The Energetic Tony Schwartz

Many of us sense a gap between where we are now, and where we’d like to be, personally and professionally. If you’re in that category, the January 31 post from Tony Schwartz, The Exhilarating Power of Purpose, makes for inspirational reading. In a mini-biography, Schwartz details his journey from frustration to fulfillment. His earlier career was totally based on writing. Now, he still writes — The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working was a bestseller last year – and he is also the CEO of  his own company, The Energy Project. I don’t know him personally, but I still treasure my inscribed copy of his book What Really Matters: Searching for Wisdom in America. I went to a talk he gave in April, 1996 at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, where the pastor for 52 years was Norman Vincent Peale, author of the classic The Power of Positive Thinking. The paperback of Schwartz’s book had just been published, and the talk was given in a sort of annex/church basement, for a weeknight lecture series. He interviewed and profiled many people for What Really Matters in a highly personal cross-country odyssey to learn more about personal growth, human potential and mind-body work; including Ram Dass, Betty Edwards, Michael Murphy, Helen Palmer and Ken Wilber. Another interviewee was the pioneering sports psychologist Jim Loehr. Years later, Schwartz became a business partner in Loehr’s company, Human Performance Institute, and a co-author with Loehr of the bestseller The Power of Full Engagement, in 2003. (I reviewed Loehr’s Stress for Success for USA TODAY in 1997.) Eventually, Schwartz made the leap to starting The Energy Project. In his post, he says that the joy and satisfaction he gets from running the business reinvigorated his writing, which somewhat surprisingly, he had come to dread. In the inscription to me when I bought a copy of What Really Matters at his talk 15 years ago, Schwartz wrote “To Bruce-Hoping this serves your journey! Warmly, Tony Schwartz.” Thanks, Tony; it did, and it still does.