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Remarkable Leader who has Build Five Flourishing Careers, Shares Secrets of Personal and Business Success in New Book, Balance: The Business - Life Connection

James A. Cusumano, Ph.D. – Entertainer, Executive, Entrepreneur, Filmmaker, and Holisitc Hotelier – Reveals How Passion and Purpose Are Key To Business and Personal Excellence.

Renaissance man James A. Cusumano has not had one successful profession – he has had five distinct and flourishing careers. Starting out as the lead singer for the popular recording group The Royal Teens, he then became a research scientist and executive at Exxon. Following that, he co-founded Catalytica, Inc., a booming Silicon Valley company with divisions in clean energy and pharmaceuticals. He then became a filmmaker, producing the movie What Matters Most. Ultimately, he and his wife, Inez created Chateau Mcely, a five-star luxury hotel and spa near Prague. Throughout his myriad of careers, James Cusumano pursued his passions and found true purpose and balance in his life. He shares wisdom and insights in his compelling new book, BALANCE: The Business - Life Connection (Publisher: SelectBooks, Inc., New York; Publication Date: April 16, 2013 in USA and in Czech by the end of 2013.)

“My goal in writing this book is to provide a means to help you find your fundamental purpose and passion, and in doing so to create a more meaningful and fulfilling life,” Cusumano explains.  “The central message is this: In the big picture, life is short, no matter how long you live. Yet I firmly believe that all of us were meant to live our lives to the fullest and most of us want to do so.”  Through his own unique life experiences, Cusumano has learned that, to create long-lasting fulfillment and happiness, it is necessary to pay balanced attention to both the personal and professional parts of life. The key to achieving this lies in uncovering your purpose and passion, and following them in all your endeavors using what he calls a Values-Based Life Plan.

BALANCE is comprised of three distinct sections that illuminate Cusumano’s experience and insight. The first part is an autobiographical look at the author’s “five lives.” In this section, it becomes clear how each of his divergent careers has been strongly connected with his purpose and passion. For example, he describes how despite being on the fast track to a leadership position at Exxon, the mismatch between large corporate bureaucracy and his own entrepreneurial spirit propelled him to quit and launch a Silicon Valley start-up, leading the growth of that enterprise to a public company valued at nearly $1 billion. Cusumano also explains how, at the many critical crossroads he encountered, he learned to listen carefully to the counsel of the wise people – or “giants” – he met along the way, and he reveals how others can do the same.

In the second section of the book, Creating A Fulfilling Life, Cusumano addresses the critical issue of how to achieve balance in both your personal and professional lives. The crux of this lies in uncovering your Essence. He writes, “We are all born with a unique ‘something’ – which I call ‘Essence’ – that gives us sheer pleasure and the potential to generate great value for both ourselves and the world. You were likely in touch with your Essence as a child, but it may have become submerged over the years by other preoccupations, or other people’s expectations.” In BALANCE, Cusumano offers a step-by-step method for identifying and recapturing your Essence. “The passion created in this one step often provides all the motivation, courage and energy  you will need to find a new career that will lead to greater enrichment – personally, financially, and even for the world at large,” he says.

In the book’s third section, Building A Successful Business, the author shows how to grow a successful enterprise by using Inspired Leadership to create an innovative environment.  Based on his own experiences, particularly at Catalytica and Chateau Mcely, BALANCE details precisely what Inspired Leadership entails, and how its core principles – including courage, authenticity, and service – form the basis of an organization that is personally rewarding, commercially advantageous, and socially responsible. Cusumano elaborates on a number of other key elements that drive long-term business success. These include unique hiring practices; targeting early commercial successes as well as long-term goals; and maintaining flexibility in any strategic plan. He believes that, when practiced diligently, these methods will yield returns far greater than “business as usual” models.

Chock full of personal stories that illustrate the author’s profound insights, BALANCE is an invaluable guide to finding one’s passion and creating a more meaningful life, both personally and professionally. As Ricardo Levy, author of Letters To A Young Entrepreneur, writes in the book’s foreword, “The lessons [Cusumano] draws upon apply to all of us . . . They contain fundamental concepts that can increase our happiness and our effectiveness, and simultaneously help make this a better world.”

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“Jim Cusumano’ book, BALANCE: The Business-Life Connection will help you approach the critical crossroads in your life in a whole new way, and help you find the “giants” in your life who can guide you though them.”—Gary P. Pisano, Professor, Harvard Business School and coauthor, Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs Manufacturing Renaissance

“Jim Cusumano’s book, BALANCE: The Business-Life Connection is a wonderful reminder that through gratitude and the source of creativity, we have answers to life’s greatest challenges, and can truly find meaning, fulfillments, success, and our purpose in life.”—Deepak Chopra, Bestselling author and Founder of The Chopra Center for Wellbeing

“This is a book from a man who has gone through a lot. For readers who are embarking upon a similar path, this will be an interesting read. How to start again, how to gain, how to lose. How good things come as a by-product of a great calling.”—Tomáš Sedláček, Bestselling Author of The Economics of Good and Evil
 

BALANCE: The Business - Life Connection
By James A. Cusumano, Ph.D.
Publisher: SelectBooks, Inc., New York
Publication Date: April 16, 2013
Price: $16.95 trade paperback
ISBN: 978-1-59079-960-4
For more information go to: www.BalanceTheBusinessLifeConnection.Com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James A. Cusumano is an accomplished leader with many successful careers as an entertainer, scientist, corporate executive, and entrepreneur. Having started his career as the lead singer for the popular recording group The Royal Teens, he then received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry, became a Fellow of Churchill College at Cambridge University, and pursued business studies at Harvard and Stanford, subsequently serving as a research scientist and then Director of R&D for Exxon. Following that, he co-founded Catalytica, Inc., a booming Silicon Valley company with business divisions in clean energy and pharmaceuticals. Dr. Cusumano also founded Chateau Mcely Films and produced What Matters Most, released in over fifty countries. He moved to Prague where he and his wife, Inez renovated Chateau Mcely to an award-winning luxury castle, spa hotel and forest retreat, chosen by the World Travel Awards as “The World’s Leading Green Hotel.” With his partners, Blue Events and the World Business Academy, Jim created Leadership for Life, a program that brings international change-makers to Prague and Chateau Mcely to teach the power and potential of Inspired Leadership. An inspiring speaker, he is the author of numerous technical and business publications, the author of Cosmic Consciousness—A Journey To Well-being, Happiness And Success, and coauthor of Freedom From Mid-East Oil. Cusumano is the founder of Chateau Mcely Forum, where he leads programs on how to find fulfillment in both your personal and business lives.

Jim’s dream is to help create a BETTER Word thourgh Inspired Leadership.

• BETTER is a safe, just, fulfilled and sustainable humanity—a future of hope, health and happiness for our children, grandchildren and beyond.
• BETTER is the reason we are here—to contribute to the evolution of the universe by our own physical, professional and spiritual growth.
• BETTER is achieved by finding our LIFE PURPOSE and PASSION. In doing so, we become INSPIRED LEADERS.

Chateau Mcely Forum provides products, services and insight that can help you discover your essence and connect it with a need in the world, making it a better place in which to live. This will bring you unbridled passion, the discovery of your life purpose, leading to a deep sense of gratitude and long-lasting happiness as an inspired leader. Several times a year CMF organizes at Chateau Mcely focused meetings on various leadership subjects.(see: www.ChateauMcely.Com)