Chop Wood Carry Water
Mentioned once across 1 show · first heard Sep 2025 on IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson.
The general take
Candace Parker calls Chop Wood Carry Water one of her favorite books and praises it as an easy read. She describes it as a story about someone learning archery from a mentor who teaches the foundational lesson that mastery requires doing basic, unglamorous work first—chopping wood and carrying water—drawing a parallel to the classic "wax on, wax off" approach to skill-building.
About
Guided by "Akira-sensei," John comes to realize the greatest adversity on his journey will be the challenge of defeating the man in the mirror. This powerful story of one boy's journey to achieve his life long goal of becoming a samurai warrior, brings the Train to be Clutch curriculum to life in a powerful and memorable way.
Who said what
Candace Parker👍 Recommends
…recommending a book about mastering skills through committing to the process
“One of my favorite books, and I talk about it in here, it's called Chop Wood Carry Water. And it's an easy read. Yeah. But it's about, and he wants to go into archery, and he wants to be a master at archery. And he's going through the process, and his mentor is basically telling him, you're first going to learn how to chop wood carry water. Yeah. You know, and throughout the book. Like wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off. Miyagi. We got that. You know, the karate kid mentality. It's really about relinquishing the results.”
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson — Find The Can-Do Attitude with Candace Parkerat 55:32
Listener reviews
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