Humbled by the Journey: Life Lessons for my Family… and Yours

At first I was mesmerized by this beautifully illustrated chronicle detailing this Cuban immigrant’s rags-to-riches ascent to reach the American dream of affluence. Paralleling this account of his life successes are the engrossing entries recording impressions from his walking pilgrimage along the five-hundred-mile trail of El Camino de Santiago. Starting from France and inching across Spain, the monuments, towns, churches, and personal encounters that he made are warmly described. The impetus for this journey was to generate monetary pledges to assist in treating chronically ill children at Miami Children’s Hospital. Throughout the book, Mike Fernandez constantly boasts of his business acumen learned through trial and error. The text of his pilgrimage is interspersed with helpful hints on how to succeed in life, and specifically in the business world. Letters from business associates, friends, and family members attest to their admiration and love for this entrepreneur. Descriptions of his relatives and their achievements embellish the text. The trek along the El Camino trail has been aptly described by others, and this version with its accompanying text is more fitting for a personal family history. Currently noted as a billionaire in the health-care industry, some dissonance assaulted my senses as this volume morphed from a memoir into a paean for a mogul.