Life's Bulldozer Moments: How Adversity Leads to Success in Life and Business

by Donato Tramuto, Chris Black (With)

Overview

Donato Tramuto felt bulldozed by life as a child when he lost most of his hearing to an ear infection that left him isolated and treated as a failure. A succession of tragedies rocked his world, including a last minute decision to change his plans to fly out of Logan Airport on 9/11 on the same LA-bound flight that claimed the lives of his close friends. In this poignant and penetrating book, Tramuto, a successful health care entrepreneur and global philanthropist, recounts the business and life lessons he learned and shows that adversity can lead to success. He shows anyone bulldozed by life how to pull themselves out of the rubble, dust themselves off and find meaning and purpose.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761868262
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	07/29/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	168
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Donato Tramuto is a respected healthcare innovator and industry leader, philanthropist and global healthcare activist. In 2015, he was appointed chief executive officer of Healthways, Inc. a global organization providing population health management and well-being improvement solutions. A recipient of the prestigious RFK Ripple of Hope Award in 2014, Donato has been widely recognized for his three decades of industry experience and commitment to social change.

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1 Bulldozer Moments
Chapter 2 Be Doggedly Goal Oriented and Strive for All Good Things Up to Perfection
Chapter 3 Don’t Listen to the Naysayers
Chapter 4 The Tummy Check
Chapter 5 Be Ready to Learn
Chapter 6 Collaboration and Integration
Chapter 7 Get the Culture Right and Everything Else Will Follow
Chapter 8 Get your Priorities Straight: Place Consumer Patients at the Heart of Health Care
Chapter 9 Pulling it All Together
Chapter 10 Aspire to Serve Others First
Acknowledgements
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

What sets this book apart is a personal approach that blends business and life lessons into a memoir, firmly rooting hardships with the strengths Donato Tramuto gained from this process.... The result is a powerful guide that charts several "bulldozer moments" in Tramuto's life and offers insights into health care issues, personal involvement, and business decision-making. Business and life purposes readers will read it for its lively tone, but will ultimately walk away with a clear blueprint for turning adversity into strength. Many other books cover some of the concepts; but Life's Bulldozer Moments covers the actual process of achieving this goal.” —Midwest Book Review

“Donato Tramuto demonstrates the value around hard work and tenacity, applying his own challenges to a four-decade crusade to improve access to healthcare. In Life’s Bulldozer Moments, Donato demonstrates how his unrelenting passion for improving access to high-quality healthcare has made a positive difference in the lives of people from Africa to the United States.” —Dr. Regina Herzlinger, Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

“Life’s Bulldozer Moments demonstrates the power of harnessing personal loss and adversity to drive professional success, and the power of leveraging professional success to effect social change. Donato Tramuto’s professional story illustrates the unpredictable trajectory of the healthcare industry over the past thirty years, while his personal experiences gave him an unwavering determination to succeed in business and to improve the lives of others. A great example of leadership, compassion and fortitude.” —Senator William H. Frist, M.D. of Tennessee

“With this book, Donato Tramuto’s descriptive phrase, ‘life’s bulldozer moments’ has entered the American lexicon. Donato describes his most deeply personal and professional bulldozer moments as life-changing challenges that shaped his unrelenting drive to make this world a better place. Donato’s message is simple and profound: Material success in life and business is best used as a means to end suffering and create a more just and peaceful world.” —Kerry Kennedy, President, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

“I have known Donato Tramuto for many years—as a successful healthcare executive, a thriving business owner and a former elected official in Ogunquit. I didn’t realize the amount of adversity he has faced and overcome in his life. For the first time I understand how Donato has used those Bulldozer Moments to bolster his determination to improve the human condition—in his home state of Maine and around the world.” —Former Maine Governor John E. Baldacci

From the Publisher

What sets this book apart is a personal approach that blends business and life lessons into a memoir, firmly rooting hardships with the strengths Donato Tramuto gained from this process.... The result is a powerful guide that charts several "bulldozer moments" in Tramuto's life and offers insights into health care issues, personal involvement, and business decision-making. Business and life purposes readers will read it for its lively tone, but will ultimately walk away with a clear blueprint for turning adversity into strength. Many other books cover some of the concepts; but Life's Bulldozer Moments covers the actual process of achieving this goal.

Midwest Book Review

Life’s Bulldozer Moments demonstrates the power of harnessing personal loss and adversity to drive professional success, and the power of leveraging professional success to effect social change. Donato Tramuto’s professional story illustrates the unpredictable trajectory of the healthcare industry over the past thirty years, while his personal experiences gave him an unwavering determination to succeed in business and to improve the lives of others. A great example of leadership, compassion and fortitude.

Senator William H. Frist

With this book, Donato Tramuto’s descriptive phrase, ‘life’s bulldozer moments’ has entered the American lexicon. Donato describes his most deeply personal and professional bulldozer moments as life-changing challenges that shaped his unrelenting drive to make this world a better place. Donato’s message is simple and profound: Material success in life and business is best used as a means to end suffering and create a more just and peaceful world.

Kerry Kennedy

I have known Donato Tramuto for many years—as a successful healthcare executive, a thriving business owner and a former elected official in Ogunquit. I didn’t realize the amount of adversity he has faced and overcome in his life. For the first time I understand how Donato has used those Bulldozer Moments to bolster his determination to improve the human condition—in his home state of Maine and around the world.

Former Maine Governor John E. Baldacci

Donato Tramuto demonstrates the value around hard work and tenacity, applying his own challenges to a four-decade crusade to improve access to healthcare. In Life’s Bulldozer Moments, Donato demonstrates how his unrelenting passion for improving access to high-quality healthcare has made a positive difference in the lives of people from Africa to the United States.

Dr. Regina Herzlinger

2018-01-18
A health care professional recalls a life of entrepreneurial success and the lessons learned from hardship. Debut author Tramuto was born in 1956 in a small industrial town near Buffalo, New York. From an early age, he weathered extraordinary trials: At the age of 8, he lost most of his hearing in both ears as the result of an infection, an impairment that led to social isolation and academic failure. After a series of experimental surgeries, he recovered much of that hearing only to lose it again years later due to a botched operation. In 1968, the author's older brother, Gerald, was killed in a car accident, a devastating emotional blow, and another brother, Michael, lost his young wife, Rosemary, during childbirth. Tramuto discusses these anguishes as "bulldozer moments," calamitous events subsequently transformed into sources of edification and future strength. The author was so moved by his sister-in-law's death—the consequence of a "routine anesthesia which triggered a violent allergic reaction"—and his own medical tribulations that he started devoting his life to finding innovative ways to more efficiently deliver superior health care. To that end, he's served in leadership positions at several companies in the health care field and pioneered the development of a digital database that pinpoints complications in drugs undetectable by Food and Drug Administration screenings. The author offers his reflections not only on the nature of business in general, but also on the state of the health care industry in particular as well as broader advice about success in life. Tramuto's story is an affecting one, and it's simply not possible for readers to remain unmoved by his Herculean displays of tenacity in the face of misfortune. The writing is clear and sharp and combines a near confessional candor with rigorous analysis. The author's experience and expertise in health care are evident on nearly every page. His meticulous, politically unbiased assessment of the industry in the United States is among the highlights of this book, written with Black (co-author: The Money Guy, 2014, etc.). Ultimately, Tramuto recommends a tectonic shift from "a sickness system to a wellness system" that "will not only save the insurers money but will encourage a healthier society," a position described in impressively nuanced terms. Sometimes the work's discussion of business slides into the well-worn grooves familiar to the genre—there's a lot of talk of transformational leadership, "collaborative IQ," entrepreneurial disruption, and the like. In addition, much of the counsel dispensed is in the form of timeworn tropes about the importance of setting priorities, the educational value of one's mistakes, and the inarguable significance of a healthy corporate culture. Tramuto's advice is always eminently sensible but often well-trafficked. Yet the autobiographical narrative is so inspiring the book as a whole simply can't be reduced to any formulaic type; Tramuto's life is cinematically heroic. And the explorations of health care policy transcend the normal partisan divisions in public discourse and should be required reading for loyalists on both sides. The thoughtful treatment of the Affordable Care Act alone is worth the price of the book. A stimulating and moving examination of American health care.

Kirkus Reviews