Iacocca unleashes his political philosophy. Nothing earth shattering was revealed. He took the middle ground on a lot of issues. This book could have been a prepartory move towards running for president; however, Iacocca did not venture down that path.

The times in which we live can cause a reader to suffer from spiritual malnutrition. When that happens, I reach back to our less complex and in some ways more rewarding past when voices of leadership were more clear and more focused on decency than today’s power grab attitude that surrounds us all. This sequel to Iacocca’s biography was comfort food to my starving soul, and I miss the kind of writing and plain speaking in which he engages.

The former Chrysler chairman speaks out about the supreme importance of the traditional family as the bedrock and basis of our society. He talks candidly about how he and his wife, Mary, raised their two daughters. In the first chapter, he moved me deeply by speaking with so much love of his deceased wife. It is she, he assures us, who held the family together. Sure, Lee drove to the Florida house for a vacation, but it was Mary who knew where the keys were and what to pack to keep the family doing well. I understand how that works. Were something to happen to my wife of more than four decades, my life would tumble into a state of chaotic shambles from where there would be no rescue, I fear.

He writes in the first chapter of tearing up at the wedding of his second daughter; I get that, too. He writes briefly and almost reverently of the relationship he had with them growing up. He was half an hour late to a meeting in London once because he wanted to get some rugby shirts he knew they would like, and he found them at a bargain. I was dreadfully late to a meeting in Kansas City one day because my guide dog and I trundled off in a taxi to an FAO Schwarz store to buy a puppet for a little girl who had seen it there days earlier during a Thanksgiving weekend visit to the place. Today, I couldn’t tell you what that meeting was about. But I remember vividly the sense of extreme independence and sheer ebullient jubilation I felt at knowing I had tucked that puppet away in my travel bag in preparation for a little girl’s Christmas surprise. I loved this book from the first chapter, and while the former auto executive lived a far more public glamorous and arguably more successful life than I, he and I would have had that one perspective very much in common. Of course, you don’t shirk your responsibilities and not attend the meeting, but you darn well better have those rugby shirts or that puppet tucked away safely somewhere, because that’s what’s going to matter most when the eternal accountants tally everything to measure your ultimate success.

He writes of the genuine love and admiration he had for his mother. In her mid-80s, she accompanied her son to various places including Italy, and he writes about worrying about her isolation and taking steps to counter it. He is an ardent proponent of doing things with aging parents before that becomes impossible.

He writes with candor about his second-marriage divorce from a woman nearly half his age and only 10 or so years older than his daughters.

There’s a delightful chapter here on dealing with fame while remaining as untouched by it as possible. He quotes from some of the zany letters and from some of the heartbreaking letters he has received. He also talks about some of the bizarre gifts people send him unsolicited. One psychiatrist sent him a specially made chocolate bar with Iacocca’s face stamped in the chocolate. He comments on the creepiness of biting his own face. He got the perennial topless photo from the 40-something-year-old woman, and a letter from another woman who described herself in terms of the model names of Chrysler cars. She ended with the idea that she would be “in a fury” if he didn’t respond.

He expresses his conviction as to the reality of God and the power of prayer. He expresses the conviction that he will be reunited with family members who died. He says the 10 commandments are commandments, not suggestions.

Iacocca grumbles about the prohibitive cost of obeying regulations. He insists that American companies are eager to sue one another while the rest of the business world is keen on competing against Americans.

There is some surprising material in here. Iacocca saw Ronald Reagan as a shallow albeit likable guy. He emphatically despised Donald Regan, Reagan’s former treasury secretary and one-time chief of staff. He had equal disregard for James A. Baker III. He also disparaged Reagan’s policies on trade.

Some of the chapters are quintessentially ‘80s. For Iacocca, Japan is the monster under the bed. He warns against an education system that he sees as lackadaisical. He saw the Vietnam war as immoral and denounced the Nixon presidency as an immoral presidency. HE looks at the importance of quality and admitted to Chrysler’s past sins in terms of poor-quality production. He personally opposed abortion, especially from an economic perspective, and he favors gun control.

This is a quick read that will give you insight into who Iacocca was without the need to dig through his biography.