An actionable road map to finding satisfying work.
A business coach offers advice for finding a meaningful career in his debut book.
On average, Americans will spend almost 90,000 hours, or one-third of their lifespans, working. Given the importance of one’s career to one’s sense of identity and well-being, social position, and financial security, Lighton urges readers to think seriously about how they intend to spend tens of thousands of hours in the workforce. Using the Japanese concept of ikigai (translated here as “a Reason for Being”), the author argues that, while financial stability is a crucial aspect of a job, genuinely fulfilling careers represent “the place where what you are good at, what you love, what the world needs, and what you can get paid for converge.” Discussing the ways in which ikigai can help people define what a “‘good’ job, ‘good’ career, or ‘good’ life looks like,” Lighton provides a theoretical reframing of the American dream and a practical guidebook for self-empowerment. The book begins with instructions for identifying and clarifying career aspirations, then shifts to pragmatic counsel for turning those aspirations into actionable and achievable goals. A former chief strategy officer at a multibillion-dollar technology company who has since worked for a decade as an executive coach, Lighton draws on “real-world” examples from his own life and the experiences of his clients. These anecdotes are heavily skewed toward careers in the corporate sector (the book’s introduction notes that its ideal audience is college graduates “with MBAs or other advanced credentials”), but the author’s broader advice can easily be applied to those interested in careers in the government, nonprofit, and academic sectors. The author’s inclusive approach—he addresses readers in their 30s to mid-50s looking for alternative ways to direct their skills and experiences in addition to up-and-coming 20-somethings fresh out of college—is particularly valuable. The accessible text is supplemented by charts, graphs, and other illustrations, along with self-guided assessments, recommended resources, and other useful tools.
An actionable road map to finding satisfying work.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798891881983
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Advantage Books
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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