and sometimes out of the blue. What's poison to one may be food for another, depending on one's point of view. In the gloom of some current trouble, we also dream of a happy ending, of getting through, of changing, getting around, or overcoming the difficulty. However, for some that dream dies with no happy ending. Adversity then imposes a choice of what we do with it.

Stories from the first cave paintings to Shakespeare to this weekend's movie recount these choices and their outcomes. In keeping with this tradition, this book recounts Al Weatherhead's life, arguing that adversity may be a source of power, power to a happy ending though perhaps not the one originally or conventionally imagined. We normal mortals connect with the great rags-to-riches, life-and-death stories through the flaws of the heroes. Their faults inspire us to believe we can overcome adversity, just as they did, despite our deficiencies or self-destructive traits.

Al had the genes and family environment to make or mess up his life, doing both in substantial portions. His story includes familial affection, conflict and rejection, an adventurous, hell-raising youth, discovering work and self, failure and success, debilitating pain, alcoholism, heart disease, and altruism. Here is everyman's antihero, with lots of knobs and bumps going somewhere in unexpected zigs and zags.

In most accounts of a man's adversity, a woman makes the story possible, as Celia Weatherhead does in this one. Without her, there would likely be no transcending the bad to the good, no story, only a number down. Al makes clear the essential role of a loving and loved woman in his story.

Adversitycoronary heart diseasebrought Al to me. Constantly ahead of conventional thinking, he wanted a proactive alternative to bypass surgery, disability, or premature death. With characteristic intensity, he succeeded admirably with healthy food, hard workouts, and appropriate medications, resulting in improved blood flow through his coronary arteries by an advanced imaging technology called positron emission tomography, or PET, which I had been developing for the heart.

He also tested me with a modest research grant that worked and then tested the entire University of Texas system with his innovative ideas on charitable funding. The adversities that he overcame in business and health bloomed into innovation given back in those same troubled areas of his life.

Philosophy/introspection and action/pragmatism are commonly opposing extremes. Rarely, all come together in one piece or one person. Al is the real thing. He has wrestled with his demons, walked the walk of life through thorns and roses, with Celia, and now gives back to the lives of others.

How to bounce back? The book tells you. It is a fascinating biography and an inspiring instruction manual for turning life's adversities to the good.

K. Lance Gould, MD