Rich in the Ways That Matter: What the Wise Knew About Wealth, Peace, and People

Everyone can name someone rich. Almost no one can name someone rich and at peace — unhurried, well-loved, still glad to sit at their own dinner table.

Rich in the Ways That Matter draws on seven wisdom traditions — Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, the Prophet Muhammad and his companions, and the strategist Chanakya — to make one argument: a life keeps score on more than money. There's a Wealth Ledger, yes, but also a Peace Ledger, a Health Ledger, a Relationship Ledger, and a Nature Ledger — and the richest people in this book's opening question are usually the ones who let one account overflow while the other four quietly went empty.

Following one man, Daniel, from a childhood garden lesson through the company he builds and very nearly lets consume him, this book pairs an "ambition" chapter with a "contentment" chapter at every stage of life — because this book treats the two as companions, not opposites, and refuses to consider either complete without the other. Along the way: a science-fair shortcut he doesn't take, a promotion he almost costs a mentor, a driveway in Seattle at eleven at night, and the slow work of building a family life that survives success rather than being spent on it.

Each chapter closes with a concrete weekly practice and honest questions worth sitting with — not just ideas to admire, but habits built to be tried.

A companion to the author's Free Breath: Ancient Wisdom for the Anxious Age.