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Meaningful Work

A Quest to Do Great Business, Find Your Calling, and Feed Your Soul

Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
The founder and CEO of Askinosie Chocolate, an award-winning craft chocolate factory, shows readers how he discovered the secret to purposeful work and business − and how we can too, no matter what work we do. 
Askinosie Chocolate is a small-batch, award winning chocolate company widely considered to be a vanguard in the industry. Known for sourcing 100% of his cocoa beans directly from farmers across the globe, Shawn Askinosie has pioneered direct trade and profit sharing in the craft chocolate industry with farmers in Tanzania, Ecuador, and the Philippines. In addition to developing relationships with smallholder farmers, the company also partners with schools in their origin communities to provide lunch to 1,600 children every day with no outside donations. Twenty-five years ago, Shawn Askinosie was a successful criminal defense lawyer trying his first murder death penalty case that would later go on to become a Dateline special. For many years he found law satisfying, but after several high profile trials he reached a breaking point and found solace in the search for a new career.
In this inspiring guide to discovering a vocation that feeds your heart and soul, Askinosie describes his quest to discover more meaningful work – a search that led him to volunteering in the palliative care wing of a hospital, to a Trappist monastery where he became inspired by the monks focus on “being” rather than “doing,” and eventually traipsing through jungles across the globe in search of excellent cocoa bean farmers to make award winning chocolate. Askinosie shares his hard-won insights into doing work that reflects one’s values and purpose in life. He shares with readers visioning tools that can be used in any industry or field to create a work life that is inspired and fulfilling. Askinosie shows us that everyone has the capacity to find meaning in their work and be a positive force for good in the world.
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  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The author's backstory of leaving his career as a high-powered trial lawyer to start a craft chocolate factory will remind listeners of the power of redemption and inspire them to reconfigure the way they work and do business. With his relaxed speaking voice and audible sincerity, he describes the joys of connecting directly with his suppliers and other business partners, regarding his staff with dignity, and creating a business that expresses his deepest passions and interests. He trades directly with third-world cocoa farmers and not only shares profits with them but also helps them improve the way they live and trade with others. His commitment to his ideals will encourage listeners to become a more positive force in the lives of the people they touch. T.W. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 11, 2017
      The founder of Askinosie Chocolate, writing with his chief marketing officer (and daughter), delivers a sincere but familiar guide to bringing passion to one’s work. Near the start, Askinosie recalls being engaged but burned-out during his previous career, in law; after developing recurrent health issues, he started casting about for something else to do. In going into business for himself, he wanted to meet high ethical standards, and as such, does “direct trade” with suppliers and helps provide local schoolchildren with lunch. He addresses the book to entrepreneurs “at heart or in practice” looking to infuse more meaning into their work and identify what means the most to them. Through exercises, he works to help readers use their own passions to improve business relationships with employees, customers, or vendors and spread their passions to others. The advice itself (“Provide a stake in the outcome to all employees”; “Carefully examine your supply chain”) is well-worn, and the narrative’s emphasis on the company and on Askinosie’s lawyer-to-chocolate-maker journey makes the text largely feel like a book-length ad for the business. This will be a tough sell in a crowded marketplace.

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  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

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