• Beyond Xs and Os

  • What I Learned about Friendship and Success from a College Football Legend
  • By: Hayden Fry, Tom Berthel
  • Narrated by: Maurice England
  • Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (53 ratings)

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Beyond Xs and Os  By  cover art

Beyond Xs and Os

By: Hayden Fry, Tom Berthel
Narrated by: Maurice England
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Editorial reviews

Although he never played for College Football Hall of Fame coach Hayden Fry, Tom Berthel learned as much from him as anyone ever could. Their friendship, memorialized here with a plainspokenness that also serves as a hallmark of Iowa football under Coach Fry, features Berthel providing a guide to the wisdom of his mentor - from overcoming adversity to leading by example and hiring the right people to leaving a winning legacy - and also includes the Coach’s commentary on the writing of a businessman he watched take a small regional financial office and build it into a $2-billion-plus company.

Publisher's summary

How the mentorship and leadership principles of a legendary college football coach can help make you a success.

Tom Berthel first met Hall of Fame football coach Hayden Fry when, in the mid-1980s, his investment firm, Berthel Fisher & Co., became a corporate sponsor of the University of Iowa Athletic Department. This business partnership not only helped Berthel Fisher establish a winning public image, but it also gave birth to one of the most important and enduring friendships of Tom Berthel’s life. Fry became a mentor and father figure to Berthel, and the wisdom Fry bestowed on him through their mutual friendship taught Berthel invaluable lessons in leadership, motivation, and what it takes to be a winner in business and in life.

These are the lessons that form the core of Beyond Xs and Os. In the book, Tom Berthel recounts the many lessons he learned from Coach Fry - some but not all related to football - and explains how they helped shape his life and business. In each chapter, Berthel outlines a specific lesson he learned from Coach Fry, explains how he integrated these philosophies into his business and personal life, and offers advice to help listeners apply them to their own lives and businesses.

Each chapter also features a special “Postgame with Coach Fry” sidebar written by the venerable Coach Fry himself, in which he reflects on the events and lessons depicted in the chapter and offers a deeper perspective on each, enriching the lesson.

©2010 Thomas J. Berthel and Hayden Fry. Foreword © 2010 Kirk Ferentz (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

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dont bother with this one

struggled to finish. i absolutely thought this book was pointless and incredibly really boring

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Good book about Coach Fry’s philosophy

It would have been ideal to have the authors read the chapters, but I understand why it wasn’t done. But I got confused with one person reading the entire book. Since the book switches back and forth between Fry and Berthel, it took a little bit of time to realize that it was someone else speaking. Two different readers would have helped. There are a few pronunciation errors that will bother die-hard Iowa fans. Otherwise, I found the book very interesting and a good read if you’re in Finance or like college football.

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