Step outside. Look up. Ask better questions.
A Piece of Sky is an observational memoir by Schone Malliet: the story of a Bronx kid who learned to fly, to lead and to fail well, and who is still asking questions.
An invitation to be more human…
Schone Malliet will tell you himself: he has never really gotten anything right the first time.
He never made his high school basketball team, then played Division 1 ball at Holy Cross. He was criticized and shipped out of his Marine Corps squadron, then became a high-performing naval aviator. He dreamed of being a CEO, got the job, and learned how much he didn't know. Years later he turned a bankrupt New Jersey ski area into a place where kids who might never otherwise ski learn to get back up after a fall.
A Piece of Sky is what he learned. It is not a list of secrets to success, and it is not a lecture. It is a candid, often funny, deeply human look at the mistakes, the mentors and the turning points that shaped him, offered in the hope that you will find a part of yourself in it.
“I think we need more books about failure.” — Schone Malliet
The title comes from the song “A Piece of Sky” in the film Yentl. Schone hears it as the child he was and the man he is: a young person looking for passion and purpose in a world that seems limited to the small piece of sky visible from an apartment window.
What this book is…
A story told plainly, with humor and humility
About lessons learned, not only hardships endured
An invitation to ask questions
A conversation that makes room for people who see things differently
What this book is not…
A playbook or set of rules and practices
A victory lap
A book of answers
A call to pick a side
“I’m hoping anyone who reads this book will not expect all the answers, but instead be left with questions.” — Schone Malliet
Inside the book…
The kid who got cut. He rounded up his friends to try out for a Bronx football team. They all made it. He got cut. He came back the next year and was named Most Valuable Player. “I didn’t see failing the first time as final. I’ve always been that way.”
The pilot who wasn’t, until one afternoon. For years Schone knew he wasn’t a good enough pilot, and he says so. Then, on one training flight in California, something clicked. “In that single day, I went from being a terrible pilot to being a great one.” His squadron gave him the call sign “Easy,” because he was fair and easy to get along with.
A license plate that said 2BCEO. He got the CEO job he had chased for years and found out what he hadn’t known. “I foolishly believed I had to know everything.”
Nouns to verbs. “Can you diversity anybody? Can you equity anybody? Can you inclusion anybody?” Schone asks what happens if we practice the action words instead: welcoming, embracing, belonging, empathy. “Most of us had the opportunity to go to prom. Attending is one thing. Feeling comfortable to dance with anyone in the room is somewhat different.” And in this conversation, he says, “everyone means everyone.”
Getting back up. At Winter4Kids, the nonprofit he founded, children learn to ski, and more. “The biggest thing every kid learns how to do is get up when they’ve fallen.” More than 20,000 kids and 153 partner schools later, the mission has become bigger than skiing.
Who this book is for…
Schone wrote A Piece of Sky with the intention of opening a dialogue, and along the way, a few kinds of readers surfaced. Those that:
Struggle with how to talk with people they disagree with or feel threatened by, or a fear of failure has held them back.
Feel that their circumstances should limit what they try.
Are looking for a place to belong, and know the voice of self-doubt.
Find themselves afraid, angry, concerned or wondering about the future. Our future.
“I’m not trying to change your life. But I hope I can offer a new perspective that will spur you to ask the questions that will allow you to change your life yourself.”