Building a Business With a Giant Heart
For more than four decades, Larry O’Toole built one of America’s most respected moving companies by proving that success and integrity can go hand in hand.
Part leadership guide, part entrepreneurial memoir, Heavy Lifting shares the lessons, values, and culture that transformed a borrowed truck and a $17 newspaper ad into an award-winning company serving customers nationwide.
Heavy Lifting
Building a Business With a Giant Heart
Follow Larry O’Toole’s journey from immigrant engineer to entrepreneur, building Gentle Giant Moving Company from a borrowed truck and a $17 newspaper advertisement into one of America’s most respected moving companies.
A story of leadership, culture, perseverance, and the power of putting people first.
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“A testament to leading with integrity and courage.”
Howard Behar • Former President, Starbucks Coffee North America & Starbucks Coffee International
From a Borrowed Truck to an Award-Winning Company
In 1980, Larry O’Toole founded Gentle Giant Moving Company with a borrowed truck, a one-time newspaper advertisement, and a simple belief:
Hire great people, treat them well, and extraordinary things can happen.
More than forty years later, that belief remains the foundation of Gentle Giant’s success.
In Heavy Lifting: Building a Business With a Giant Heart, Larry shares the lessons learned while growing Gentle Giant from a small local operation into one of the nation’s most respected moving and storage companies. Along the way, he reveals the leadership principles that helped shape the company’s culture, earn employee loyalty, and navigate decades of growth without sacrificing its values.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, business owner, manager, coach, student of leadership, or simply someone who enjoys stories about building something meaningful, Heavy Lifting offers practical insights and inspiration drawn from real-world experience.
Readers will discover lessons on:
- Hiring and developing exceptional people
- Building a culture of teamwork and accountability
- Growing a business while staying true to its values
- Leading through challenges and uncertainty
- Creating lasting impact through service and community involvement
- Building an organization that outlives its founder
At its core, Heavy Lifting is the story of how character, culture, and commitment can become a competitive advantage.
About the Author
Larry O’Toole immigrated from Ireland to the United States as a teenager and graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in engineering. After a successful early corporate career, he left to pursue entrepreneurship and founded Gentle Giant Moving Company in 1980.
Today, Gentle Giant operates across the country and has earned national recognition for both customer service and workplace culture. Under Larry’s leadership, the company has received numerous honors, including recognition from the U.S. Small Business Administration, Boston Magazine, The Boston Globe, The Boston Business Journal, the Better Business Bureau, and many others.
A lifelong rower, mentor, and community advocate, Larry is known for his energetic leadership style, his commitment to developing people, and his belief that business can be a force for good.