Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks: One CEO's Quest for Meaning and Authenticity

Review by James M. Kerr

August Turak’s Business Secrets of the Trappist Monk is to business as The Secret was to personal growth a few years back. It teaches a different way of business thinking that may serve to re-shape one’s behavior.

That said, it is not your typical business book. Business Secrets of the Trappist Monk combines colorful case studies from Turak’s thirty-year business career with touching, personal portraits of the monks at work. Specifically, it proves that Trappist principles can be successfully applied to a variety of worldly business settings – suggesting that people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are wildly successful because of their high-minded principles.

Turak, a successful entrepreneur, corporate executive and author, attributes much of his success to living and working alongside the Trappist monks of Mepkin Abbey for seventeen years.

To sum, Business Secrets of the Trappist Monk is both captivating and poignant. It is an important work because it offers the potential to inspire thoughtful leaders to evaluate their current approach to management and strategy and presents suggestions for change that, if adopted, will have an impact on the way the business world works for years to come.

Read this book…It could change your life!