August Turak

"When it comes to spirituality and life, Turak is as authentic as it gets. Wonderful read "-- Michael Keaton, actor Not Less Than Everything: One Man's Quest for Spiritual Enlightenment is the inspirational true story of how author, August Turak overcame depression and meaningless despair through a daring quest for life's ultimate meaning and purpose. A search for transcendence. As a troubled young college student in 1971, Turak was seized by the idea that the mystical experience various religious traditions call Enlightenment, Satori, Nirvana, Samadhi, the Unio Mystica, or Cosmic Consciousness not only exists, but might be attainable by him. This sparked a life altering quest as Turak became in turn, ... ...the first student of a rough-hewn, hillbilly Zen master;...the prot g of the founder of the IBM Executive School;...the client of a mystical psychologist doing government funded research with LSD;...a member of the original team that launched MTV: Music Television;...a successful hi-tech entrepreneur and even a frequent monastic guest at a Trappist monastery. It was this same spiritual roller coaster that dropped him off twenty-five years later in a tiny room of a rundown motel in Baltimore, Maryland deeply depressed, fearing for his sanity, and with nowhere else to turn. Or so it only seemed... Through a series of true, wildly entertaining spiritual adventures and practical life lessons, Turak offers his readers an accessible, universal blueprint for a life overflowing with joy, peace, higher purpose and above all gratitude.

Recipient of the prestigious $100,000 Templeton Prize, Brother John is the true story of a monastic encounter between August Turak, going through a midlife crisis, and an umbrella wielding Trappist monk: a magical Christmas Eve encounter that eventually leads the author and us all to the redemptive power of an authentically purposeful life. Uplifting, deeply moving, and set in the magnificent Trappist monastery of Mepkin Abbey, Brother John is dramatically brought to life with twenty-two full-color original oil paintings by Glenn Harrington, a multiple award-winning artist. Brother John works equally well either as a Christmas gift or all year long, and the book’s inspirational message and rich illustrations are sure to bring the reader back again and again.

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.

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.