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(More customer reviews)The Soul Café is a book for NOW.
It's a novel, job manual, and self-help book all in one. Drawing from the collective wisdom of Mohandas Gandhi, Margaret Fishback Powers, Jesus of Nazareth, William Shakespeare, Henry Ford, and others, author David McLean presents a colorful and enjoyable story that is easy to read but offers up a timely and decidedly compelling message.
This book traces the story of a materially successful Chicago business executive, Ian Archer, who finds himself in an increasingly precarious position within his workplace, a position which encourages him to compromise his integrity and all that believes in. Competing impulses tear at Ian, on the one hand insisting he play it safe and tow the company line, and on the other urging him to blow the whistle on the corruption and decay he has uncovered in an internal investigation but risk losing his job and the affluent lifestyle to which he, his wife and twelve-year-old son have become accustomed.
Unhappy, empty and confused, Ian desperately searches for answers, which begins oddly enough in a small unassuming soulful coffee house where he comes across a peculiar but intriguing stranger who asks him: What is your pain? At first unsettled by this question, the protagonist tries to ignore it, but eventually finds it will niggle away at him until he chooses to tackle it head on. By connecting more strongly with nature, with the values and beliefs with which he was raised, and with a number of vividly-drawn personal mentors, Ian eventually finds reconnection with his father, wife, son, and, most importantly, with his own soul. It is only once he has done this that he is able to grapple with the dilemmas at work and understand that some risks are ultimately worth taking. After all, "What will it profit us if we gain the whole world but lose our souls?"
In a world rife with competition, deadlines, and layoffs, companies and individuals today often find disconnection, apathy, and malaise rampant in the workplace. Any business in the 21st century-large or small-would be wise to heed the message in McLean's "The Soul Café," a message advocating the importance of recognizing and celebrating the individual talents and abilities of all employees and of instilling a sense of soulfulness in the workplace.
This is not just a book for business, however. Anyone-in any walk of life-who wants a lucid, entertaining, and thought-provoking good read will find that "The Soul Café" offers it up-"one cup at a time."
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How many of us have raced through life--meeting to meeting, bumper to bumper, dinner to dinner, skating to swimming--chasing after goals that always seem just beyond our reach?Then, one day, the monotony is somehow shattered and a profound reality of our life is revealed: We are filled with an aching sense of emptiness.We start asking ourselves the really big and scary life questions.What is my purpose?Why can't I find joy in my relationships any longer?Why does my employer care only about the money I generate and not about me?What has happened to my soul?Ian Archer was just such a person, and this is a fictional account of his struggle from emptiness through understanding to wholeness.With the gentle prodding of a few colourfully-drawn secondary characters and the unexpected sanctuary he finds in a small, unassuming suburban coffee house, this likeable though dispirited business executive's personal and workplace quandaries are gradually unravelled, acknowledged and confronted.In searching for a prescription for freedom from the false promises of life, however, Ian discovers that he must be prepared to lose much but that the risks are ultimately worth it.If you, like Ian, are looking for a place where the seeds of creativity, peace and personal growth are planted and the answers to life's fundamental questions are offered up one cup at a time, why don't you sit back, relax, and join him on a journey to The Soul Cafe.
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