cover image The Connection: 
Linking Your Deepest Passion, Purpose, and Actions to Make 
a Difference in the World

The Connection: Linking Your Deepest Passion, Purpose, and Actions to Make a Difference in the World

Anthony Silard. Atria, $24 (336p) ISBN 978-1-5827-0306-0

Silard, president of the Executive Leadership Institute, argues that how we choose to play with the cards we are dealt in life is the most important determinant of potential success. To that end, he helps people harness the power that’s already inside them and provides a number of practical tools to help individuals determine their own best direction and make important choices. He shares inspiring stores from Fyodor Dostoyevski, Viktor Frankl, and Al Gore and offers a relatively fresh approach to that age-old eternal quest for happiness. Silard does succumb to a few buzz phrases that plague this type of self-actualization work, such as vision statement and nonlinear progression, but he keeps these to a minimum and provides a fairly straightforward approach to instigating positive change. While some may find the path he advocates too laborious, there is much to take away in “chunks” that will improve one’s approach to life even if one never attains the Holy Grail of happiness that Silard believes is available to all of us. (Jan.)