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THE SEARCH

Bruce Feiler

Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World

From the New York Times bestselling author of Life Is in the Transitions comes a bold new road map for finding meaning and purpose in what you do, based on insights drawn from hundreds of life stories of people of all backgrounds.
We are at a once-in-a-generation turning point around work: unprecedented numbers of people are quitting their jobs, rethinking their routines, breaking away from stifling expectations. The most suffocating iron cage of all is the idea that each of us must follow a linear career - lock into a dream early, always climb higher, never stop until you reach the top. Few ideas have squandered more human potential.

Employing his signature, immersive approach, Bruce Feiler is known for taking complex challenges and converting them into actionable steps that can help each of us live with more fulfillment and joy. From thousands of hours of interviews, Feiler has distilled a powerful new vision of work: The people who are happiest don't chase someone else's dreams; they chase their own. Freed from outdated scripts, they identify what brings them meaning and write their own story of success.

The Search introduces an all-new toolkit for achieving that goal, 21 Questions to Find Work You Love. Practical and empowering, these questions will help you unearth the story of work you've been trying to tell your whole life - then go achieve it.
You'll discover:
- The upsides and downsides of work you learned from your parents;
- Why your childhood role model offers the best clue to what you should do now;
- Who is your waymaker;
- When to leave a job and when to stay;
- What is your purpose right now;
... and much more.

From a master storyteller who's helped millions transform their lives for better, The Search arrives as the world reimagines the basic assumptions of work and offers a timely, urgent playbook for each of us to get the happiness we seek, the meaning we crave, and the success we deserve.

Bruce Feiler is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers, including Life Is in the Transitions, The Secrets of Happy Families, and Council of Dads. His three TED talks have been viewed more than four million times, and he teaches the TED course How to Master Life Transitions. A native of Savannah, Georgia, he lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Linda Rottenberg, and their twin daughters.
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Book

Published 2023-05-30 by Penguin Press

Comments

[An] energetic challenge to status quo notions of success... [Feiler's] down-to-earth delivery and emphasis on individual agency will resonate with readers seeking direction. Those at professional crossroads will benefit. Read more...

No Matter Your Age, Work Should Be Meaningful. Bestselling Author Bruce Feiler Has the Roadmap You Need... Read more...

Live interview on ABC-TV - Good Morning America: Bruce Feiler, author of "The Search," shares what steps people can take to make a job or career transition... Read more...

Gwyneth Paltrow x Bruce Feiler: Are You in a Workquake? - Bruce Feiler oins GP to talk about why we've been inculcated with the idea that there is a linear path to success and why it's time to rethink what it means to have a career. He shares his insights on how people can move through periods of change with purpose and clarity, and the questions to ask to find the work we want. Read more...

THE SEARCH is one of The Next Big Idea Club's Must Read Titles for May Read more...

In his new book, The Search: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post Career World, Bruce argues that the truths about work with which so many of us Boomers / GenX'ers were raised no longer apply and that today's economy is "meaning based" as opposed to "means based." We discuss what implications this has for employers, workers, and those of us trying to understand just what is going on out there. We talk about why Bruce dedicated the book to Pat Conroy, why that means something to Paul, how our expectations of a linear world and career stress us out and why it is critically important to "stop chasing someone else's dream (or, in Paul's case the approval of Sheryl Sandberg). Read more...

A useful, insightful guide to anyone who is seeking a more satisfying way to live. Read more...