Viktor E. Frankl
Man’s Search for Meaning
ISBN: 978-0-8070-1427-1
I don’t tend to read a lot of books in the “self-help” category. It’s not that they aren’t necessary or good for a lot of people – looking around the world today, there are a lot of things that can bring you down or ruin your motivation. A friend recommended that I read Man’s Search for Meaning, not specifically because I needed to figure out my path in life, but to have a formula to help others when I mentor other startup founders and entrepreneurs. After reading the book, I realized that I had personally found my meaning a few years ago without even knowing it.
The book has two distinct parts. The first covers the author’s time in concentration camps in Europe during World War II. The second part goes through the process of his practice of a type of psychotherapy he calls “logotherapy,” where he guides his patients through the search for their purpose in life. It was a bit strange to completely switch gears halfway through the book, rather than explicitly discussing logotherapy during the author’s telling of his time in the concentration camps. In the book, they mentioned that the second part on logotherapy was not originally part of the book, which is why it feels a bit disjointed at times.
As I was reading the book, I began to think about my life a bit before I jumped into the world of entrepreneurship. Up until my first child was born, I thought that my meaning was to become a physician, no matter how awful the process was. I was incredibly unhappy in medical school, and used my daughter’s birth as the perfect off-ramp to leave the program. However, once I took the role of the stay-at-home dad, I felt that my purpose was more than that. Combine that with the decline and death of my grandmother around the same time and the amount of work it took not only to take care of a toddler but a close relative in her last days, and I was beginning to give up finding my own purpose, busying myself with the problems of others instead. I knew that I wasn’t living up to my full potential, but I really had no idea what to do. Finding a purpose in both creating new businesses and helping others do the same gave me meaning, and I credit that with pulling me out of my slump.
Throughout the book, Frankl gives examples of people who had lost their will to keep going, and through his work, helping these people regain their strength by working through the things that had kept those people going in the past. He mentions a number of times that it goes beyond just trying to make someone happy or content in the present – it’s that you must look to the future to find the will to keep going. What goals do you have? What legacy do you want to leave for future generations? Answering these and other hypothetical questions about the future helps those in trouble find true happiness and optimism. Without purpose, happiness is hollow.
The book is not a terribly long read – I read one half on a flight going one direction, and then read the other half on the flight home – but it’s not a quick read. You will want to take notes, especially in the second half of the book. A lot of information is covered in a small number of pages, so you may want to read it a second time, to make sure that you didn’t miss anything. I would suggest that you and a trusted friend both read through the book, and then get together to talk about your experiences searching for meaning in your own lives. Two pairs of eyes catch more details than just one.
Overall, 9/10, would highly recommend to anyone who feels as though they have lost their way in life. I really could have used this book in the early 2010s, when I was struggling to find my meaning. It might have cut down the process of finding my purpose in life by a couple of years. The author’s story from the concentration camps is pretty amazing, and even if you don’t read the second half of the book on logotherapy, you can get some pretty profound takeaways from the narrative. If you aren’t struggling, but you know someone who is, consider recommending Man’s Search for Meaning to that person. I’m not saying that you might save a life, but you never know.