BOOK REVIEW: Fly Free by Mister Transmission’s Randy Moore

By Allan Janssen

You’d be forgiven for thinking the protagonist in the new self-help book “Fly Free” bears more than a passing resemblance to its author, Randy Moore.

Like the fictional Thomas Marks, Moore is an impossibly optimistic motivational speaker, author, and businessman who’s keen to share the secrets of success.

Moore, the freshly retired former president and CEO of Mister Transmission, has put pen to paper to record his thoughts on “uncommon sense” as the book’s sub-title says, and the art of “getting out of your own way.”

The book follows a day in life of Thomas Marks, as he dispenses advice to the people he encounters on his way to a speaking engagement. The bulk of the story takes place at 35,000 feet, as he counsels a young mother during a long flight, encouraging her to follow her life-long dream of becoming a commercial airline pilot.

Throughout, he is warm, sage, and relentlessly positive. Anyone who knows the veteran aftermarket executive and former president of AIA Canada will say that sounds just like Randy Moore.

The 192-page book does not touch on any automotive-specific truths, but offers nuggets of wisdom drawn from a career of reading trends, anticipating change, and growing a business.

Among them:

* When a phone rings, it is an invitation for you to answer. But you don’t have to. It’s your choice.

* Talk to people, don’t judge them, just talk to them. In doing so it is possible to change their lives.

* Either you are making choices about the future you want or you are accepting the choices of others and exchanging your dreams for excuses.

* Other people can plant seeds of resentment in you, but you make them grow.

* If you spend 15% less than what you make, you’ll never have a money problem. If you spend 15% more, you’ll constantly have troubles no matter how much money you earn.

Randy Moore, former president and CEO of Mister Transmission (International).

There are some well-worn pieces of advice here too, but they are presented in a fresh way.

More than anything, Moore encourages people to follow their dreams, not dwell in the land of “Someday I’ll” or allow their voyage to be dashed on the rocks of the “Terror Barrier.”

Even the most cynical reader will enjoy the banter between strangers who become fast friends over the course of a trans-continental flight.

Published by Leading Edge Press, Fly Free is available at bookstores for $19.95 or through Moore’s website.

www.randallmoore.ca