The Graduation Gift
A practical graduation gift for high school and college graduates starting real life and real work.
Graduation advice usually falls into one of two categories. It’s either so upbeat it’s useless, or so generic it belongs on a t-shirt. This book offers something better: a way to find meaning in your work without giving it the authority to define your worth.
It’s also inspired by decades of my own work providing executive coaching and advisory services to professionals in various stages of their careers.
Available in print and ebook, just in time for graduation season.
What's inside
A short guide for graduates who want to:
- Take work seriously without turning it into their whole identity
- Think clearly about money, pressure, and stability
- Use new tools without losing judgment
- Build skill before image
- Start adult life with a stronger center
Who it's for
Inside the book
- Chapter 1: Why Purpose, Why now? The bargain we used to make with work is gone.
- Chapter 2: Starting Work in the Age of AI and Anxiety: Learn the tools, but don’t let them become your identity.
- Chapter 3: When Money Has to Come First: Take the practical job. Follow the deeper framework.
- Chapter 4: The Graduation Gift: If your path doesn’t reveal itself all at once, that doesn’t mean you’re behind.
- Chapter 5: A Better Set of Questions: Your answers will change over time. So will your goals.
- Closing: The Bigger Conversation: Exploring a better order for workers, leaders, families, and organizations.
What readers are saying
I wish I’d learned some of these lessons earlier in life… I couldn’t agree more with your advice to grads: find your purpose early on and use it as a guide in life. – Megan Adler, Sublime Designs Media
The clarity you bring to how young adults should think about taking advice from older people really stood out to me. I wish I had benefited from that kind of framing when I graduated and was choosing my first job. It is both generous and grounding. – Ana, early reader
So much of this applies to entry level as well as mid-career! It’s extremely easy to read and it leaves me wanting more. – Julie, early reader
The bigger conversation
The Graduation Gift is a short edition adapted from the forthcoming Purpose Over Performance, a larger book about work, identity, AI, and the changing social contract of work. Read why I wrote Purpose over Performance.