Robert L. Dilenschneider. Nailing It. Citadel P, 2022.

Robert Dilenschneider has authored a number of books we would categorize as motivational or life coaching. We have reviewed his Decisions on these pages. Nailing It follows the format of Decisions. Once again, we have a group of famous people, twenty-five altogether, and decisions that they made that affected their lives. In this case the people all made decisions while in their twenties that would send them in the direction that made them famous.

Interestingly, the two French women described here both came from poverty and broken homes. Both were basically trying to survive on the streets and perhaps exploited others the way they had been exploited to get ahead. Also they are known best by pseudonyms or stage names rather than their real name. Edith Piaf was given her last name by a cabaret producer: Piaf means “sparrow”—an appropriate name for a singer. Coco Chanel also spent time as a cabaret singer as well as a seamstress. Her nickname came from another bird. They said her singing was like the crowing of a rooster. In English we say cock-a-doodle-doo for their sound; in French they say co-co-ri-co. If Piaf’s life were in America, we would call her life and music the blues.

The oldest person in Nailing It’s Hall of Fame is Mozart. He was already a musical prodigy, but decisions he made in his twenties would direct his career and secure his fame. We also read about dancers Maria Tallchief and Rudolf Nureyev. Nureyev’s big decision, obviously, was his decision to defect from the Soviet Union. Like other defectors—Dilenschneider mentions Baryshnikov and Balanchine—he did not do it for political reasons but simply to be free.

Lest it appear that all the examples are from the musical arts, Dilenschneider tells of many others like Helen Keller, Albert Einstein, Ulysses Grant, Gold Meir, Jackie Robinson, Steve Jobs, Audrey Hepburn, Sally Ride, and Christa McAuliffe.

In some cases, the figures required great courage. For example, both Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson were going against the culture. We see Rickey’s anger at segregation back when he was in his twenties. Once when a black player on his team was refused a hotel room, Rickey shared his room with him. Most of us are aware of difficulties Robinson had to overcome as well. Both men were motivated by their Christian beliefs to do their part for equality.

Steve Jobs was already a millionaire at twenty-five, but he also had to deal with changes taking place in electronics and, specifically, at Apple, the company he helped found. Audrey Hepburn came from European nobility, but her family lost everything in World War II. Akio Morita was groomed to inherit his family’s four hundred year old food business, but he went into engineering instead. How the founder of Sony dealt with his father honestly but respectfully can be a model for many.

Another heir, Brazilian Roberto Marinho, was expected one day to take over his father’s newspaper. He had just been working for the paper a short time when his father suddenly died. How he turned his business into a communications empire is impressive.

Like the two French ladies, others had to overcome great odds. It took a lot for Helen Keller to be accepted to and graduate from Radcliffe. She could not have done it without the selfless help of Anne Sullivan. Maya Angelou overcame a background of poverty and abuse to become a noted author and poet.

In other words, there are a variety of people, places, and circumstances, but decisions we make in our early adult years can and often will set the direction of our lives for better or worse. Like Decisions, Nailing It might make an appropriate gift for a someone graduating from college. It does not inspire by platitude or slogan but by example.