John O’Donohue, Anam Cara. It has been ten years since the premature loss of Irish poet and author John O’Donohue at the age of 52. The Guardian eulogized that his passing “robs the world of a genuinely original religious mind.” Consolingly perhaps, just as speaking transcends space, writing transcends time. So although the absence of this gifted man is a…
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. In the classical world, long before modern psychotherapeutic care made the health benefits of journaling widely known, the well educated may have been taught to do the same. Advice from the Greek philosopher and Stoic, Epictetus (55-135 CE), suggests writing as a tool for moral development and the nurturing of constancy in the face of the unpredictable. A student…
Cicero, On Living and Dying Well. In the last decades of the Roman Republic, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE), statesman, lawyer, and esteemed orator, was engaged with a social and political world in crisis. Reflecting on the challenges of living and dying well, he penned On Duties to his son Marcus studying in Athens, for an uncertain future that lay before him. Central to…
Tomas Sedlacek on Economic Meaning. A bit of an amateur investor, I am fascinated by the amount of energy, intelligence, and the sheer volume of money that operates within the financial markets daily. Our capitalist system truly is a miracle of both ingenuity and discovery, seeing that the principles upon which it is based can be said to have been…
Order One’s Life, Imagine an Inspiring Future. There is “a strong link” writes Chris Lowney in Heroic Leadership, “between mature self-knowledge and success.” At a time when many are looking for leaders capable of solving problems in a rapidly changing business and political environment, brought about by the unstoppable pace of technological change, “shrewd, pragmatic, politically astute action” requires individuals with…
What Leaders Do, Growing a Personal Leadership Legacy. In Heroic Leadership, Best Practices from a 450-year-old Company that Changed the World, former Jesuit and J.P. Morgan Managing Director, Chris Lowney, gets straight to the heart of what it means to be a leader. Drawing wisdom from the Jesuit spiritual tradition, he says, “If all leadership is first self-leadership that springs from…
David Korten, When Corporations Rule the World. A powerful critique of modern-day capitalism, When Corporations Rule the World is riveting in its attack on the concentration of corporate power and wealth that is undermining the foundations of Western democratic societies and the health of the planet. More than two decades after first being published, it has become a classic international…