Simple Realities

Lyman MacInnis has been around for over seven decades, during more than fifty of which he was, either by accident or design, engaged in a number of diverse business, professional, and personal pursuits. In his corporate life he spent four years with a major railway company, seven years with one of the world's largest pipeline companies and four years in the sports and entertainment field. During that time he was everything from an office boy to a CEO. He spent thirty-four years with international accounting and consulting firms in positions ranging from accounting student to senior partner. In that life he dealt with every size of organization from start-up entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies. He has guided the business and financial affairs of many senior executives as well as world-renowned athletes and entertainers. He has served on nineteen boards, ranging from non-profit organizations to public companies, and was chairman of two of the largest professional organizations in Canada. He's also been an egg-candler, a rhythm guitar player in a rock band, and a radio and television commentator. These days his professional activity consists of being an executive coach and motivational speaker. He comes from a large family and has children and grandchildren of his own; he's been blessed with many friends and cursed with a few enemies; he played and officiated hockey and baseball for many years, so he's also had countless non-business-realted experiences. The point is he always took a keen interest in what was going on around him, observed carefully what the people involved said and did, and then formed an opinion on how and why particular results ensued. At the first opportunity he jotted down, in epigrammatic form, the opinions he reached from his observations and analyses, the most important of which comprise the 82 chapters of this book; and there's something in here for everybody. The most important lesson he learned is that happiness and success, in any and all walks of life, don't depend on any one major element or event but rather depend on how we handle the myriad, and ever-changing, challenges that we face every day. Living a happy and successful actually depends on how we handle the simple realities of life; hence, the title. Lyman's website is www.lymanmacinnis.com