Creating the Good Life :Applying Aristotle's Wisdom to Find Meaning and Happiness
To adopt O'Toole's own categories, this is a self-help book not for the many but for the rest of us—those willing to expend intellectual and emotional discipline in planning a life to fulfill one's potential: the true source of happiness, according to the author. O'Toole, a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute and author of more than a dozen books, confesses to having hungered in vain after literary stardom. Prompted by this disappointment to reconsider his life path, O'Toole began to ponder the relationship between happiness and success, and in this chatty, stimulating and at times gossipy self-help guide for professionals and business people, he shares his findings. Turning to Aristotle'sNichomachean Ethics, he finds that the ancient philosopher forces one to ask oneself tough questions and to abandon youthful fantasies about money, power and fame. O'Toole goes on to critique in Aristotelian terms the values, life choices and deeds of prominent "successful" Americans, including Rudolph Giuliani, Bill Gates, Silicon Valley legend Jim Clark, high-tech entrepreneur Larry Ellison and numerous leading CEOs. He discusses what he casts as the immaturity of Bill Clinton and praises the "truest Aristotelian" he knows—a former high school chum who abandoned a business career to mentor 29 underprivileged children. O'Toole's dogged application of Aristotelian principles to the business world is thought provoking and engaging.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.