Life is the Ultimate Wild Card

Author interview with Brendan T. Kelly

Literary Titan - August 22, 2024

A Voice at the Table shares your story of overcoming adversities while growing up and learning to find your voice; it also teaches others to understand and empathize with people, encouraging self-awareness, kindness, and compassion for all. Why was this an important book for you to write?

I felt it was important to share that we all are going through something or dealing with things in life. Life is the ultimate wild card and keeps us on our toes. But, when we can be vulnerable and set egos aside we can share our challenges and learn from them. For me, I’ve been through a lot, it’s made me who I am and I wanted to share this story. Hopefully it will inspire others and motivate them to do something and not let adverse circumstances be a permanent road block. 

Your book is more than a memoir; it is a call to action for leaders. What ideas were important for you to share in this book?

I’ve had the privilege and honor of being in various roles in my life, to include some leadership roles. In those roles I learned to empower all my team members to share their experiences. Whether it is in work or life itself, we can learn from more voices that share. Then together we are darn near unstoppable. We see and hear too many examples of bad leadership in the news and on social media these days. The majority of people are good and need to hear some positivity, they need to see the good out here. When we work together, regardless of political affiliation, religious beliefs, poor or rich, or the color of our skin, we can do some wonderful things. This makes an organization better and its team members. That bleeds over to our communities and little by little things improve. It’s work though and requires commitment. 

I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?

It felt good to write and let my ideas and memories flow. As a recovering perfectionist, reliving some of those moments in my mind was frustrating. I made mistakes and missed some opportunities. But, even those moments were an opportunity to learn. Being able to take a step back and look at what I was able to put together was fulfilling and rewarding. Being vulnerable and having a willingness to share the dark events in life is tough. However, if it helps someone else to share and not be a victim of past event, then rock on.

What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?

We are all in this together and together we can do some amazing things.