How to Build a Piano Bench: Lessons for Success from a Red-Dirt Road in Alabama

In a breezy narrative, Postow Birch tells of growing up in a poor 1950s Mobile County, Ala., mill town. She dreamed of leaving the South and being on stage in New York, but was burdened with an almost pathological level of insecurity. She felt abandoned by her adoring older siblings when they left home as well as later in adolescence as she transformed from a cute kid to a sensitive teenager always conscious about her weight. Using a philosophy her father lived by (“There is always just one right next step—you know it because it’s the only one that makes sense. Find that and do it”), Postow Birch learned two valuable lessons: that people had stories to tell and just wanted someone to listen, and everyone appreciates even the smallest of gestures that show someone is paying attention. With those thoughts in mind, she eventually found fulfilling work as a recruiter at a personnel agency where she had to call strangers to get them to hire her candidates. She explains how she derived great joy from talking and lending an ear, going on to found her own recruiting agency in Washington, D.C. Postow Birch’s story isn’t flashy, but it will strike a chord with those hoping to chart a course to creating a bigger, richer life. (BookLife)