THE PASSION GAP

A former global asset manager presents a framework for finding purpose and achieving personal and professional happiness.

Hsin had a successful career in international investments and a life of conspicuous consumption that left him feeling hollow. It was only after becoming a father that he realized that he had “emotional baggage” that he didn’t want to pass on to his children. He found that his youth as a Cambodian refugee in the United States, when he was teased by his peers for his secondhand clothes and meal vouchers, affected him more deeply than he’d realized. He later learned that self-worth shouldn’t be tied to a job but to one’s core values, and that true, lasting happiness is rooted in service—whether it’s to God, to family, or to strangers. This well-structured book is a result of Hsin’s self-development journey and is intended as a roadmap. It’s split into three sections—“Happiness,” “Income,” and “Integration”—and it explores how to identify core values; how to prepare for a changing work environment; how to pursue strategies for financial independence; and, finally, how to bridge the “passion gap” (“Most feel the need to choose between what they define as ‘passion’ and their need or desire to earn a decent living”). This is done, the author argues, by understanding one’s specific skills and balancing them against the amount of money one needs for a preferred lifestyle. In these pages, Hsin provides his readers with an accessible framework that they’ll find easy to understand and implement, and it provides an engaging mix of personal anecdotes, citedresearch, and philosophy to support the author’s basic premises. A series of exercises at the end of each chapter will challenge readers to reflect upon lessons and work to put them into practice. People who feel directionless, or who struggle to find a sense of self-worth outside the workplace, are likely to find valuable insights here.

A welcome self-help book that aims to maximize happiness by gauging one’s emotional and financial needs.