Perseverance proves potent, powerful in the face of established norms

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This article was published 20/12/2025 (303 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Persuasion is an art. No one knows that better than advertising guru, broadcaster and author Terry O’Reilly.

However, unlike his entertaining and informative radio shows, including his current CBC program, Under the Influence, in his latest book it’s perseverance that is the thread running through the five different categories and characters he wants to draw our attention to. The lives and challenges O’Reilly wants to share are drawn from entertainment, business and industry, politics, science and medicine and sports.

Unlike the feel-good Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books, O’Reilly has chosen quirky, rebellious troublemakers who won’t take no for an answer. They often challenge the accepted pecking order hierarchy, gender expectations or accepted practices. The costs from such challenges can lead to a lack of respect from your peers and take years from your career.

Like an assortment of chocolates, there’s a mix of hard and soft centres for a variety of readers — well-known examples such as Taylor Swift’s success story, which O’Reilly has covered on air, as well as lesser-known ones such as the 1953 Hungary soccer team that stunned England at their own game — a tale reminiscent of the rude awakening Canadians had when the disciplined Soviets first beat us at shinny.

Other examples include Gustave Eiffel, whose metal tower, viewed as a temporary monstrosity at the time of its construction, is now recognized around the world as a symbol for Paris.

Ignaz Semmelweis, a man who “questioned everything,” recommended doctors not finish an autopsy and then go to deliver a baby without washing their hands. It’s a view that doctors took at the time as a personal insult.

Scientist Suzanne Simard, a tree hugger extraordinaire, questioned clear-cut logging that ignored the companion benefits of different trees in the reforestation aim — a wood-wide web, as Simard describes it. For her concerns and careful study of forestry practices indicating “we’re barking up the wrong tree,” she had audience members walk out on her talks; a friend explained to her that “the crowd didn’t like hearing that kind of research ‘from a woman.’”

Missing O’Reilly’s radio voice, timing and musical cues, several of the pieces seem important but pedestrian compared with the more dramatic on-air telling, such as the disturbing barriers and life-threatening experiences faced by Richard Williams, whose extraordinary determination produced the double tennis threat of daughters Venus and Serena.

Not every reader will see Justin Trudeau’s sunny ways victory in the same light as the author, but there’s no denying his first election win was an ad man’s dream campaign, accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative.

The essay on Katalin Kariko is a challenge for this science-challenged reader, but the outcome that led to the COVID vaccine is well worth the reminder of the importance of ideas that challenge the too-easy response of “that won’t work.”

Without coming across as pollyanna, Against the Grain is a book of encouraging and uplifting short essays, while the news tends to encourage an “ain’t it awful, Mabel” mindset approach to our daily struggles.

It’s a suitable read for teens as well as an adult audience.

Ron Robinson helped start a new bookstore to show a large company what a mistake they had made.