Review: Sharing failures adds credibility to lessons

— -- Is writing a rule book for renegades akin to selling hot dogs at a PETA convention?

Christine Comaford-Lynch, author of Rules for Renegades, appears to be a certifiable renegade.

Not too many people who drop out of high school to pursue modeling go on to become a Buddhist monk, computer programmer, company founder, CEO and venture capitalist. That's Comaford-Lynch's résumé in a nutshell, and now the 44-year-old is adding author to her current consultant and public speaker job description.

It's a slightly kooky career path that serves as perfect fodder for what's becoming a predictable byproduct of success: a book about How I Did It, and How You Can, Too!

What helps set Comaford-Lynch's effort apart is her willingness to share her failures — some spectacular — as a way of assuring readers that it's possible to fail and still go forward.

She began geisha training, for example, with the goal of increasing her femininity and power, and perhaps opening her own business to help other American women do the same, only to figure out four months later what geishas are expected to do with their patrons.

Another lesson from the self-proclaimed poster child for epic failure falls under Rule 4: Build Power Instead of Borrowing It.

Here, Comaford-Lynch dishes about Bill Gates, recounting in excruciating detail their first date when she was a contractor for Microsoft in the early days. She pokes fun at his methods of wooing — he offers to solve a puzzle really fast. Their romance lasted only one more date.

We are also privy to another of her billionaire romances, this one with Oracle's Larry Ellison (a "fit nerd") and encounters with Barbara Walters and the Clintons. She learns something useful from all of them — Gates' supreme self-confidence and Ellison's methods of dealing with public attack and perception.

But ultimately, she writes, she didn't become truly successful in business until she started building her own power by challenging herself, acquiring new skills, and by deciding to stop giving away her right to feel powerful to a man or a job title or her company at the moment.