The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

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Ken Robinson

With Lou Aronica

Viking, New York, 2009, English

Nonfiction, General

ISBN: 9780670020478

From the Publisher. The element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. The Element draws on the stories of a wide range of people, from ex-Beatle Paul McCartney to Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons; from Meg Ryan to Gillian Lynne, who choreographed the Broadway productions of Cats and The Phantom of the Opera; and from writer Arianna Huffington to renowned physicist Richard Feynman and others, including business leaders and athletes. It explores the components of this new paradigm: The diversity of intelligence, the power of imagination and creativity, and the importance of commitment to our own capabilities.

With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in the element and those that stifle that possibility. He shows that age and occupation are no barrier, and that once we have found our path we can help others to do so as well. The Element shows the vital need to enhance creativity and innovation by thinking differently about human resources and imagination. It is also an essential strategy for transforming education, business, and communities to meet the challenges of living and succeeding in the 21st century.

On 2 book lists

Tom Kelley

On Tom Kelley’s Book List

What Sir Ken Robinson calls “The Element” is something we all might hope to find: a vocation or a craft so engaging that it fuels our passions, so intrinsically rewarding that it blurs the line between work and play. He puts into words what many of us have long felt about the deep satisfaction that comes from living a creative life.

Massimo Pitis

On Massimo Pitis’s Book List

Ken Robinson has a wonderful way of telling stories (check out his speeches at TED). In this book he tells many and make you feel like yours could be among them. It’s a book about the need to become ourselves against all the limitations that modern society and schools impose. Brilliant!

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