This book was an absolute delight and I'm glad I chose to listen to this one. Referring to some previous reviews I'd venture to guess that the reviewers did not actually read the book, or were so deep in their preconceived notions and prejudices that they did not pay any attention to the hot-button issues that have surrounded his service. There seems to be a wild expectation that government employees (military, politicians, advisors, etc.) are to be perfect. Mistakes and failures sometimes happen. Colin did, I think a great job in explaining the circumstances behind the failures. I personally came away with a much better understanding of the situations surrounding the controversial decisions. Perhaps it's coincidence but I had just finished James Mattis' book prior to this and given that these two men served in similar capacities during the same time period it was very interesting to learn the correlations between their perspectives.

Many things are said in this book that are of benefit to military leaders and policy-makers. I, myself am taking away some nuggets of wisdom for use in my own leadership.