Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day Hardcover – September 26, 2013

A disclaimer is in order. I have been a Todd Henry enthusiast since I read his first book, The Accidental Creative: How to be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice. His regular podcast is on my weekly "must listen to" list. I was thrilled when I heard the title and theme of his second book. I'm what business guru, Ken Blanchard, calls a "raving fan" of Todd's work. Admittedly, I'm biased not just because we share the same first name.Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day is about how we can unleash our best work each day and increase the odds that we won't regret the work we've done when we come to the end of our life. It's about living full so we can die empty.What I like most about Todd's writing is his courage. He doesn't hesitate to call out the fluffy platitudes that we are fed in too many business and career books. He doesn't shy away from saying that success and our best work will require effort and self-discipline. Those two things go against the grain of our comfort driven culture. I was practically cheering out loud when he said, "You cannot pursue comfort and greatness at the same time."One popular fallacy Todd takes on that resonated with me was, "The Passion Fallacy." We are told countless times to just "follow your passion" and the money will follow you. Besides the obvious impracticality of this advice, (How many of us actually do get paid for playing video games all day?) Todd points out that it is a selfish approach to finding meaningful work. Eventually the passion dies down and we are left searching for a different obsession.A better approach is asking, "What value can I add?" instead of "What can I get?" When we pose the question this way, it correctly reminds us that we are not the center of the world. We know that when we are the center of our own world, it's a very small world...after all.Another example of Todd's courage occurs in the chapter titled, "Finding Your Voice," which tackles discovering our unique expression of value through our life's journey. He challenged me when he wrote, "Great work results when you stop doing only what you know you can do and instead begin pursuing what you believe you might be able to do with a little focused effort." In the infamous words of television character Barney Stinson (Played by Neil Patrick Harris on How I Met Your Mother), "Challenge accepted!"Todd's writing tone is one we would find from a buddy who is sitting across the table having coffee with us. It's friend to friend encouraging conversation rather than top down pronouncements. In addition, his stories are nicely balanced with practical applications and probing questions at the end of every chapter.This is the type of book I can see myself rereading on a yearly basis to keep myself on track in fulfilling my life's mission.The message of the book is simply stated: "Don't go to your grave with your best work still inside of you. Choose to die empty."May that be true for us all.

The book insists that its message is more than just "live like there's no tomorrow" but the reality is that the message isn't all that much deeper than that. Maybe it's a little deeper than "live like there's no tomorrow" but not by much. I can see this being useful to those stuck in a rut at work or in their life. It's geared more toward those looking to find fulfillment in their work. I was looking for something that would apply to creative endeavors (which this book claims it does and many recommend it for that) but I found the advice contained within to be generic. It was actually pretty hard to get through because of how generic it felt.This book boils down to: do your best work, you don't know when you're going to die, don't you want to die without regrets? And that can be useful to some people but it just wasn't for me. It ignores the realities of daily life. It attempts to address those realities but does not do a good job of it. Sometimes in life you just have to slog through something unfulfilling and get your fulfillment elsewhere. If you hate your job, change careers. If you can't, try to make peace with that and get your happiness from something else. It all boils down to "try this or that". Okay, great. We all try. I think the state of the world right now is really bringing to light the problems with advice like the kind contained in this book. There was a time when we could all ignore or set aside these issues and delude ourselves into this way of thinking that promotes the idea that living to work is fine and you can be happy doing that if you find a way to make your work fulfilling. Now many are seeing that working to live is a better option and maybe we should focus less on work and more on what makes us happy outside of that. And again, this book says it isn't an excuse to extract maximum productivity out of workers while getting them to smile about it but in the end it's exactly that. The book focuses so much on work that by the end I felt worse than when I started reading it.I give it three stars because it's written decently (albeit not very compellingly) and I know there are people who would find the content useful. That said, even those who do find it useful may be better served by focusing less on work and more on other pursuits that fulfill them.

I may die any day! The bsic theme of this book: You are not going to live for eternity. Time is finite. There is an urgency in lfe. Do whatever you want to do in life. Do a little every day. Be true to yourself. List out the activities you enjoy, what you like to do . Make a small beginning every day.

Superb book to read, I recommend this book to all horacious readers. Fluid though par excellence.

This book tells you all about how to get the best out of yourself every day. Personally I had lost a little bit of umph at work and was looking for tools to keep myself on the right track. This book does exactly that.There are common sense elements but they are surrounded by great techniques that will help you find purpose in your job again and point out the things that are stopping you from hitting your potential every day.

If you want a wake up call, a powerful call to Action, then this easy read will definitely give you a boost!It is written simply and is easily accessible ...ie: not too taxing - a great tub read, or before you go to bed at night.The observations put forth though, are inspiring and Doable in your everyday life.This book was a fun book to read for me...filled me with ideas and actionable dreams! I would say, Please read this book if you are feeling stuck in your life...it just may open some doors that you never knew were there!

El libro está entretenido y trata el tema de una forma un poco diferente a otros libros parecidos.