Burnham publishes book on leadership

Malin Burnham hasn’t always done things by the book. But now he’s written one.

Part memoir, part how-to guide, “Community Before Self” is a 200-page look at the principles and lessons that have guided the 88-year-old San Diego native through three careers: competitive sailor, businessman, philanthropist.

“I’m happy with what I’ve done with my life,” Burnham said, “and happy with what I haven’t done.”

His resume includes helping to bring the America’s Cup races, the USS Midway Museum, and the U.S. Olympic Training Center to San Diego County. He was a part owner of the Padres and the Sockers. His name is on buildings where medical research is done, real estate is taught, college sports are played, civic engagement is nurtured.

At one point a few years ago, Burnham sat down with a yellow pad and a pen to tally the boards and committees he serves on. He said it took him four days to remember them all. There were 35.

With that much involvement and that kind of history, it’s not surprising that various people have suggested to him over the years that he write a book. He always demurred. “That’s just not me,” he said.

About a year ago, lawyer Maria Sendra, who serves with Burnham on the Institute of the Americas board at UC San Diego, broached the book idea with him.

“He’s someone who’s been making a difference in San Diego forever,” she said. “He’s got a lot to teach people about leadership and social impact.”

Burnham replied with his stock answers. “I don’t have time,” he told her. “I’m not much for self-promotion.”

And she said, “I’m not asking for your benefit. I’m asking for my kids.”

Burnham reconsidered, and the self-published book came out this month. “If I’ve done any good with this book,” he said, “it’s to say to young people who are starting out, ‘Here are some things you might want to think about.’”

Wave maker

The photo on the book cover is of a racing sailboat. The subtitle is “Seventy Years of Making Waves.”

Sailing is where Burnham first found success. He was 17 when he won the Star World Championship in Connecticut in 1945, the youngest ever to capture the week-long regatta. Seventy years later, he still holds that record. And recently he was skipper of a boat that won the International Masters Regatta. He’s believed to be the oldest to win that race, he said.

But as his book makes clear early on, ocean waves weren’t the only ones on his mind.

“I am a devout believer in making waves,” he writes. “Why? Because I know of no better way of getting people’s attention — and with that attention, making positive things happen.

“And how do you make waves? In water and in life, you need to throw a well-placed rock.”

Not all of his rocks have been splashing successes. His 2011 proposal for the 500-foot tall “Wings of Freedom” sculpture on the Navy Pier never took flight. He was an unsuccessful suitor of The San Diego Union-Tribune two years ago.

Setbacks, though, are just part of the process, he writes. “Don’t suffer from failure; after all, you are one step closer to success.”

The title of the book, “Community Before Self,” is a motto Burnham came up with after he sold his real estate, mortgage and insurance businesses almost 30 years ago and moved full time into the world of nonprofits.

He had the motto printed on business cards. If he’s at a meeting and hears a proposal that he finds a little too self-centered, he said, he passes along one of the cards.

His friends find it revealing that the cards don’t have Burnham’s name on them. It’s the same kind of reticence that kept him from writing a book for so long, they believe.

Burnham said he was intrigued when Sendra, a lawyer who works in Silicon Valley, told him about a company there, Enabling Thought Leadership, that helps people get books written and published. Burnham paid a fee to the firm, which paired him with veteran writer Michael S. Malone (“The Intel Trilogy”) and had the book produced by Advantage Publishing.

Burnham said any profits from the book, which costs $26.99, will be donated to the San Diego Foundation.

The book has an appendix of Burnham’s “Virtues of Excellence” (plan ahead; commitment; hard work; dedication; teamwork; play by the rules; follow through). He calls them “a distillation of everything I have learned in my life and career.”

But Burnham said he doesn’t see the book as his swan song. He has no plans to retire. At his birthday party eight years ago, he promised his wife, Roberta, 25 more years together.

“I have a ways to go,” he said, “but I like to have targets.”