91 pages • 3 hours read
Jon GordonThe Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Key Figures
Jon Gordon
Jon Gordon is the author of The Energy Bus, a Wall Street Journal best-selling self-help book. Gordon has published 20 books, several of them best-sellers, on teamwork and positive approaches to problem-solving. Gordon’s public speaking and consulting work includes clients such as Campbell Soup, Southwest Airlines, Bayer, Ritz-Carlton Hotels, the San Francisco 49ers, the Atlanta Falcons, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Professional Golfers’ Association, and several NCAA Division 1 football teams. Gordon also works extensively with K-12 educators and has written books for children, including The Energy Bus for Kids. He received a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a master’s degree from Emory University. Deeply religious, Gordon declares that God is “the ultimate driver of my Energy Bus” (xi) and that love is the highest form of energy.
George
A hard-working middle manager at the NRG light bulb manufacturing company, George also is a devoted husband and father who has demonstrated great potential until recently, when a series of misfortunes and his increasingly negative attitude throw his life into crisis. Threatened with losing his job and family, George flounders until he meets Joy, the driver of the bus George must take while his car is in the shop. With Joy’s help, and that of her passengers, George realizes that his poor attitude is ruining his opportunities and making difficult the lives of the people around him. He learns to replace negativity with positive enthusiasm, love for his people, and joy in everything he does. His work team and his family respond eagerly to his heartfelt renewal, and George achieves the success he dreamed of.
Joy
Joy drives the bus that George must take to work while his car gets repaired. Befitting her name, Joy is always happy and cheerful, loves everyone she meets, and works hard to help people in crisis. Her 10 rules, scribbled onto a sign posted at the front of the bus, detail the path to a positive, successful life filled with enthusiasm and love for others. Joy’s regular passengers have studied the 10 rules, and they share Joy’s positive energy and love for others; for that reason, her bus is called the Energy Bus. Joy and her passengers all contribute to George’s growth, helping him overcome negativity and encouraging him as he achieves success at work and renewal with his family.
George’s Family
Decent but long-suffering, George’s wife has lost patience with his constant negativity and announces that she will divorce him unless he cleans up his act. This, along with his boss’s threat to fire him, serves as a wake-up call for George. Likewise, George’s kids love him, and he loves them, but he has pulled away from them while his life is in crisis.
During George’s journeys on the Energy Bus, he realizes how important his family is to him, and he revives his marriage and his relationship with his children. He begins a new tradition, each day asking his kids to describe their favorite moment or achievement. By book’s end, George is fully re-engaged with his children and his wife, loving them in a nurturing way. His wife declares, “It feels like I’m meeting the man I fell in love with all over again. I don’t know where you have been but I’m glad you are back” (139).
George’s Team
George’s design team at the NRG Company falls into disarray as George’s leadership deteriorates. George learns a new way of living from the Energy Bus and transforms his approach to the team, energizing them, resolving their major gripes, and inspiring them to beat the odds and create a stellar product launch presentation. The team changes from sullen back-biters to loyal and loving coworkers inspired by their future under George’s transformed leadership.
As part of his program to repair the problems facing his team, George offers “bus tickets” to every member, inviting them to join his quest to improve team energy and successfully launch the new light bulb product.
Larry and Tom are two troublemakers on George’s team to whom he gives bus tickets. After they accept the tickets, George talks to them, explaining that they must pull with the team or leave. Larry needs his job and agrees to cooperate, but Tom sneers at George, telling him he’s the problem, not Tom. Though Tom is talented, he is a drain on the team, and George fires him.
Removing Tom is the first major action George takes after changing his attitude and upgrading his leadership skills, and the move sets in motion a series of difficult challenges that George handles successfully. For example, three other employees refuse the tickets: Michael, Jamie, and José. George isn’t stunned that Michael and Jamie turn him down, but he’s surprised that José, his favorite worker, joins them. When George fires Tom, Michael angrily quits; when he gives an ultimatum to Jamie, she relents but bluntly criticizes him for his downward spiral as their leader. José explains that he has worked hard for years to help George but never received any acknowledgment.
Under Joy’s guidance, George’s attitude and leadership continue to improve. Recognizing that Jamie and José are right, he makes a point of acknowledging their successes. He also makes several other strides toward creating a more productive, positive, and cohesive team, like prompting his employees to envision their big-picture purpose. Upon seeing these changes, Michael asks to be brought back on, and George agrees. George’s willingness to take Tom off the bus, coupled with his newfound ability to express positive energy and love toward his team, are critical steps that lead to the team’s cohesion and successful presentation of their product launch.
