MINI EPISODE: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse by Charles Mackesy (Book Summary & Discussion)

The Daily Drive Book Club 

📖 The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy

Episode Summary

Every once in a while, you have to step out of the heavy leadership books and just eat some cake. In this mini episode, Yanet leads us through a children's book handed to her by a CEO mentor during a hospital leadership program — a book that turned out to hold more leadership wisdom than either of us expected. Hand-illustrated and handwritten by the author, it's a story about kindness, optimism, and love. And on the second read, with a leadership lens, the themes started jumping off the page: circle of safety, asking questions instead of having answers, self-compassion, and building trust with people you're not used to trusting.

In This Episode

• Why we do "mini episodes" — keeping it light between the big, heavy books
• The backstory: a CEO mentor who gave Yanet a children's book instead of a business book — and what it taught her about leadership
• The four characters: the boy (the glue), the mole (the cake lover), the fox (quiet trust), and the horse (the optimist)
• Reading it twice — how the leadership themes only emerged on the second pass
• Circle of safety: the fox is freed and welcomed into the group, even after admitting he could've eaten the mole
• "Don't have the answers, ask the questions" — the same theme that surfaced in Multipliers
• Self-compassion and "the greatest illusion is that life should be perfect"
• "The greatest thing I've discovered is that I'm enough" — and why that one hits home
• Keeping it light: "If at first you don't succeed, have some cake"
• Kindness isn't the same as nice — leading with truth AND love, and why one without the other doesn't work
• The adult timeout: emotional maturity and stepping away before you bring baggage to your team
• Working your algorithm — feeding yourself (and putting out) love instead of hate
• Our billboards: "I am enough" and "When in doubt, eat some cake"
• Our Gas Tank rating for the book

Our Rating
⛽ Gas Tank: 4/4 — A full tank from both of us. A children's book that makes you stop, think, and give yourself (and everyone around you) a little grace. And it has cake.

Get the Book
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Get the audiobooks here: [Libro.fm link]

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Transcript

0:02

You're listening to the Daily Drive Book Club. A leadership audiobook experience where two leaders turn their commute into a classroom. I'm Vanessa. I'm Yanet. Sit in traffic with us as we drive, learn, and lead together. All right. Well, I-95, three right lanes blocked before 836. Woo, we're gonna be on here for a while. good morning, Yanet. Good morning, Vanessa. So on this episode, we're gonna do what we're calling a mini episode. We're reading a lot of big, heavy books with big, heavy ideas. So every once in a while, we're gonna do a mini episode and keep it a little bit light. Still filled with fun and lessons, but just a little bit on the lighter side. So this episode, we're covering a children's book that was recommended by Yanet, so I'm gonna hand it over to Yanet to lead the discussion on this one. Thank you. So let's get into the book. I was part of a mentorship program, and Peter Powers, who was the CEO of one of the hospitals where I worked, he was my mentor. And, I figured he would recommend a business book or a business class, and he gave me a book, a book that was meaningful to him and that became meaningful to me. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy. Or Mackesy. I'm still figuring out how to say his name. So i'll get into the book, and this is a physical book, and I think it's so beautiful because it is illustrated by- By the author as well. Hand-illustrated and handwritten, so I thought that was so special. It's a book about kindness. It's a book about optimism. It's a book about love. In this case was diverse animals, right? But it's showing you is that diversity can make us stronger, and can build us up. It's a short book, but to me it's meaningful, especially on those days when anger creeps in. What'd you think, Vanessa, when you read it? It was funny because I read it and I thought it was a super cute book, but on the first pass I was like, What does this have to do with leadership," and then I read it again, cause the first time I read it I wasn't reading it with that lens, I was just reading it. So I was like, "Okay- Mm-hmm now let me read it again from a leadership perspective," right? Like, what can I pull away from this with leadership? And that's when I really started understanding some of the themes in that context, a lot of themes that came up in some of the other books. I think there was, the circle of safety, when the fox comes in and tries to be his friend and they accept him, into their little group and, that had the vibe of a circle of safety. Then there was the thing that we were talking about, I think it was with Multipliers, about don't have the answers, ask the questions, and the whole book is them posing these questions and being comfortable with the fact that they don't necessarily know the answers, you know? Um- Mm-hmm so it was like on that second pass when I looked at it from that lens, that I really saw some of those, concepts emerge. There was also a vibe of self-compassion. Yes easy on yourself for not being perfect or not getting it all right. When he says what's the biggest waste of time? And they answer comparing yourself to other people. Every quote in this book, every quote hits home to me And like for example, so I'm gonna talk about some of the themes. Like you said, being gracious with yourself. Right. Really realizing that life isn't perfect. I think there's one quote that says, "The greatest illusion is that life should be perfect." Right. And you know what? With so much social media, sometimes we think, "Oh my God, their life is great." No, there's always a lot behind everything. And you were talking about the animals, so maybe I'll break down a couple of the characters. Yes. The fox. Okay. The fox comes into the picture, and it's funny 'cause even going back to another book, Hedgehog and Fox, I'm like- "I'm a fox," right? Right. 'Cause I struggle with the hedgehog. But in this case, the mole, is tiny, and the boy find the fox, but the fox is tied up. The boy, in his infinite wisdom, knows the fox will die, but the fox tells the mole, "I'll eat you." Or something along those lines. Right. And along the boy's wisdom is like, "No, you're not. If we leave you here, you're gonna die." So begrudgingly, like rrr, you know- he let the mole with his little teeth chewed through the trap so that the fox could be free. You know, building trust. Right. Because the fox could have eaten the mole. Right. And he didn't, and he absolutely didn't, and he was actually kind of shy a- and amazing and fit into their circle. So I thought that was a great story sometimes we don't start perfect, and we have bumps, and we have to save somebody. And trust, trusting someone who maybe you're not used to trusting, that part, it spoke to me. I have to say, the horse is the optimist in the group. Horses have this wisdom, and I think the illustrations of, their silhouettes- Yeah I really recommend this book for children, for adults. But one thing, and if anybody knows me, they know I am a cake snob. I won't eat certain cakes. Don't call me if it's, like, a grocery bought cake. And I am not a snob at all, like, at all. Right? Like, I, I have, outfits that I've worn for 20 years. I don't care. But when it comes to cake, it's serious business. And here's the quote, guys. "If at first you don't succeed, have some cake." It works every time. Really. I think- The m- the mole was in love with cake. So it has some of that, and it goes back to some humor. I liked that part, too, because it almost felt like don't take it all so seriously," right? Make time for cake because interspersed throughout the book every once in a while, the mole's like, "I love cake," right? It doesn't have to do, anything to do with anything they're talking about. And it- And they- it just spoke that message to me, like, yeah, keep it light. It doesn't all need to be so serious, you know? Right. Right. And you know what? And I've said that before in the podcast is sometimes you don't have to take yourself so serious. It's serious work, but for the love of God, smell the roses and eat the cake. Especially if it's serious work. You need it even more. Especially Oh, yeah. And that's true. That is absolutely true. That definitely hits home. What character haven't we talked about? The boy. The boy, Yeah. So I'll talk about the boy, and the boy here is the glue. The boy is the glue, He's trying to make it home, and in some parts of it, he feels like, "Oh my gosh, look how much more we have to go." And the horse and his optimism is like, "Look how far we've come." Right. So when the boy tries to doubt himself, even though he does admit, the greatest thing he has discovered is that he's enough. I'm enough-" Right is written in the book. And that part, oh, man, if you've ever been a teenage girl, you know that hits home. I'm enough. I am enough. So I think the boy is, he doesn't know, but he is the glue. He's the glue that holds all these characters together, and they catch each other. And whenever one of them or the boy gets a little scared or sad, they wrap around him. And that is, part of friendship and part of love, is when someone is scared or is going through something, your friends and your family are supposed to wrap you around their love. So it's a book about kindness and love. Is there anything else there that you wanted to add? I think that sense of it's okay to be vulnerable it's okay to not know, and that it's important, like you said, to be kind and to, create a sense of belonging for the people around you, and that they don't have to look like you and be like you and think like you to be able to belong, That's right and that, every once in a while have some cake. To me, one last, point in the book that I really liked was, and this really hits home in a time like now, that sometimes all we see in the news, in social, is the hate in the world. Right. When really there is so much love and caring, and we forget about that because all we see is the hate, and it's the truth. We do have a lot of love, a lot of care in this world. It's unfortunately though the hate speaks louder sometimes. If you're being fed too much of the hate, like on your socials, you know, work with your algorithms. Start looking for some love and some happy things because your algorithm will feed you what you're looking through, and I think we were talking about that earlier. So don't feed into the hate I've definitely cleaned up my algorithms but also focusing on what I'm putting out, and making sure that I'm not putting out negativity, There's enough of that out there. So when someone sees something that I post, I want it to be positive, uplifting, kind. So. Abso- absolutely. That's it. So this book is short. It's a short read, but it's one that if you have kids or any child in your life, buy it for them, read it with them- It's funny because I was talking to my best friend about, the podcast and I mentioned that we were doing this book, and she was like, "Oh my God, my sister bought me that book. It's sitting on my nightstand, so, Yeah a good gift even for adults. But you know, I was curious, did you then discuss the book with your mentor, or- he just told you to read it? We did discuss the book after, and it was about leading with kindness. And kindness isn't always nice, and let's not confuse the two. Yes, I meant to say that, too, 'cause that came across to me as well, kindness doesn't always mean nice. And I read this in one of the other books for example, if you tell someone that they have something on their face, that's kind, or something on their teeth, that's kind. But it's not necessarily nice, right? No one wants to hear, like, "Hey, you have lipstick on your tooth." But, but it is kind. And so maybe when we were growing up, it was called tough love. And there's lines. Anything exaggerated could go the wrong way. But I think you can lead with kindness and still be stern and still, expect excellence, but you could be kind about it. And keep it about the work and keep it about growth instead of belittling people or letting your anger take the best of you. Emotional maturity is very important when you are a leader, and when you find yourself, not in full control of your emotions, you need to give yourself an adult timeout. Go for a walk, take a breather, do a stretch, whatever that is, because it's no one's fault, and even if it is their fault, leaving that baggage to the side, because if you bring it in and you're unkind to people, they remember. People remember when you make a mistake and you sit down and you're like, "What? Yeah, that was a mistake. What are we doing to fix it? What do we, what did we learn from it?" Da, da, da, da, da. You know, and you don't sit there and belittle them. I think that that's an very important leadership, quality. I don't remember where I heard this, so I can't credit wherever it came from. But I remember one time I heard, always speak from a place of truth and love. Because truth given without love can be cruel, and love given without also having truth is not healthy. Ah. Yeah. Yeah, so don't lie to me just 'cause you love me. Right. Right. 'Cause- And so- Ah that, that, you know, always speak from a place of truth and love. And I think anybody that knows me knows- That I love a good dose of truth, but I also give a lot of love. And, I always say, when I say I love you, I don't mean it in the nice, cutesy, frilly, "Oh, I love you" kind of way. I mean, I love you hard. So I'ma tell you what- what I feel I need to tell you, and I'm gonna tell you with love, and I'm gonna, be by your side and all of that, and I'm gonna protect you fiercely, but I'm gonna tell you things. That's the best kind of love. Right. That's the best kind of love. It's not fake love. That's- It's real love that's the only kind of love I want but not everybody can accept that kind of love, and I'm okay with that too, 'cause if that's not what you need or what you want, I'm not, I'm not for you, but I'll still love you from afar. Right. Right. I'm a lot like you in that sense, and there's some people that I'm just like, "Okay. Well, We can be acquaintances or work together, but we can't be friends. You don't really want a friend in me." You don't want, you, you don't want all of this, 'cause all of this, you know? I want all of it. You know, I Thank you. Thank you. We didn't have the exact questions for this podcast, and we didn't talk about a billboard, but I'm gonna bring up the billboard, because to me is, when in doubt, eat some cake, man. Yeah. Eat some cake. Absolutely. Maybe the only other one is, I am enough. I am enough. That would be a great billboard. Yep. I am enough. Yep. Yep. Make people think a little bit. Yeah. You know? We might help people's, mental health for the day, just walking around, I am enough. So do you wanna rate the book? I would give it a full gas tank. I mean, it's a pure children's story about kindness. That's a full tank for me, and it has cake. Yeah. For me, it's a full tank because it makes you stop and think a little, give yourself some grace, give people some grace. And I love the illustrations too. Oh, yeah. So this one, is more in your hand type of book, which I actually have it in my hand right now. So to me it's a full tank. Read it with children, but also internalize it for yourselves. You know, I was Doing some research on the book itself and I learned that, the way the book came about was he just had a social media page where he would post these illustrations, and some of the quotes, in the book were posts with an illustration. And then he was approached by a publisher or an agent, about putting all of these things into a book, which I thought was interesting. Very cool. I did not see that. I know that he does things on, the art of kindness. And it's hard 'cause sometimes I don't wanna be kind. I know. But, you know, I think it's also about being kind to yourself, and that means that when you don't feel like being kind, just give yourself a timeout and take- Mm-hmm the time you need to give back to yourself. Amen to that. So thank you, Vanessa. Of course. And thank you, everybody, for listening- You're welcome and indulging me, with a children's book. We want everybody to stay tuned as we build our podcast, and some things will be a little different. We invite you to share your books with us, your stories with us, as we plan to incorporate even cooler things. Whether we're looking at TED Talks or children's books or adult business books or self-help books, it's really where this takes us, where the conversation takes us. So we're really appreciative. Stay tuned to our social channels to learn what's coming next. And with that, I have arrived at my destination, so I will see you in the office, my friend. All right, darling. Bye. Bye. That's our commute for today. Got a question, a book suggestion, or something on your mind? Email us at thedailydrivebookclub@gmail.com. Show notes for this episode are in the description. Thanks for driving with us on the Daily Drive Book Club. Keep driving, keep learning, keep leading. We'll see you on the next one. And by the way, no laws were broken during this recording. That's a whole nother podcast.