A Review of Damian McGrath’s Book: Can You Be Fluent in Success
I did two levels of review on the book, one my immediate reaction after spending an hour scanning through from front to back, the other after I had read the book and had time to reflect on it. Both are posted below.
Level 1 review – the opening and scan
Just getting tucked into the Damian McGrath book this evening. I’m already nodding a lot in agreement and I’ve just done my first browse through. He thanks Karl Fix in the intro which means a lot and shows how quickly he integrated into the Canadian rugby community. I’ve been running BC Rugby News for almost 20 years, I’ve seen the offshore experts come and go, but I’ve never seen anyone “get it” as quickly as Damian and adapt to the reality of rugby in Canada. It’s a theme he mentions early on when discussing how to be a successful coach or leader, “the guiding principles are all there but unless you adapt them to the circumstances you find yourself in, they are meaningless”. How true, and yet so many “experts” coming into a new environment fail to do this. I scanned to the back (don’t worry I’ll read everything in between) and saw this excerpt from the Canada 7s team he coached, “His commitment to helping grow not only the 7s program, but also rugby across Canada, is something that has not been seen from an international coach in our Canadian rugby community”. True words, and I 100% agree with their assessment. Damian is one of a kind, and I would love to see him back in Canada running both the 7s and XVs high performance programs. I’ll do a more detailed book review on the website when finished but these are my initial thoughts on first browse through.
Level 2 review – read and reflect
It’s evident after reading and reflecting on the book that Damian has experienced many situations in rugby as a coach and that he’s taken copious notes throughout his career and spent a fair amount of time condensing those into nuggets of wisdom and lessons for others to learn from. I’m not a coach but I found some of the wisdom in the book could be applied across various aspects of life, that’s why the book has a broader appeal not only to business and leadership but also to everyday life situations.
In his chapter on A Man for All Seasons, he reflects on the many roles a person has to fulfill as a coach, but the same could be said for a business leader or even a parent. That’s the beauty of the wisdom in the book, it can be applied universally.
I specifically took note when he mentioned Canada in the book. Damian has seen rugby from many angles, starting with Rugby League, then Rugby XVs and then Rugby 7s. He started in the UK but has held the top coaching job in Samoa, Canada, Germany and Kenya. You can tell he has a warm spot in his heart for Canada but he does have one warning note, when discussing developing players, “Only a fool will fail to prepare the next generation. I have seen it first hand, particularly in Canada and Kenya, how a lack of investment in tomorrow can have damaging long-term effects”. His words are true and we have had fools in high places at Rugby Canada making decisions, we still do, and it’s something we have to address as a rugby nation.
He devotes one chapter in the book to his time in Canada, titled “Curiosity”. In it he speaks glowingly about the athletes in his 7s program, the quality both physically and intellectually impressed him. You could tell he enjoyed the time with them and he learned something new to add to his coaching toolkit. It was a great partnership, it was great for grassroots rugby in Canada as well but as the saying goes, “a fool and his money (treasure) are soon parted”. Damian was the treasure, the Rugby Canada Board of Directors were the fools, it’s now another chapter in the Rugby Canada history book.
I’d highly recommend the book for an insightful and thought provoking read. You can order on Amazon at this link.