Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance

by Nathan Whitaker and Tony Dungy

Book Overview

2009 Retailer's Choice Award winner Super Bowl-winning coach and #1 New York Times best selling author Tony Dungy has had an unusual opportunity to reflect on what it takes to achieve significance. He... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1414326815
• ISBN13: 9781414326818
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Tyndale Momentum
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Three Things I Learned from This Book

Tony Dungy, head coach for the Indianapolis Colts, can't help but speak from his faith. It saturates his life, his work and his personal history. Anyone who knows anything about this man knows he's a Christian believer. His first and previous book, "Quiet Strength," was autobiographical, with a little help from co-author Nathan Whitaker. So it focused on his upbringing in Detroit, the powerful influence of his parents and family, how he came to professional football, his faith, and all of the career triumphs and tragedies that led to the Colts winning the Super Bowl. "Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance" is also autobiographical, but only in the sense that it distills how this man lives his life, or strives to. There is much to admire here -- would that we all strive to live our lives like this man has, and teach our sons and daughters to do the same. He says at least three things in this book I found especially insightful, regardless of one's faith or lack of it. First, what you do is less important than how you do it. The "how" ultimately has much more influence and impact than the "what." Second, the opposite of courage is not cowardice. The opposite of courage is conformity. I had to think about that for a while but he's got it exactly right. Third, don't let the bad things that happen to you define who you are as a person. Instead, what defines you as a person is how you respond to the bad things, and the good things, too, for that matter. In "Uncommon," Tony Dungy says obvious things -- treat people well; love and honor your wife; teach and be there for your children; see successes and failures for what they are; character matters. That they sound surprising or "preachy" says a lot more about us and our culture than it does about the author.

DUNGY continues to inspire me

I am not a football fan, but I admire Coach Tony Dungy's leadership, attitude, work ethic, faith, and generousity. He sees the bigger picture, always, and puts the rest into perspective. "We do what we do, no excuses, no explanations." He has helped so many players, coaches, families, children, fathers. His support for ALL PRO DAD is admirable. His book will certainly continue the momentum and progress his previous works have started. Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning LifeYou Can Do It! His books have positively influenced my approach to my own life, family, and career, and I know they will do the same for you. Don't pass on this book. Take the hand off and run with it!

Much needed hope and help for a better life

Taking one's life beyond success in business, the author describes how to be a person of significance and how to make our life truly meaningful. He reflects on lessons he learned from his parents, his mentors and career and his faith. He provides fresh insight into becoming significant, someone who matters. A particular focus of the book is what it means to be a man of significance in a culture that is offering young men few positive role models. I personally think this is an excellent thing and much needed. Highly recommended. - Susanna K. Hutcheson

Outstanding

Retired Colts head coach Tony Dungy has scored once again. I've read most of his books, and I really enjoyed Uncommon. I'm a bit older than who I think his target audience is, but it never hurts to read positive thoughts. I think young men and women will greatly enjoy and take away a new spirit as they look at life and what is ahead of them. Tony Dungy has been working with young men in and out of sports for decades. I think he is a true hero and I highly recommend this book to younger men and women just starting out on that interesting road we call "life." I also recommend a book given to me by one who knows I love American heros. This memoir from an 82 year old WWII Navy vet ties in with the 64th anniversary of our fight for Iwo Jima this coming February 19th. Take a look at Walking Through Fire, An Iwo Jima Survivor's Remembrance

The Road Less Traveled

Tony Dungy, best selling author of Quiet Strength, has penned another Super Bowl quality book in Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance. The two books cover similar terrain: how to win in life. However, Dungy's latest work focuses especially on how young men can pursue and achieve a life of significance and success. Dungy is eminently qualified to write such a book, given his lifetime of leadership coaching not only athletes in sports, but men in the proverbial game of life. Additionally, his own drive for success, not simply defined by wins and loses, but by other-centered relationships, is Dungy's ultimate qualification for writing Uncommon. Dungy begins by defining success, not from the world's perspective, but from his Christian worldview. He then notes how uncommon true success and significance are, outlines many of the reasons, and prescribes practical pathways: attitudes, ambitions, and allegiances. What Rick Warren achieved with Purpose Driven Life, Tony Dungy has accomplished with Uncommon. Both books are user-friendly, easy-reads, without being dumbed-down or simplistic. And both books, while maintaining a Judea-Christian ethic, are not preachy. Though focused somewhat on young males, Uncommon is for every person pursuing a life of meaning, a path of purpose, and the road toward significance. Learn from an uncommon man the uncommon art of leaving a lasting legacy. Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.