There are boatloads of career books on the market that try to help you be happy. This is different. Its purpose is to help you create a responsible life that is also fulfilling.

This book is guided by a new psychology that has arisen in the last century, which understands that human beings only come into their fullness when they engage with the world, take risks, and interpret their experience. Many people think they'll find themselves first and then do some good in the world — and they end up doing very little of either. The premise here is that we find ourselves by transcending ourselves and taking risks.

You teach what you are trying to learn yourself. I became a career counselor and authored the first edition, in one sense, because I was dared, but also because I needed the knowledge myself. A phone call from a new friend — who has become an old friend — asked if I could create a resource for new graduates wanting to walk this path of purpose. I thought, "I don't know whether I can, but someone has to." I had been studying the psychology of adult development and participation in social movements, so the path led to the risk and the risk opened up a rich new path.

The ideas behind this book are fast becoming mainstream: that we can't create a working economy if we destroy the underlying life support system or the fabric of society; that social and environmental responsibility are not add-ons in our enterprises, but integral; and that — by translating our visions of sustainable future into meaningful work for ourselves and those we love, we will create the galvanizing challenge and a collective ability to rise to it.