KEY POINTS:
The eighth and final instalment in a nzherald.co.nz summer business series about the reading habits of a selection of our prominent businesspeople.
Stuart Trundle chose to ignore the old adage that you should never judge a book by its cover when he picked up The Power of Healthy Thinking.
He purchased it on the advice of his children who were attracted by the cover pictures.
"Anything that's got a bright cover tends to end up in the shopping bag."
But Trundle said the contents of The Power of Healthy Thinking were every bit as good as the exterior.
In the words of the author, Taranaki-based doctor and entrepreneur Tom Mulholland, the book is about turning life's lemons into lemonade -- a message that resonated with Trundle.
Trundle said he's not a great fan of the American-style motivational gurus, but found he related to the lessons Mulholland learnt trying to grow a global business based out of New Zealand.
"In a sense it's quite empowering for individuals to realise that shit does happen in business life," said Trundle.
He said one of the messages in the book was that making business fun meant creating winning teams rather than teams of winning individuals.
Trundle said the secret to a good team was sharing common objectives and "having a bit of passion and fire in their belly".
For the staff at Venture Taranaki, this means competing in the sporting events they sponsor, including a triathlon last November and the Taranaki Cycle Challenge circumnavigating Mt Taranaki in late January.
"When I sponsored the event I didn't actually think I was going to have to do the bloody thing. The last time I rode a bicycle it had two little wheels on the back," said Trundle.
He said this book is for people who are stressed, angry or frustrated and feeling grumpy in their everyday business lives.
"If you've got the opportunity, just take a breather and invest a bit of time in your own professional development," he said.
"Sometimes I think we are so challenged by the urgent that we actually forget the important issues."
Trundle set himself a challenge over the Christmas break, to read Patrick Sneddon's book, Pakeha and the Treaty, why it's our Treaty too.
"I've only read the frontispiece and a bit of it, so I sense it's going to be hard work. But as a foreigner I think it's really important to get to a deeper understanding of the whole role of the treaty in New Zealand."
* Stuart Trundle arrived from United Kingdom 10 years ago to head up the regional development agency Venture Taranaki. He had previously been the managing director of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and involved in regional economic development in the United Kingdom, Poland, Romania and France.
Recommends: The Power of Healthy Thinking. By Dr Tom Mulholland (Reed Books, $29.99).
