The Camino Way

By: Victor Prince

Narrated by: Rudy Sanda

Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

Stretching across 500 miles of northern Spain, the Camino de Santiago has been a pilgrimage route for centuries. Setting off as a competitive, shrewd negotiator with little patience for small talk, Victor Prince emerged as a very different person - more balanced, more caring, more present in the moment, but looking to the future. Prince translates this growth experience into seven leadership skills, each linked to values that have guided Camino travelers for centuries. With reflections from the road and for the workplace back home, he recounts how he learned to:

• Live in the moment
• Welcome each day, its pleasures and its challenges
• Make others feel welcome
• Share
• Feel the spirit of those who have come before you
• Appreciate those who walk with you today
• Imagine those who will follow you

By aligning the path to leadership with a literal journey, The Camino Way offers fresh perspectives on bringing people together and achieving goals - with a pilgrim's heart, a way-farer's grit, and a leader's vision.

©2017 Victor Prince (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Leadership on the Camino de Santiago

As a hiker who wants to walk the Camino, and a leadership scholar by profession, I was really looking forward to this book. I had hopes it would be deeply reflective, with insightful explorations and conclusions inspired by the Camino. While that is, in fact, what the author attempted to do, it didn't hit the mark for me. Any such effort must necessarily begin with data - descriptive references to the experience and references to what we know about leadership. Unfortunately, the book fell short on both dimensions. The few descriptions of life on the Camino left me wanting more (much more), and the conclusions about leadership were often trite, sometimes contradictory, and generally unoriginal. I feel bad writing this, as I know how the courage it takes to put your thoughts into a book that anyone can read, but I also feel compelled to be honest for those who may read it after me.

In addition to what I wrote above, the author wants to portray himself as one who was changed by the Camino experience, but that didn't come across for me. In fact, there were enough hints, contradictions, and observations that led to just the opposite conclusion - that he didn't change much from the experience - that I wonder how introspective he actually was, how much self-insight he really gained. He still seems to be a person driven to achieve the outward manifestations of success (title, position, money, etc.), and using others to obtain those rewards. To a far less degree he seems to have become aware of a deeper purpose, or to have become a more self-reflective, innately caring person. It is entirely possible that those things in fact happened, but it doesn't seem apparent to me from what he wrote in his book.

Lastly, I can't say I really enjoyed the narrator. I don't know what Prince's voice is like, but for a personal narrative like this, I think I might have preferred it to have been author-narrated. I have never listed to a book simply because I like the narrator, but it does make a difference to me. I will be wary of this one in future.

Honest, inspiring and exciting!

The stories and lessons Victor Prince describes in his book are purely inspirational. This was the first book I have ever had the privilege to read (listen to) about the Camino, and I believe because of this reflection will not be the last. The narrator did an awesome job of capturing the author’s honesty and passion.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

good story

Good story, nicely told. interesting subject and the way it can be connected to business. I enjoyed the book.