I tend to shy away from books that are written and labeled as fables. I took a chance on Stefan Swanepoel’s latest book, “Surviving Your Serengeti; 7 Skills to Master Business and Life”, and am glad that I did. The book’s subtitle reads “A Fable of Self-Discovery”. In this work, Swanepoel takes the reader down a path of self-examination that seeks to cultivate the most innate skills that will enable us to live our lives to the fullest.

Swanepoel grew up in Africa and the Serengeti is part of his life. I believe this is what makes the book successful. He uses the images, pictures, and the spirit of this wildlife habitat as the backdrop of this book. The story unfolds with three couples finding themselves on safari together. One couple in particular engrossed with the life and work of one of the locals. He turns out to be an old college roommate thirty years prior.

This local, Zachariah, shows the how seven of the most familiar and prevalent animals on the Serengeti plain can teach us great lessons. He focuses on the seven skill that these animals use to survive and how, if properly cultivated within us will make a difference in our personal, family, and business lives. The seven animals and skills are: the wildebeest (endurance), the lion (strategy), the crocodile (enterprising), the cheetah (efficiency), the giraffe (grace), the elephant (communication), and the mongoose (risk-taking).

I enjoyed this book. It is an easy read with just over 150 pages and an easy to follow story line. The author’s background, having seen and experiences these animals in the wild, makes the correlation between the animal and human world believable. ‘Surviving Your Serengeti’ causes the reader to examine and determine if adjustments are necessary to utilize our God-given abilities.