This book had some great thoughts about love and work. I’m excited to apply some of these ideas in my own life.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy to honestly review.

My mum is a huge advocate for Marcus Buckingham and his work. He accompanied us through COVID-19 lockdown, inspiring us with his insights and keeping us amused with his British humour. When news of a new book broke, she lined up all the clips on Instagram for us to watch! So, it is unsurprising (though I was still caught off guard) that the content in it has a familiarity to it. Based on Marcus’ life, in an almost autobiographical sense, it weaves a thread of how the world changed how he saw himself, and affected his beliefs about his career, and does the same to millions of others. Integrating research data, Marcus translates facts into story and back again to make the book an easy flowing read.

The first chapter bewildered me, I have been unbelievably fortunate in having remarkably supportive parents who never tried to “box” me into anything and encouraged me to do what I loved, at school, out of it and in work. At work (with my mum) I get to do what I love every day. So in love with my work am I that when I developed a chronic pain condition and needed to escape the pain, with pudgy sore hands, mum and a dear friend let me strategise marketing a business – a happy place for hours! Eight hours later, I could rest. My work is wonderfully distracting. My school was an incredibly driven and ambitious environment but I am a natural academic and my subjects were for the most part a space in which I was comfortable. All of this led me to wondering if this was the book for me, I didn’t relate to Marcus’ journey at all.

But, as I reflected on those in my school who struggled, those in my family and friendship circle who have battled to find their passion in work, when I see the spirits our global systems break in trying to create conformity, I found my groove with this book. So, if the first few pages don’t capture you, don’t stop!

I have already referenced it in a meeting, discussed Marcus’ perspective about school and know I’ll keep coming back to it in the future. It is a starting point, the beginning of a different conversation, it is mindset shifting. It isn’t a how to but rather a perspective on how it can be done, what can be and research touch points on the impact of making this kind of change in thinking. It is a four out of five on the enJOYment scale, highly recommended!

Sadly I didn't have the chance to read this book as the publisher archived the book less than an hour after approving my request. I might buy the Kindle edition later when I have time, but before that, I would like to keep my honest comment here.

There is an enormous amount of value in your identifying what you love; both for yourself and also for those you work and 'play' with. The contents of this book will help you start the journey, or provide some additional guideposts if it's one you've already started on. Spending time wrestling with the understanding of who you are and your contribution is important and there are questions asked and examples given (stories told) to help the reader explore this. Self-reliance, trusting yourself and acknowledging that you are the expert on yourself (no one else), can be powerful outtakes from this book.

Marcus's examination of some of the accepted practices will also be helpful for many, eg, believing others know what's better for you than you do yourself. Or it could be one of his definitions, eg what our strengths are... things that make you strong, time passing quickly, things that make you feel you feel good.

These are all good things and yet I didn't relate as well to this book as I have to others written by him I am a follower of Marcus (on Instagram and through his direct mails), so I know just how much value he adds to the business community with his research and insights as well as his generosity as he shares so much of his knowledge at no charge. While I really enjoyed his last book, Nine Lies About Work (With Ashley Goodall) and encouraged both clients and friends to buy it, it's not as clear for me with this one. Perhaps that one felt a lot more data-driven with this one adding more of the human aspects in a story format? I think you relate to the many stories, or you don't.

1. it's true the classroom didn't encourage me to explore my uniqueness but other influences did as did my passions.
2, I quickly learnt that some things had to remain hobbies while others could form out a way to earn my living.
3. I don't work within a corporate and neither do my clients(no large teams, very little formal structure).
4. The school experience outlined was more in line with my own, but not my daughter's - interesting! (Perhaps this content would be better made sense of, in a different space?)

So for me, "I can't claim I am seeing my story in a new way.' (As promised in the introduction) but I certainly appreciated the focus on the importance of Love in your life and work.

With thanks to #Netgalley, Harvard Business Review Press and the author for my Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review

Sadly I abandoned this book at around 16%. I skimmed-read until about 20% to see if I could convince myself to continue reading it, but there wasn't any way for me to power through this book.

The book's description says "World-renowned researcher and New York Times bestselling author Marcus Buckingham helps us discover where we're at our best—both at work and in life." which gave me expectations for a well-rounded and researched book about purpose and career, identifying your strengths and learning to bring them forward in your interactions with the world. Instead I was met with an intensively emotional language and many assumptions in discourse in a potentially harmful way.

In addition to not having a gripping narration, the book explored the emotional undertones with passages like “linger on this truth, you have galaxies within you”. Buckingham introduced us to his fiancée by using a weird and highly personal extract of her journal without cause other than to parade her pain and suffering - he could easily have picked any famous person sad story instead.

One part that really caught my attention and was the first indication I'd DNF the book was the weird implications of school and education system. Even if I agree that the current education system doesn’t necessarily is the basis for a complete life, it does offer transferable skills that will help develop critical thinking. Instead, the author chose to treat it as an institution that has nothing to offer and only hinders children's ability to know their "true self". In the same part of the book, Buckingham also writes Insinuations that parents made their children “surely” intending to offer them love, showing disregard for people’s different past and/or traumatic experiences.

When I finally arrived at the gist of the book, I was met with another highly personal narrative. The concept that fueling your uniqueness is the sole way of achieving something you love based on your Wyrd - an “ancient Norse term”, “explicitly spiritual”, so big that the true extent of your uniqueness is more “than five thousand Milky Ways” - is so far from what I expected that it made me roll my eyes.

The last straw for me was when the author started using clear categorization to contradict what he himself called categorization as done by “most of Psychology and Social Psychology”. This is not the book I’d expect to be published by Harvard Business Review Press. It has no grounding in science or references to actual published work of scientific value - the book has a total of 7 references, in chapter 1, 2, 3, 6, 18 (with 2) and 20, and only 2 don’t quote a work by the author of the book. Oh, one of those references is the book “The Prophet”, by Kahlil Gibran.

Thanks NetGalley and Harvard Business Review Press for the EARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I am so happy that I was able to read this ARC of Love + Work by Marcus Buckingham. I've taken the StrengthsFinders assessment twice in my career and I loved everything that I learned about myself, but also the people who work around me and for me. I was eager to dive right into this book which I treated as a follow-up to those lessons.

The main theme of the book is that everyone is different and our loves are all different - not a unique idea, but where it took off was that to love our work, we need to weave these loves into our work. That doesn't mean our love(s) is 100% of our work, but it needs to be 20%. The book then begins down the path, laying out "the map", to taking your loves seriously and learning how to find them and identify them.

I probably could have read through the book in one sitting, but I liked being able to read a chapter here and there and digest it. I can't wait to take my own Red Thread Questionnaire and see how it goes with my team at work, too. So much useful info for me in my own career but also as a leader of people.

I found the last 15% or so of the book focused on schooling to be useful to me as a parent of a young child, but I felt it was a little out of place in this book about finding my love in my work. I didn't disagree with the info but felt it wouldn't connect to someone without kids, and it's a large part of the end of the book.

I'm giving the book a very solid 3 stars. There are some great takeaways and tangible items that I can look at later and apply over and over to my life. That the book ended with chapters about how to change schools, took a bit away from the excitement that I was feeling. I would definitely recommend this to a friend looking to recapture their love of the work that they do.

Interesting, confusing, illuminating...I learned some things to really help me in the future. I had a bit of a hard time relating to some of the life experiences that Marcus had. I did find his tip on getting in front of people very helpful. I took away from this book, it's great when your heart and soul are both in whatever you are doing.

Thank you Harvard Business Review Press and NetGalley for the advance read