On the Brink:
The Life and Leadership of Norman Brinker
by Norman Brinker
and Donald T. Phillips
Norman Brinker, chairman of Brinker International, teamed up with co-author Phillips, author of "Lincoln on Leadership," to tell how he survived a near-fatal accident. He applied the principles that guided him in building his restaurant chains to his own recovery from a traumatic polo accident. He grew some of the most successful restaurant chains in America: Chili's Steak & Ale, Bennigan's, Romano's Macaroni Grill, Cozymel's and On the Border.In a time of downsizing corporate America, Brinker's philosophy of how to succeed is especially relevant. This is a Horatio Alger-esque account of Brinker's remarkable odyssey from poor New Mexico farm boy to the chairmanship of a billion-dollar company.
The focus here is on Brinker's determination to recover from a "decerebrate rigidity" that left him with a paralyzed arm and leg after he fell from a horse in an ill-fated polo match in January 1993. The prognosis was bleak, but he mapped out his own recovery just as he had his game plan for building a restaurant empire.
The book provides a backward glance at Brinker's boyhood during the Great Depression. His parents could not afford to buy him a horse, so young Brinker earned the money himself. By the time he was 14, he had saved $1,300 and bought his own horse. It was the beginning of a lifelong passion that propelled him to the 1952 Olympic Games.
Brinker's adult life was not without heartbreak. We are told how he lost his first wife, Maureen Connolly Brinker, the tennis champion, and stood by his second wife, Nancy Goodman Brinker, in her successful battle against breast cancer.
Operators will be wise to follow Brinker's corporate credo: One should begin every endeavor with the end in mind, set goals and be persistent in achieving them and "create and maintain a culture that is `can-do,' enthusiastic and enjoyable."
"On the Brink" is must reading for all restaurateurs.
Product Details
- ISBN-10: 193081920X
- ISMN-13: 978-1930819207
- Format: Paperback: 203 pages
- Publisher: Tapestry Press
- Pub. Date: June 1, 2002
