Creating the Good Life :Applying Aristotle's Wisdom to Find Meaning and Happiness (Hardcover)

by James O'Toole (Author), Walter Isaacson (Foreword) "At a certain point in our lives, many of us step back to reflect upon or perhaps even wrestle with what it takes to lead..." (more)
Key Phrases: deathbed test, virtuous leadership, virtuous friends, New York, Larry Ellison, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
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's Nichomachean 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.
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Product Description
Professionals and business people in midlife are increasingly asking themselves 'what's next?' in their careers and personal lives. This book draws on the wisdom of the ages to help contemporary men and women plan for satisfying, useful, moral, and meaningful second halves of their lives. For centuries, the brightest people in Western societies have looked to Aristotle for guidance on how to lead a good life and how to create a good society. Now James O'Toole-the Mortimer J. Adler Senior Fellow of the Aspen Institute-translates that classical philosophical framework into practical, comprehensible terms to help professionals and business people apply it to their own lives and work. His book helps thoughtful readers address some of the profound questions they are currently struggling with in planning their futures:

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books (April 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594861250
• ISBN-13: 978-1594861253
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #300,059 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A contemporary as well as classical guide to happiness.... , April 13, 2005

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Perhaps you're now asking the same question I once did: "Given the fact that he lived almost 2,400 years ago, what could Aristotle possibly have to say that is directly relevant to me?" In fact, a great deal. So many of us today -- especially those at mid-life -- are engaged in a search to find meaning and happiness. We often ask, as Peggy Lee once did, "Is that all there is?" The purpose of this book is show how Aristotle is an effective guide on that search, and how he can help each of us find our own practical answer to a critically important question, "What's next?"

In an interview to appear in the July/August (2005) issue of Chamber Executive magazine, O'Toole observes that "Aristotle was the most practical of all great philosophers. His audience was the business and political leadership of his day. He offered them wisdom they could apply in their own lives -- practical advice on matters ranging from ethical business practices to effective philanthropy. Aristotle even describes 'virtuous non-retirement' -- the lifelong commitment to engage in leisure work which is characterized by pursuit of the 'highest good' of individual excellence and the 'complete good' of community service. He offers practical tests to help us determine how much wealth we need to support us while we engage in those activities."

O'Toole goes on to say, "So my challenge was not making Aristotle relevant to today's successful professionals and managers; instead, I faced the nearly impossible task of making his difficult language clear to modern readers [begin italics] without dumbing it down [end italics]. I had to find a way to explore the depth and complexity of Aristotle in a way that makes sense in an age of sound bites and blogs. After all, who ever heard of a [begin italics] serious [end italics] self-help book? But that's what I set out to write."

As O'Toole explains in this book, Aristotle struggled with many of the same difficult circumstances (more than two centuries ago) which most of us face in 2005: "...in his career as a teacher and a consultant to leaders of ancient Athens, Aristotle thought long and hard about what it means to live a good life and how much it takes to finance it. His thoughts on this matter are particularly applicable today, given the baby boom generation's anxiety over insufficient retirement savings and shaky investments: Aristotle shows how we can find happiness at almost any level of income. Moreover, he argues that the ability to find true contentment correlates only tangentially with the amount of money one has cached away. Unlike so many of today's `life advisors,' Aristotle integrates financial planning with the broader task of life planning."

Throughout human history, there has been a constant challenge to get lifestyle and quality of life in appropriate balance. As O'Toole notes, "Aristotelian ethics concern moral decisions related to how we should allocate the limited time of our lives. We must each plan how we will allocate our energies among such activities as earning, learning, playing, being with friends and family, and participating in the community. As we make these choices, Aristotle warns, we will fail to achieve 'the chief good' -- that is, we will fail to be happy -- if we pursue the wrong ends."

If the pursuit of philosophy is to serve as a practical guide to action, and I believe it is, then the wisdom which Aristotle gained from his own experiences will guide and inform our own pursuit and achievement of "the chief good": personal happiness. In the Foreword to one of O'Toole's previously published books, The Executive's Compass, Lodwrick M. Cook (former chairman and CEO of Atlantic Richfield Company) explains O'Toole's use of the central metaphor: "The beauty of the compass is that it provides a framework for the executive to create order out of the growing chaos of cultural diversity and conflict of values. Like a real compass, [O'Toole's 'value compass'] helps us to find where we are, where others are, where we want to go, and how to get there. Like the Aspen experience itself, O'Toole's compass is aimed at developing executive judgment by expanding our understanding of the interrelationships of fundamental values."

Cook's comments are also relevant to Creating the Good Life. For those now struggling to define and then create the good life for themselves, whatever their current circumstances may be, Aristotle's wisdom can indeed serve as a "compass." In this volume, O'Toole prepares his reader to use it effectively.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Different Recast on Aristotle's and Adler's work, May 30, 2005

By	Paul A. Baier (Wellesley, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book is a recast of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics which was summarized ih Mortimer Adler's Time of Our Lives. What James O'Toole does well is to weave his personal story and struggles with these issues in a language and context of today. I found this personal view refreshing and move Aristotle's theory to a very practical level. The book is clearly aimed at baby boomers, like himself, who are struggling with meaning and unfulfilled career aspirations. Personally, O'Toole's writing got me to think more about the question of whether all vices are "fun and exciting" and all virtue is "boring". The book is easy to ready and allows one to access easily Aristotle's important writings. I recommend it for anyone struggling with these issues.

P.B.
Boston, MA

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Strong start, disappointing finish, April 5, 2006

By	MB747 (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This book starts out with a strong review of Aristotle's ethics the application of these ethics to life in the 21st century. The writing is clear and easy to follow, even if you have no background in philosophy.

The second half of the book is weak. The book profiles people that the author believes have clearly failed or succeeded at finding happiness as Aristotle would define it. Unfortunately, almost all of the examples cited are wealthy, white men in their 50s, 60s and 70s. The book would have been much stronger if the author had profiled a broader range of people.