Book Review: The Pursuit of Purpose - Ken Banks

I've bumped in to Ken Banks a few times over my career - and he has always been a kind, inspiring, and dedicated chap. How did he get that way?

This book is part autobiography and part an explanation about how people can find purpose in life. It is refreshingly secular on the latter, and curiously impersonal on the former. While Ken's childhood family is recounted in great detail, his wife and children get only a fleeting mention.

A large part is dedicated to his ancestors:

It’s about living up to the expectations of those who came before me, ancestors whose own stories help me understand what makes me who I am today.

I have to say, this is the part that resonated the least with me. I am utterly uninterested in my own family's history. I don't care if I make my forbearers proud - nor do I think their stories matter much to mine.

It is refreshing to read an autobiography which acknowledges that luck and privilege play a significant part in the journey. The book is almost a masterclass in how being in the right place at the right time requires one to be often be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Ken is relentlessly practical. He explains how to examine what works and what doesn't. How to assess whether you're able to solve a problem and what to do in the face of adversity. Whereas an American book might be self-aggrandising and cult-like, Ken's approach is almost ego-less and much more structured around how to build a movement for continual change.

One thing that struck me throughout the book is that I think a lot of the yearning we feel for purpose is driven by the rejection of religion.

Perhaps you already have everything you need to live a happy, fulfilling, purposeful life, and it just requires a little order or structure. Simply having a set of rules to live by might be closer to what you’re looking for, or need.

Once you throw off the shackles of religion, you can feel untethered from society. If all you see is people being fulfilled by an indoctrination of Kinder, Küche, Kirche, then you are going to feel like your life has no (extrinsic) meaning.

This book isn't a powerful wake-up call. It isn't a rallying cry. Nor is it a quick-fix self-help guide. It is a calm and practical observation of one person's (successful) journey through life.