Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks
One CEO's Quest for Meaning and Authenticity
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4.7 • 18 Ratings
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
August Turak is a successful entrepreneur, corporate executive, and award-winning author who attributes much of his success to living and working alongside the Trappist monks of Mepkin Abbey for seventeen years. As a frequent monastic guest, he learned firsthand from the monks as they grew an incredibly successful portfolio of businesses.
Service and selflessness are at the heart of the 1,500-year-old monastic tradition's remarkable business success. It is an ancient though immensely relevant economic model that preserves what is positive and productive about capitalism while transcending its ethical limitations and internal contradictions. Combining vivid case studies from his thirty-year business career with intimate portraits of the monks at work, Turak shows how Trappist principles can be successfully applied to a variety of secular business settings and to our personal lives as well. He demonstrates that monks and people like Warren Buffett are wildly successful not despite their high principles but because of them. Turak also introduces other "transformational organizations" that share the crucial monastic business strategies so critical for success.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Entrepreneur and corporate executive Turak, who spent 16 years working with the Trappist monks of Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, S.C., argues that capitalism raises a moral conundrum, in which altruistic goals ("higher purpose, putting people first, and looking out for the customer") are sometimes at odds with boosting the bottom line. As Turak spent more time living and working among the monks, he realized that their successful economic model allowed for capitalism and selflessness to coexist. The monks have been successful not despite, but because of, their commitment to higher values and principles. Turak argues that the qualitative side of business "things like mission, purpose, values, principles, integrity, ethics, service, and people" is "critical to success." The monks, Turak suggests, can teach us how to keep "what is positive and productive about capitalism while transcending its ethical limitations and internal contradictions." Turak provides instructive case studies on how these ideas can play out in the business world. For those wishing for a more ethical approach to business, this book offers a viable option.
Customer Reviews
Best book I have ever read
I attended NCSU and had the pleasure of hearing and meeting Mr. Turak twice. Both times I was moved and brought to tears. This book speaks to your soul and educates you on how to run a better business/life.
I can say with certainty this is the best book I have ever read.
Good read
This book was full of information and principles to live by.