It Is Our Struggles, More Than Our Successes, That Forge Great Leaders and Entrepreneurs

In his new book, The Gift of Struggle – out today from Bard Press, Bobby Herrera tells the true-life story of how the hardships he faced as one of 13 children in a Mexican migrant family, provided him the drive and backbone to make possible the impossible.

More importantly, Bobby shares specific life-changing lessons about leadership that turns conventional wisdom on its head. It is the formula that Bobby used to launch Populus Group in 2002 and build it into a $500-million-a-year HR services company – one of the fasting growing such concerns in the United States.

What makes Populus Group a role model for many businesses – large and small – is not its size, but its culture. As Bobby details in The Gift of Struggle, after a rocky start as CEO, he learned to foster a sense of purpose, mutual trust, and community among his employees.

Bobby is an evangelist for compassionate leadership. A key characteristic of compassionate leaders, he tells host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart, is recognizing that everyone struggles – from the migrant workers of rural America to the silver-spoon babies of the Ivy League – and that at the end of the day, we all – more or less – strive for the same thing: to believe our lives matters.

Rotbart, who doesn’t just read the books of guests who appear on his program, he devours them, says he scribbled notes throughout The Gift of Struggle, including on many pages that provided him actionable steps.

Bobby, soon to be a bestselling author, is only the latest in a long line of popular authors published by Bard Press, headed by the incomparable Ray Bard, and deputy publisher Todd Sattersten.

Among Bard’s best-known titles:  The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan; Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Red Book of Selling; Nuts! – the story of the legendary Herb Kelleher and Southwest Airlines; The Wizard of Ads Trilogy by none other than Roy H. Williams, and Fired Up Selling, Ray Bard’s own collection of wonderful quotes designed to inspire, energize, and succeed.

It is so common in life to conclude that our struggles are what hold us back. Without them, we tell ourselves, we could accomplish so much more. But Bobby explains that such thinking is erroneous. Adversity, properly harnessed, can become the rocket fuel of personal and professional growth.

Purchase your own first-edition of The Gift of Struggle by clicking here.

Photo: Bobby Herrera, Populus Group
Posted: June 3, 2019
Monday Morning Run Time: 50:37