Customer Reviews

Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives (J-B Warren Bennis Series)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book based on all of the great reviews. Overall, I found it to be somewhat bland and uninspiring. While there were plenty of great stories of individuals making great accomplishments in the midst of adversity and faced with tough choices, the way the book was written took the energy out of it.
There were dozens and dozens of famous quotes, sometimes several per chapter. On top of the famous quotes, there were several excerpts from other books and authors peppered heavily throughout each chapter. Sometimes it just felt the authors were too lazy to express ideas in their own words so they just borrowed them from other authors. There are a lot of exercises included that are supposed to help you dig deeper inside of yourself to find your true purpose and your core identity. The exercises were probably the most useful part of the book, but not enough to make the rest of the book seem interesting.
All in all, I did not find anything new or profound in the book. Just a bunch of life stories chopped up and stirred into a text full of famous quotes, excerpts from other books, with a little writing that ties it all together in a somewhat bland manner.

Some of the most useful leadership/management books have been research driven and then provided a framework for changing behavior and results. Good to Great comes to mind as one of the best of the bunch.

Life Entrepreneurs does the same thing, but instead of doing it for your business, you'll be doing it for yourself.

This is a great book if you want to take charge of your life and get more reward and meaning out of it.

Highly recommended.

Life Entrepreneurs is a powerful book. I was fortunate to encounter this book at a turning point in my life, and it's with complete sincerity I attest that this book changed the course of my life: Gergen and Vanourek's work inspired me to follow my dreams after graduating from college and travel abroad for a year, rather than giving in to the societal pressure to get a job and take the typical post-grad path. I am eternally grateful to the authors and this book for the positive influence it's made in my life.

This book will inspire you to be your own person and write YOUR story -- not someone else's. Get this book!

Life Entrepreneurship is really unlike any book I have ever read. The content of the book closely resembles a course I took on "Visionary Leadership", in which the prospect of mapping out your values, purpose, and vision for your life will add great meaning, depth, and "success" in your life. However, the book goes further - challenging the reader to gaze inward to really understand exactly what your values and purpose are. This level of introspection is not for the light-hearted! I cannot recommend the average person read this book. However, if you are one of the few (and lucky) self-actualized individuals out there - this book is very powerful and very thought provoking. My whole concept of success, purpose, and meaning were peeled back like an onion - to the point at which I am literally trying to redefine what is important to me and how I want to live my life. Life Entrepreneurs is more of a compass than a map - it shows you the direction but it is up to you to have the courage to follow through. Most of us take on jobs and responsibilities that we thought we needed in order to live a life that we ended up not wanting in the first place. This book allows the possibility of breaking those chains and living the life you were meant to live. Deeply inspiring, deeply moving - I finished the book only to turn back to page 1 and start again.

I think many of us end of living lives not of our own choosing, but rather the one based upon what circumstances life has given us. If you are walking down the road of life and wondering how you can get back to the dreams and happiness of your youth by reinserting meaning and purpose into life - this is the book for you.

I felt like I was reading my life story when I read Life Entrepreneurs. Sometimes as an entrepreneur you feel a little, well more than a little, crazy. It was great to read all of these stories of other entrepreneurs who are ,well, crazy like me. I couldn't suggest this book more for anyone interested in becoming a Life Entrepreneur or learning about the life of one.
The book is well researched and filled with practical suggestions, buy it!

Length:: 2:18 Mins

Student and entrepreneur

This book challenges you to live the life you want to live, even if you don't know it yet. A life without regrets. It instills confidence, inspires and guides you to make a seemingly daunting task very real, within reach. It does not presume to define an extraordinary life, but rather helps us in our efforts to define it for ourselves. The examples within of ordinary people discovering and living their own extraordinary lives are diverse in nature, and bring the book very much down to earth. Gregg and Chris show true understanding of the pressures we all face that influence our life decisions. So most importantly, this book dares and inspires us to reflect on our current life paths, take some chances and live a life that ,above all, is true to ourselves. While never claiming this to be easy, it is certainly possible and so, so very worthwhile. I recommend this book to anyone that needs reminding of that, or simply some motivation and guidance to make it happen.

Everyone I know is looking for more balance in their lives: balance between work and home; between adventure and serenity; between individual growth and community connection.

In this inspiring yet down-to-Earth book, Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek introduce us to dozens of people who have struck the right balance in their own lives. What they offer is not a formula but a foundation for our own quests.

These are people defined not so much by their jobs (though they tend to have pretty cool jobs, for sure), but by their unique approaches to life. Simply put, they make their lives extraordinary. And now, the rest of us can too.

Greg and Christopher just get it -the content is good and the writing is even better. It's easy to follow and well thought out. The content sparked some great discussion between my wife and I as we continue to examine the life/work balance.
The case studies are excellent and show that your life can be the number priority when attempting to accomplish big goals. Thanks guys - I really appreciated the book.

Bill Young, Denver, CO

I agree with Paul's review below -- while a book like Good to Great profiles successful companies, Life Entrepreneurs profiles many terrific people, leading wonderfully interesting and meaningful lives. And unlike a traditional business or leadership book, this book really is about life more generally, about how to integrate work, life, purpose and meaning.

Life Entrepreneurs is fun to read, and it is useful too. I recommend it strongly for people at all stages of their lives and careers.