“Life is difficult.” This was the first sentence of Scott Peck’s seminal book, “The Road Less Travelled.” Dr. Peck had not come up with a great revelation.

“Life is suffering” was the foundational truth the Buddha began teaching some 2,500 years ago. I’ll further theorize that even the Buddha wasn’t the first person to express this thought. Buddha’s teaching though was that life’s suffering is primarily caused by our clinging to it. Said another way, we look for permanence in an impermanent existence. That’s a fool’s journey.

Empty abundance...

In America, clinging is even more pronounced partly because of our incredible material abundance but also because of how our society looks at these riches. We tend to bounce back from the purchase of each disappointing new car, house or shiny technological object still hoping the next one will satisfy.

I look at abundance differently.

Life for me has become instead a series of moments, each to be experienced as presently as possible, both joyful and painful.

Over time, my joyful moments have become more frequent than my painful ones and I know why. It is because my life has been made less difficult and more joyful through service to others. Both my highs and lows seem to become higher over time.

I’ve read the same books as you may have. My favorites include Purpose Driven Life, Enough, How Will You Measure Your Life and Second Half. This book takes a different approach and is more personal since how I arrived at this moment may be revealing and helpful to you.

No religion...

I will further stipulate there are few religious implications here.

My focus is to become continually more spiritual but you will not read evangelism in my story. Better to live my faith and spirit instead of preaching it. My own vicar – Pope Francis – recently announced that atheists doing good works and living moral lives are just as holy as he wishes to become.

The stories of our lives...

This book is based in stories, not just mine, but many other people I’ve walked with and even current readers of my blog (www.thebusinessofgood.org). These are true stories in which my friends and heroes and readers experience both joy and pain. They are presented for possible relevance since I am about as average as average gets.

Small town Midwesterner American, grew up middle class, underachieved at a large university in my home state, I married young and sired three kids (all four still talk to me) and retired at 55 years old.

What’s different about my story is that I ended up with a fortune. Perhaps more different is how that fortune is being managed. And whether you have $5,000 discretionary or $50 million my goal is only to affect your thinking if it is moved by sharing my own.

This book should prove or disprove a theory I’ve long held which is that I am not unique. There are tens of thousands of “Tim McCarthys” out there; that is, people who are doing well materially but still looking for more from their life.

I hope you enjoy my stories and learn with me on this journey. I’m incredibly grateful for your attention. So are the many people that will be served by 100% of the proceeds from this book.