The Promise of a Pencil
How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change
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4.4 • 89 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The riveting New York Times bestseller about a social entrepreneur and nonprofit founder who built more than 250 schools around the world—and the steps anyone can take to lead a purpose-driven life.
Adam Braun began working summers at hedge funds when he was just sixteen years old, sprinting down the path to a successful Wall Street career. But while traveling he met a young boy begging on the streets of India, who after being asked what he wanted most in the world, simply answered, “A pencil.” This small request led to a staggering series of events that took Braun backpacking through dozens of countries before eventually leaving a prestigious job to found Pencils of Promise, the organization he started with just $25 that has since built more than 250 schools around the world.
The Promise of a Pencil chronicles Braun’s journey to find his calling, as each chapter explains one clear step that every person can take to turn their biggest ambitions into reality. If you feel restless and ready for personal growth, if you are seeking direction and purpose, this critically acclaimed bestseller is for you. Driven by inspiring stories, shareable insights, and leadership lessons this is the book that will give you the tools to make your own life a story worth telling.
*All proceeds from this book will support Pencils of Promise.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Despite the subtitle, just a few pages into this exuberant testimony to the power of idealism, readers will realize that Braun is not an ordinary person. Raised in affluent Greenwich, Conn., by parents who embraced noncomformity and charity as sidelines to a good job and six-figure income, Braun struggled to reconcile the materialistic and spiritual. After graduating from Brown University, he worked at a prestigious consulting firm in New York City and at age 25, in the fall of 2008, started Pencils of Promise (PoP), a nonprofit organization that partners with local communities in Asia, Latin America, and Africa to build schools, train teachers, offer scholarships, and supply educational materials. The memoir consists of 30 chapters titled for lessons he learned while developing PoP. Braun has directed the building of more than 150 schools by raising funds and motivating volunteers, as well as drawing attention from national media, wealthy benefactors, humanitarians, and celebrities. In this introspective story, Braun reflects on dangers like a near-shipwreck that brought mortality close, a period of staying out late and drinking too much to mask dissatisfaction with the corporate world, lucrative job offers that threatened his resolve, and overcoming fear of public speaking and soliciting donations. While few wrestle so strongly with the profit-or-purpose dilemma, Braun's story forcefully presents the advantages of silencing the head and listening to the heart.
Customer Reviews
Such an awesome story!
This was a very well written book and just an amazing story! It will inspire you!!!
Pencils of Promise
Wow, I am so amazed ! Trading this book has brought so much joy to my soul. It is so beautiful to know people like Adam exist and I thank my creator for putting this book in my path. Adam is a blessed man and has been an instrument to bless so many people.
Fantastic!
I really enjoyed reading this book. I was inspired and motivated by Adam's and PoP's message. It was a refreshing read, great for those looking to start their own business.