LIFE Entrepreneurs

Select Media & Reviews of LIFE Entrepreneurs

• Publishers Weekly review of LIFE Entrepreneurs
• New York Times review of the book
• Bloomberg article on the book
• Chronicle of Philanthropy review of the book

Endorsements of LIFE Entrepreneurs

• “Highly effective people take a principled, integrated approach to life—inspired by vision and implemented with persistence. Gergen and Vanourek do a wonderful job bringing this philosophy to life through colorful storytelling and a well-conceived framework. Pick up this book and read it. It might change your life.” -Stephen R. Covey, best-selling author
• “In LIFE Entrepreneurs, Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek address the central issue of every emerging leader, ‘How can I design my life to be both fulfilling and significant?’ Through the life stories of many entrepreneurs who are impacting the world in dramatic ways, this compelling and refreshing new book provides deep insights that make it a must-read for all of us to use on our own journeys.” -Bill George, best-selling author and former chairman and CEO, Medtronic
• “At last, a powerful guide to integrating life, work, purpose, and work-life balance, one of the greatest needs of leaders in all three sectors of the emerging work force. Christopher and Gregg bring a new definition, a new clarity to life entrepreneurship that will make a difference in the lives of leaders at every level. A great gift.” -Frances Hesselbein, former CEO, Girl Scouts of America
• “Gergen and Vanourek have done a spectacular job shining a light on a new approach to professional success and personal fulfillment: the life entrepreneur. With dozens of inspiring profiles and page after page of smart advice, this book belongs on the nightstand of every thoughtful businessperson in America.” -Daniel H. Pink, best-selling author
• “Business leaders and entrepreneurs alike will greatly benefit from LIFE Entrepreneurs. It captures the essential qualities of leadership including finding a worthy path, being willing to fail, and taking courageous action. I highly recommend it.” -Howard Schultz, former chairman & CEO, Starbucks Coffee Company
• “This book is true, smart, honest, hopeful, and helpful. It is essential reading for anyone who shares the belief that work and life aren’t two separate categories, divided by pain, pressure, and a paycheck. Instead, here’s the good news: entrepreneurship isn’t just a way of making a living—it’s a way of life. Buy this book, read it, and then do it!” -Alan M. Webber, co-founding editor, Fast Company
• “The real question is not how to just make a living, but how to make a life. LIFE Entrepreneurs helps all who are struggling to integrate money and meaning in their careers to do just that.” -Dr. Mark S. Albion, best-selling author
• “Gergen and Vanourek provide a great road map for anyone who is looking to find success and fulfillment doing what they are passionate about.” -Steve Ells, founder, Chipotle Mexican Grill
• “Like jazz musicians, good entrepreneurs improvise, finding the roads less traveled. Life Entrepreneurs does a great job of capturing this spirit and sharing valuable lessons for work and life.” -Gary Erickson, owner/founder, Clif Bar & Company
• “LIFE Entrepreneurs is wonderfully written, highly engaging, and inspiring. As people who aspire to be an ‘entrepreneurial couple,’ we found Gergen and Vanourek’s book full of thoughtful insights and powerful strategic advice on how to live a life that integrates and balances family, friends, work, and personal fulfillment. The authors demonstrate how anyone can become a life entrepreneur. This book is a gift for all of us.” -Alan Khazei, Co-Founder, City Year, and Vanessa Kirsch, Founder, New Profit
• “This is provocative reading for all those committed to creating a life of significance and meaning. Filled with helpful strategies and hopeful stories, Life Entrepreneurs is an intriguing, challenging guide for the next generation of leaders.” -Wendy Kopp, founder, Teach for America
• “Our work and life can be a great adventure, an opportunity serve people in compelling and meaningful ways. In this book, we gain powerful insights on how to realize those important possibilities.” -Linda Mason, co-founder, Bright Horizons Family Solutions
• “Gergen and Vanourek offer a fresh and vital approach to life and career planning. The book speaks directly to the younger generations of Americans who increasingly reject pigeon-holed and segmented careers but, instead, are choosing to create integrated lives filled with ‘passion, connection, and significance.’ I highly recommend the book to anyone who is seeking The Good Life.” -James O’Toole, former executive vice president, Aspen Institute
• “LIFE Entrepreneurs offers a new way of thinking about life and work, and a window into the future. I highly recommend it.” -Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor
• “LIFE Entrepreneurs captures the essence of the Creative Age where people are the true source of economic growth.” -Richard Florida, best-selling author

Quotations from LIFE Entrepreneurs

“Some people don’t just live: they lead a life. They don’t sit around waiting for a lucky break. They create opportunities. They go after their dreams and bring them to life…. They develop a vision of the good life, devise a plan for how to attain it, go for it, and check their progress along the way. As with any great effort, their work is never done but ever-evolving and, often, inspiring to those around them. Welcome to the territory of life entrepreneurs.” -Christopher Gergen & Gregg Vanourek, LIFE Entrepreneurs

“Every day we have decisions to make about how we want to live…. We must take charge of how we spend our days…. Otherwise, we may one day wake up to find ourselves brilliantly situated for a life we do not want.” -Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek, LIFE Entrepreneurs

“Entrepreneurship is not solely the province of the professional. It is a mindset, approach, and process that can be applied to any endeavor—including that of leading our lives…. The path to a better life for growing numbers of people today is to apply the principles of entrepreneurship to life itself.” -Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek in LIFE Entrepreneurs

“There’s a big dividing line between ordinary lives and extraordinary ones, and many of us pass our time well short of that line. But one of time’s jealously guarded secrets is that the line is imaginary. It exists only in our heads. There is, it turns out, no limit to the number of extraordinary lives that can be realized, no quota on good lives to be claimed. Yet too many of us cling fiercely to imaginary limits we have set for ourselves or accepted from others….” -Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek, LIFE Entrepreneurs

“The first and most important step in creating an extraordinary life is choosing to do so—with imagination, courage, and conviction. When it comes to integrating life, work, and purpose, we can do so with creativity, playfulness, and passion. Sometimes the hardest part of leading an entrepreneurial life is getting out of the way of the good life that wants to charge forth from within.” -Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek, LIFE Entrepreneurs

“When we are clear about our purpose, or at least working toward it, our lives come together in powerful ways.” -Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek, LIFE Entrepreneurs

“What does life want from us? In the end, the task is not finding our purpose but uncovering it—not propelling ourselves toward a more successful life, but rather getting out of the way of the good life that wants to live through us.” -Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek, LIFE Entrepreneurs

“A hunger for the good life lies deep within us all. But it requires an honest evaluation of who we are and how we are living. Some manage to avoid these hard questions for years, or even for a whole lifetime—diligently going with each year’s flow without pausing to imagine other possible destinations. With the passing of years, our childhood dreams are pierced by reality. Our daily lives are filled with obligations and pressures. As we grow older, we drift away from ‘what could be’ toward a life shaped not by personal vision or calling but by circumstance and compromise. But occasionally we catch glimpses of what the future could hold in store—our own personal vision of the good life–and an inner restlessness is rekindled.” -Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek, LIFE Entrepreneurs

Articles & Book Chapters by the Authors

• Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek, “Life Entrepreneurship: Leading Your Life,” Leader to Leader, Number 48, Spring 2008.
• Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek, “Take an Entrepreneurial Approach,” Executive Leadership, National Institute of Business Management, May 2008.
• Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek, “Life Entrepreneurship: Be the Leader of Your Own Life,” Leadership Excellence, April 2008.
• Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek, “Dynamic Organizations for an Entrepreneurial Age,” in Organization of the Future 2: Visions, Strategies, and Insights on Managing in a New Era (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Leader to Leader Institute/Drucker Foundation, 2009).

Book Interviews: Real Stories of Reinvention

Interviews for LIFE Entrepreneurs were conducted with 55 people deemed by the authors to be life entrepreneurs.

Interviewees have worked across a wide range of industries, including biotechnology, consulting, education, entertainment, food, government, health, law, military, philanthropy, politics, ranching, religion, sports, and technology.

Book Information

• Authors: Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek
  Genre: Nonfiction (personal development, personal growth, self-help, life design, designing your life, work and family, entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, leadership, management, business)
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass (a Wiley imprint), Warren Bennis Series
• Publication Year: 2008
• Length: 256 pages
• List Price: $24.95
• ISBN: 0787988626
• ASIN: B008N9I9W6