The Big Five For Life

I first read ‘The Why Café’ by John P Strelecky at the end of 2006 and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was surprised to find out that the author lived just down the road from me and decided to contact him. After a few e-mails we met for breakfast and hit it off. I found John to be honest, amusing, and thoughtful, with a high degree of integrity and an insatiable appetite for helping people.

Following that, I attended one of his ‘Big Five For Life’ workshops and was blown away by a stunning concept he had come up with. Like all great ideas it was simplicity itself. Johns idea was to replicate the notion that most people who participate in African safari vacations, judge their success by how many of the ‘big five’ game animals they see. For your information the ‘big five’ are: Lion, Rhino, Elephant, Leopard & Buffalo.

John carried the concept over to peoples goals in life by asking the question: What are the 5 things that they you like to see, feel or experience before you die to make you believe that your life was a success as you judge success? Simple eh?

Imagine next time you speak to a casual acquaintance you ask them that question, rather than “Wassup?” or “Have you got gravy on your tie?” or even “Did you see that women burst into tears on American Idol last night?” Do you think that might make for a slightly more interesting conversation? If your answer is no, and you’d rather spend an hour discussing what in Gods name Paula Abdul was banging on about, you may as well stop reading now because you’re in the wrong place.

‘The Why Café’ was a very cool and thought-provoking book, as was African Safari, John’s follow up. ‘The Big Five For Life’ is better than both in my opinion. It will be classed as a business book but I don’t think that does it justice, because it seems to me like it’s a book on life.



The book is a novel based on the final days of a highly successful businessman who is dying from a brain tumor. The story is told from the perspective of a younger friend that has flown home from traveling in Spain to be with his mentor.

There are so many concepts that can be used to make people more succesful in business AND life that I need to re-read it to absorb them all. The main notion is that you don’t have to be a dictator to be a great leader. You can still value people, treat them as equals and want the best for them AND make money. In fact, it makes it more likely! 

I don’t think there was one idea in here that I disagreed with and the way John weaves in the ‘Big Five For Life’ and peoples PFE (Purpose For Existence), ideas that came from his two previous books, is fascinating.

A lot of people will read this book and agree with the premise but still do nothing to change their own lives. On the other hand, some people will read it and act on it, and they are the ones that will really benefit.

One final note: There is a story being retold by the dying entrepreneur involving a conversation between himself and his wife when they were on a safari many years earlier. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say that conversation actually took place. When you think of that as you read it, it will send goose bumps up your arm. No clues as to who actually had that particular conversation.

You can buy The Big Five For Life here.

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