With Search Inside Yourself, Chade-Meng Tan, one of Google’s earliest engineers and personal growth pioneer, offers a proven method for enhancing mindfulness and emotional intelligence in life and work.
Meng’s job is to teach Google’s best and brightest how to apply mindfulness techniques in the office and beyond; now, readers everywhere can get insider access to one of the most sought after classes in the country, a course in health, happiness and creativity that is improving the livelihood and productivity of those responsible for one of the most successful businesses in the world.
With forewords by Daniel Goleman, author of the international bestseller Emotional Intelligence, and Jon Kabat-Zinn, renowned mindfulness expert and author of Coming To Our Senses, Meng’s Search Inside Yourself is an invaluable guide to achieving your own best potential.
Chade-Meng Tan is an award-winning engineer, international bestselling author, thought leader, and philanthropist. He is cochair of One Billion Acts of Peace (nominated seven times for the Nobel Peace Prize) and founding chair of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute. As the former Jolly Good Fellow at Google, Meng led the creation of a groundbreaking mindfulness-based emotional intelligence course called Search Inside Yourself, which is also the title of his New York Times bestselling book. Meng delivered a TED talk on compassion at the United Nations and spoke at the White House about the development of kindness. His personal motto is, “Life is too important to be taken seriously.”
Daniel Goleman, a former science journalist for the New York Times, is the author of thirteen books and lectures frequently to professional groups and business audiences and on college campuses. He cofounded the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning at the Yale University Child Studies Center (now at the University of Illinois, at Chicago).
1 Even an Engineer Can Thrive on Emotional Intelligence 9
2 Breathing as if Your Life Depends on It 29
3 Mindfulness Without Butt on Cushion 51
4 All-Natural, Organic Self-Confidence 79
5 Riding Your Emotions like a Horse 103
6 Making Profits, Rowing Across Oceans, and Changing the World 131
7 Empathy and the Monkey Business of Brain Tangos 159
8 Being Effective and Loved at the Same Time 193
9 Three Easy Steps to World Peace 229
Epilogue Save the World in Your Free Time 239
Acknowledgments 243
Notes 249
Recommended Reading and Resources 257
Index 261ÿfl
What People are Saying About This
Jimmy Carter
“This is a book offering much good advice. I most appreciate Meng’s insight that expressing compassion for others brings happiness to oneself as well.”
Deepak Chopra
“Combining timeless wisdom with modern science, Chade-Meng Tan has created an entertaining and practical guide to success and happiness.”
Tim Ryan
“This book reveals a key part of the success of Google. Whether we are trying to create positive change in the corporate realm or our personal relationships, Meng teaches us external change can only happen if we individually spend time cultivating a better understanding our own inner world.”
Dalai Lama
Google engineer, Chade-Meng Tan’s book shows that to avoid certain kinds of results, you need to change the conditions that give rise to them. If you change the habitual patterns of your mind, you can change their resulting attitudes and emotions and find peace and inner happiness.
Larry Brilliant
“This is a guidebook to help you Search Inside Yourself, as Meng’s training program at Google was called, to find inside yourself the knowledge, skills, and motivation to apply to your own life as you search for meaning, peace, and love.”
Eric Schmidt
“This book and the course it’s based on represent one of the greatest aspects of Google’s culture—that one individual with a great idea can really change the world.”
Scott Kriens
“There is more to be discovered inside of ourselves than we will ever find by searching anywhere else, and the challenge is in learning how to look. In a simple and plain spoken way, Meng has crafted an elegant invitation we can all use to take that journey.”
Tan Yinglan
“This work underscores the need for compassion, awareness and empathy in our society. It is no surprise that the best venture capitalists and entrepreneurs I know possess these attributes. This is one of the best works ever in personal development. Read this book, it will change your life.”
Chip Conley
“Full of humor and humility, wisdom and mindfulness, Meng’s book is a compelling read, but more importantly, a valuable manual for living a good life. Rarely have I read a book full of so much intelligence and emotion. I want to be Meng when I grow up!”
Lama Surya Das
“Our friend has made an awakening contribution to this Over-Information Age. I recommend it to those aspiring self-mastery, attention training, spiritual wisdom, and the path of the wakeful life through enlightened living. Seek, and ye shall find. This is one of the best places to start.”
John Mackey
“Meng is like a wise and humorous monk who will continue to inspire you for years after you close the pages of his book. With the needs of today’s world in mind, he offers practical and proven tools wrapped in the gift of timeless wisdom.”
Tony Hsieh
“Search Inside Yourself is a practical guide to the fundamentals of emotional intelligence. This book has the potential to change lives and deliver happiness.”
George Yeo
“When I visited Qom a couple of years ago, a Grand Ayatollah gave as his parting words to me: May you find what you seek. I have long thought about what the Grand Ayatollah said. Chade Meng’s book has pointed me in the right direction.”
Laurence Freeman
“Old wisdom is presented here with a provocative and startling freshness. The way to enlightenment begins with waking up. Meng is doing this with passion, humor and generosity of mind. This is a book to read, share, laugh with and celebrate.”
S.R. Nathan
“I applaud Chade-Meng for daring to undertake the writing of a book on “Emotional Intelligence,” within which lies the essence of knowing oneself. The practices he offers will help improve our lives and in the process lead to a world where greater peace and happiness is possible.”
