Barney opens the Afterword by admitting the practical reason he wrote the book. I've always had a mind like a steel trap — and I still do, except it's rusting, he writes. Which is why I began writing down my memories. The project, he explains, was above all for his daughter Christiane.
The illustrative story he picks is a small one. In the early travel-industry days, he had sat with Harry Pope — the cafeteria owner whose Food Service Management Guild tour had lit the fuse for INTRAV — and about ten years later, he ran into Harry again. They were both driving Rolls-Royces.
“Who would have thought that you and I would both be driving Rolls-Royces?” Harry asked.
“I always knew you'd be driving one,” I said. “It's me I didn't expect!”
What Made Him Successful
If Barney had to pinpoint the qualities responsible for his business success, he lists four: a tendency to stay ahead of the curve and reinvent the business when it needed to be reinvented; a willingness to pay more to hire the best workers; an ability to put himself in his customers' shoes and figure out what they actually wanted; and the temperament of a problem-solver.
He thinks many businesspeople get mired in early successes and believe they can ride the same model forever. He calls that a losing bet in a smartphone- and internet-driven world. If you're not reinventing yourself, he writes, something is probably wrong.
What Made Him Happy
The quality he credits for success at life, as distinct from success at business, is simpler: a positive attitude. He preserves his attitude, he explains, by surrounding himself with people and things that make him happy. That doesn't mean he ignores the world's misfortune. He sends checks to the United Way and the Salvation Army every year. The Salvation Army has invited him to join the board several times. He can't bring himself to. The day-to-day reality of families in economic struggle is, for him, too close to the life he had escaped.
I've kept my positive attitude, in part, by surrounding myself with people and things that make me happy.
— Barney, on how to liveThe Last Lines
Barney says he doesn't spend time thinking about death or afterlife. I'm already living in heaven, he writes. I think heaven and hell are right here on earth and we decide which one we live in. But whatever comes after death, I'm sure it will be all right.
He says he wants to be remembered as an honest, hardworking, reasonably intelligent, and loving man. His father taught him the importance of being fair, and he has tried to pass the lesson on. He hopes his daughter and grandchildren will always know how much they have enriched his life.
I have lived with no regrets. Truly, it is a wonderful life.
— The last line of Barney's autobiography