For a long time, I never thought I would write a memoir.

I’ve spent much of my life training people, leading organizations, traveling the world, and helping others deal with the challenges that come with work and life. But along the way, life handed me a few challenges of its own.

Some were expected.

Many were not.

There were military assignments, family separations, mistakes, failures, unexpected losses, cancer, recovery, and moments when I wasn’t sure what came next.

There were also plenty of good times—family, friendships, adventures, humor, and lessons that I didn’t fully understand until years later.

That is what Fish on Fridays is really about.

It isn’t a book about having all the answers. It’s about what happens when life doesn’t go according to plan.

One of the most important chapters in my life began at North Georgia College in Dahlonega.

That’s where I met Cathy.

The greatest gift college gave me wasn’t a degree. It was meeting the woman who would become the love of my life.

When I first saw her, I was captivated. I couldn’t get her out of my mind. We dated for two years, and I knew she was the person I wanted to spend my life with.

But Cathy had plans of her own. She wanted to become a nurse, so after two years at North Georgia College, she transferred to Emory University to pursue her dream.

I wasn’t about to let her slip away.

I proposed one evening on the “Mountain,” a place where many of the cadets went to hang out. It wasn’t exactly the most romantic setting for a proposal, but thankfully, she said yes.

Our families were very different. Cathy came from a farming and small-business family. I came from a military family. Her parents were Baptist; mine were Catholic. Her family wasn’t immediately convinced that I was the right person for their daughter.

It took time.

But we stayed together.

Years later, my mother-in-law admitted that she had her doubts about me.

I guess I proved her wrong.

Looking back, that story means more to me than I realized at the time.

Life isn’t just about the big accomplishments—the promotions, the careers, the awards, or the places you’ve traveled.

Sometimes the most important thing that happens to you is simply meeting the right person.

Cathy has been there through the good years and the difficult ones. She became my partner, my best friend, and one of the people who helped me through some of the hardest chapters of my life.

And that’s one reason I wrote this book.

Because our lives aren’t made up of one story.

They’re made up of hundreds of moments—some funny, some painful, some unexpected, and some that change everything.

I wrote about growing up in a military family, losing my father when I was young, attending North Georgia College, serving 20 years in the Army, raising a family, and the experiences that shaped the way I think about leadership and life.

I also wrote about cancer, recovery, loss, failure, faith, family, and finding strength when I wasn’t sure I had any left.

You don’t get to choose everything that happens to you. But you do get to choose what you do next.

If you’ve ever experienced a bad break, faced a difficult season, lost someone you loved, found the person you wanted to spend your life with, or simply wondered what life was trying to teach you, I hope you’ll find something in these pages that speaks to you.

Today, I’m proud to finally share the story.

Fish on Fridays: A Memoir of Bad Breaks, Hard Lessons, and Unexpected Strength

— Greg P. Smith

Available Today

If you’d like to read Fish on Fridays, you can find the book through the links below.

Thank you for being part of this journey.

And if you’ve read the book, I’d love to hear from you:

Who is the person who has made the biggest difference in your life—and what did they teach you?