Another book that fell on my shelf this year is the bestseller The Big Five for Live, by John P. Strelecky, written as a short story and filled with words of wisdom. It is quite popular and the author himself has written some other books already – The Why Café and Life Safari.
Apart from being a best-selling American author, John P. Strelecky is as well an inspirational speaker. While trying to answer himself the question How do I win the game of life, for me?, he wrote this short story.
I also found John Strelecky speaking in a summit and he seems to be quite a special character:
Before becoming a famous writer, Strelecky worked as a consultant until 2002 and went backpacking and travelling around the world for one year. As he came back, he went back to work and realized that his interest disappeared. His moment of inspiration came as he was in a plane, returning from a business trip and trying to figure out What would I tell someone right now is the meaning of life?
He went home and started writing for 21 days book initially called The Why Are You Here Cafe – now known as ‘The Big Five For Life’, helping people figure out and live their life’s purpose.
The main idea behind the book is to imagine that at the end of your life you could fill in all your memories into a museum. How would that museum look like? Depending on your choices and overall focus on joy, happiness and productivity, the museum will have a positive or a negative vibe.
The big five for life represent the 5 things that drive you and define your purpose in life. These are the things you want to do, see or experience before you die. The book is written as a story where Thomas Derale, an old businessman, reaches the greatest leadership secret: he has wealthy companies, he is loved and appreciated by people, his customers love making business together. However, at 55 he is dying and at this point he reveals the secrets about his life, business and his impact over the people around him. His disciple Joe narrates the whole story, in a series of conversations between him and Thomas, before he dies. Thomas talks about finding both a personal and corporate “Purpose for Existing” (PFE), the best mix for productivity and fulfillment.
In this year of isolation and time spent in silence the book is a relaxing and mind-challenging activity that might help defining the new bucket list for 2021.
Mihaiela Corșatea 