Passion at Work: How to Find Work You Love and Live the Time of Your Life [Hardcover]

Lawler Kang (Author), Mark Albion (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 2005

World-renowned speaker and executive Lawler Kang will show  how to build a career one can be madly passionate about and create, actualize, and monetize a niche only you can dominate! Kang draws on the profound human stories of those who have followed their passions to achieve great things and live on their own terms. He then presents a unique Process of the Five Ps^TM: a start-to-finish blueprint for realizing your dreams, one step at a time. Learn how to discover passions, proficiencies, and priorities.  Redefine success.  Create realistic plans, complete with milestones and investments.   

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

World-renowned speaker and executive Lawler Kang will show  how to build a career one can be madly passionate about and create, actualize, and monetize a niche only you can dominate! Kang draws on the profound human stories of those who have followed their passions to achieve great things and live on their own terms. He then presents a unique Process of the Five Ps^TM: a start-to-finish blueprint for realizing your dreams, one step at a time. Learn how to discover passions, proficiencies, and priorities.  Redefine success.  Create realistic plans, complete with milestones and investments.   

About the Author

Lawler Kang is one of this generation’s leading business consultants and inspirational speakers. After recovering from a neural aneurysm that left him in a coma and wheelchair, blind in one eye, and verbally challenged, he earned an MBA at The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania. His corporate experience includes helping to grow the U.S. subsidiary of a Japanese firm from $2 to $40 million in five years; consulting on data communication mergers and acquisitions exceeding $7 billion; and growing a technology consulting practice to almost 100 employees within a year.  Lawler’s well-rounded business experience also allowed him to be a key leader in three successful technology turnarounds. Lawler has presented to a variety of audiences and has spoken at Wharton, Columbia, and Harvard Business School conferences. 

Mark Albion, who wrote the Foreword for Passion at Work, is the author of the bestseller, Making a Life, Making a Living.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: FT Press (November 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131854283
• ISBN-13: 978-0131854284
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,028,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "There is no other way.", April 6, 2006

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Passion at Work: How to Find Work You Love and Live the Time of Your Life (Hardcover)

Passion and rage are among the most powerful of human emotions and each is obviously capable of producing extraordinary results, either positive or negative. The happiest people tend to be those who are passionate about both how they earn a living and the quality of life their efforts provide. Conversely, the unhappiest people are those who continuously rage against real (or imagined) grievances in any or even in all of the areas of their lives. In this book, Lawler Kang addresses these and other issues. Specifically, he suggests answers to questions such as these:

1. When am I and/or when have I been I happiest? Why?
2. Doing what?
3. Not doing what?
4. With whom am I and/or with whom have I been happiest? Why?

One of the greatest benefits of this book (and there are several) is the assistance Kang provides so that his reader can measure the gap between where she or he is now, and, where she or he would much prefer to be. He then provides sound, practical counsel on how to close that gap.

At this point, I presume to suggest (and presumably Kang agrees) that many of our wounds are self-imposed, that in our daily struggles to achieve whatever desirable objectives we may have, Pogo was right: "We have met the enemy and he is us." Hence the importance of taking full responsibility for the consequences of our decisions, both past and recent, so that we can then make better decisions henceforward.

Kang carefully organizes his material within seven chapters. Throughout the narrative, he inserts appropriate real-world examples of his key points. I appreciate the fact that, unlike so many other authors of books which address many of the same issues, Kang resists the temptation to be a sophist or evangelist. He correctly realizes that people can sometimes be inspired by others (who are by nature passionate) but only they can motivate themselves. At one point Kang observes, "The most important source of competitive advantage in the twenty-first century will come from individuals and organizations that unleash the power of passion." Quite true, but it should be added that -- more often than not -- individuals and organizations which find themselves at a disadvantage are those which compete against themselves. This is especially true of many of those involved in sales: They are preoccupied with reasons why a prospect could be resistant and are, therefore, reluctant to ask for an order. In effect, they sell against themselves. Of course, there are others (not only ) in sales who seem convinced that "enthusiasm" can compensate for insufficient understanding of a prospect's needs and interests. They demonstrate passion without competence and, on occasion, passion without integrity.

Throughout his book, Kang leaves absolutely no doubt whatsoever that what he recommends must be guided and informed by three "priorities": Passion, of course, but also proficiencies and principles. He insists that two other "priorities" must also be served: a plan which accommodates both one's organization and one's personal life, and, various means by which to verify and validate (i.e. prove) the appropriateness and effectiveness of that plan. These last two "Priorities" (plan and proof) are discussed with rigor and eloquence in Chapter 10. This chapter, all by itself, is worth far more than the cost of the book but should not be read until after the previous nine.

In the next chapter, Kang responds to a question many readers will pose after absorbing and digesting the material provided to that point: "Now what?" Let's assume that his reader is determined to begin a new (albeit perilous) "journey" to achieve career and personal goals once assumed to be unattainable. Much of the preparation has by now been completed but Kang correctly alerts his reader to the fact that several "canyons" await and one's "journey" through and beyond them can be completed only if unnecessary "baggage" is cast aside along with any guilt associated with it. Kang: "Make friends with your past." Only closure can release the emotional energy needed to continue. Next, the canyon of finances. Kang offers several suggestions as to how to "make friends with your future." That is, financial as well as emotional "baggage" must be eliminated. "The thought of working your passion, however you define it, without having [BOTH] a tactical [AND] a financial plan in place is simply unthinkable." With regard to third and last "terrifying, dimly lit, and dust-ridden corridor called `The Unknown,'" having a sufficient and sustainable commitment to completing the journey is absolutely essential. I suspect (only a suspicion) that, for most people, this last "canyon" is the most difficult.

As I read the final chapter "Looking for Your Life's Work," I was reminded of the marathons in Boston and New York which also require rigorous and extensive preparation, both psychological and physical. Hopes are high as the race begins. As it proceeds over time, most participants drop back and some drop out, exhausted and discouraged. Those who complete the course may feel exhaustion but also a sense of achievement, whatever their final standing. Another marathon awaits. In so many respects, our lives consist of a sequence of cycles as does marathon competition. Kang seems to be suggesting that getting through the three "canyons" and then locating one's life work is indeed admirable but by no means the end of the "journey." New "baggage" will be acquired which must eventually be discarded; new financial issues will emerge which must be resolved; and we will encounter new "canyons," hence the importance of passionate and thorough preparation as well as passionate and total commitment to proceed through each of them.

As Kang concludes his book, he shares a Japanese saying, shoga nai, which literally means "There is no other way." As he explains, it is usually uttered with the guttural seriousness of a Samurai warrior and the existentialism of a kamikaze pilot. By now Kang has stressed the importance of sharp focus, strategic timing, constant iteration of core principles, "and most importantly, patience. There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going. It is this undercurrent of patience to which you must fundamentally commit as you start edging closer to living in the prime of your life." To those about to begin this journey, I join Kang in wishing them bon voyage!

I also highly recommend Michael Ray's The Highest Goal, Jim O'Toole's Creating the Good Life, and David Whyte's The Heart Aroused.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Passionate self-help manual on actualizing yourself at work, April 30, 2007

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Passion at Work: How to Find Work You Love and Live the Time of Your Life (Hardcover)

Lawler Kang is here to help if you're feeling unhappy or unfulfilled in your career. His "Five Ps" self-examination process arises from his philosophy that, since "you don't get nine lives" like the fabled feline, you must live each moment to the fullest. Life is too short to stay in a boring job. You've probably heard these ideas before, but Kang's exercises and checklists may help you to act on them. His style is sincere, but overeager and jargon-ridden, and the peculiar, hard-to-read typeface exacerbates his confusing tendency to trip on his own clichés. We suggest that people who are feeling inextricably stuck in unsatisfying careers will find it worthwhile to transcend these drawbacks. Kang may be able to start you on a journey to fulfillment and happiness.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book for work... Great book for life., November 21, 2005

By 

Daniel Von Kohorn (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Passion at Work: How to Find Work You Love and Live the Time of Your Life (Hardcover)

"Passion at Work" is at least as much about how to be happy in your life as it is about how to have passion at work. This book is a very fast and fun read, with questions and self-guided exercises that never end. In early sections, the book guides you through better understanding how and why you do what you do - on a very personal level. Later, it guides you through techniques usually reserved for building businesses, and applies those techniques to building a great life. It's a very fun book, filled with powerful insights and lessons, and I highly recommend it.