Customer Reviews

The Winning Spirit: 16 Timeless Principles that Drive Performance Excellence

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
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This book is great and truly inspiring. I read it cover to cover twice in one week and have underlined much of it. Football icon Joe Montana and performance coach Tom Mitchell share with the world the principles of what makes a true winner on and off the field. These universal principles far transcend sports and can easily be applied by anyone in any field (business, arts, etc.). After dissecting this book, I am convinced that one of the most important contributing factors (besides the given) of Joe Montana's greatness was due to his dedication to preparation, hence, the title of this review. This book is a clear, simple, practical, concise, and highly effective guide for making your truest dreams come true while enjoying the ride. I strongly urge anyone who desires to realize their purpose and fulfill it to devour this book.

I wouldn't call this book revolutionary or awe-inspiring, yet it is full of sage advise from 2 men who definitely walked their talk. Each short chapter contains an intro section, followed by examples; first from Joe Montana, and second from Tom Mitchell.
I was drawn to this book because, from the first time I saw Montana play for the 49ers, I knew he was a leader. Though I'm not a 49ers fan (GO COWBOYS), I still watched to witness Montana's prowess on the field. Mitchell is a leader in his own right, leading college teams to championships.
As with most books written by former athletic stars, this book focuses mostly on sports, but that's okay. It's an easy and rewarding read.

Easy read with a very powerful, positive message. Have recommended this book to business associates with excellent feedback. The principles are easy to relate to and perfect for group focus and attitude.

I'm into self improvement and thought it'd be interesting to hear the perspective of an athlete on how one can perform better. I thought listening to this (unabridged) audio CD would be a productive way to spend my commute to work. And I was right.

This book demonstrates which principles one should employ to achieve goals, be a team player, and a leader -- all while maintaining good spirit. Every principle was backed by examples of real and successful people -- so there is no B.S. and I like that. It includes stories of legendaries such as John Wooden, Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, etc. It even includes business world examples from Tom Mitchell's (the co-author) corporate coaching experiences and Joe's business experiences. It's definitely not about Joe.

I am not a football fan, and was definitely not expecting their talk to be so real. Their advice is dead on the money. It was silly that they picked 16 principles because that was the number on Joe's jersey -- but all 16 of them are actually practical/useful.

Another reviewer said this wasn't sliced bread -- but if you listen to them and actually put their principles into practice -- in business, relationships, sports et cetera --you will definitely come out on top.

Recommendation: Buy. If you're going to get advice, get it from the best.

Expectations vs. Reality applies here. What do you expect when you buy a book entitled "The Winning Spirit, #16" by Joe Montana? (For those readers who don't happen to follow football, specially football in San Francisco, you might want to know that Joe was one of the best quarterbacks in the game in history! He drove the San Francisco 49er's to several Superbowl wins.) So, I'm expecting some kind of biography or life story (which BTW, would be interesting). Well, surprise! That's not what this book is about!!

In Joe's after-football-life, he and partners went into capital investing and then eventually into training sessions on performance. He and partners are also into business coaching of executives. So, in reality, this book turns out to be a rather interesting and well written training class on team building and executive leadership. Believe me, I've read alot of these kind of books! What I like about this book is that it focuses on teamwork and teambuilding. Drawing from Joe's football experience (and his co-author's basketball coaching experience), they successfully map between sports and business. A pretty easy book to get thru and relatively easy on the brain, it does give a nice set of 15 guidelines with alot of examples and suggestions. In fact, I often found myself saying, "hey I do that!"

Bottom line, yeah, a pretty good business book focusing on teamwork and teambuilding. Oh yeah, GO NINERS!

Each principles are interesting. Very good book to start again your life but in a better way, a better direction.

This book was excellent. Joe Montana will transform his winning spirit to you through these pages. It is a great book which will help you to use the winning strategies of a sports team in your own life. Anyone who desires to succeed will be encouraged by what is written on the pages in this book. I shared this book with a couple friends because I felt that some of the things written in it would bring inspiration into their lives. They both agreed that it was very good. I don't think anyone would be disappointed with one.

I am not a big sports fan so I was skeptical this book would be cliche's like "Throw the ball and make the TD!". Instead I found a practical guide with interesting stories to back up practical ideas. Sure we have heard many of the ideas before, but to hear how they truly applied to someone's real life is very useful. And I much prefer books by people who "made it" over books by persons who became successful telling you how.

It is clear that Joe had a lot of initial talent but in his stories he talks about how he went from 3rd string QB at Notre Dame to parlay that talent to become a superstar athlete.

But no, the book is not about Joe Montana, he is merely the vehicle to convey the inspirational messages. It is not a vanity piece.

An example of how Joe and Tom's book can help you is their advice, "Fail Fast". I had the value "persistence" in many cases where I should have failed fast and moved on to more constructive endeavors. I had to learn the hard way. Had this value been ingrained in me I would have saved years of my life following the wrong paths. Hopefully their readers can learn many lessons from the book rather than the school of hard knocks.

He also covers the slogan "There is no 'I' in TEAM" and how you should really approach it.

This is definitely a book to help you shape your mindset for success. Not a timeless classic, but a good meat and potatoes guide.

I thought this was boring. It was recommended to me. Very fast read and because it was audio it was too slow for me. So, buy the word version so you can get thru it faster.

Not the "heaviest" of leadership books I've ever read but well done overall. The real life examples from Mr. Montana illustrate the concepts well. Good reading.