With Purpose: Going from Success to Significance in Work and LifeAn admission: I start with a prejudice against almost any personal advice book. Thus I typically do not read them. Once in awhile I make an exception when the topic seems compellingly important, such as sorting out one's purpose in life.
With Purpose shares many characteristics that bother me in personal fulfillment books. The advice is mostly commonplace, little one has not heard before -- here the authors recommend that older adults can find it rewarding to "give back" to society by volunteering for non-profits, mentoring, giving to charity, becoming activists for causes they believe in, and so on. The supporting analytics are light: Dychtwald and Kadlec include a few references to the broader research on happiness, invoke Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and cite some well-known demographic trends, for example. The style is formulaic, with numerous feel-good stories about people who found their way, in this case toward meaningful activity later in life. The material is broken down into brief sub-topics, at least occasionally headed with unintentionally annoying imperative titles ("Let Your Inner Butterfly Loose"). There are the seemingly obligatory quotations from cherished authorities, references to celebrity friends, and endorsements from other notable advice givers.
Nevertheless, Dychtwald (the gerontologist) and Kadlec (the journalist) make a complementary pairing and they have done better than most in putting together an advice book that many may find readable and useful. Their subject is sufficiently meaningful and the stylistic afflictions are sufficiently contained that reading With Purpose is a tolerable experience (which, in any event, does not take very long). Most of the components of the text -- the biographical vignettes, the few straightforward self-assessment quizzes, and the simple graphs of survey findings -- support the authors' stated purpose.
Dychtwald and Kadlec seek to help those who wish to move from "success to significance" in lifetime accomplishments (with the unfortunate implication that "success" can be achieved without having done much of any social significance). The assumption is that aging folks will be particularly interested, since as we age we are more likely to be concerned with leaving a legacy, with achieving a sense that we have made a social contribution that will endure. The authors contend that there are many older people with skills and time who are looking to help others but don't know how to get started. Rightfully, I think, they suggest that even small steps will do, that one does not have to be rich, famous, or influential to give back; anyone can contribute something.
For those who think they may need a purposefulness boost, old or young, this book can possibly be helpful as a source of concrete ideas and as a motivator. The three-star rating I have assigned to it balances my stated prejudice (a general distaste for the advice literature) against my sense that this particular offering may indeed be of some value.
