From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life

Brooks has been a professional musician, the president of a think tank, and a university professor. For much of his twenties, he lived in Spain and played French horn with the City Orchestra of Barcelona, concurrently earning his bachelor’s in economics via distance learning at Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey. At 31, he ended his music career and enrolled in graduate school, obtaining a Master of Philosophy and doctorate in public policy analysis from the RAND Graduate School in California.

Brooks worked as a professor at Georgia State University and Syracuse University, becoming a full professor in 2006. In 2009, he left academia to become the president of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, a think tank in Washington, DC, that focuses on political, economic, and social issues. In 2019, he left that position to become a professor at Harvard University. At the time that this guide was written in January 2023, Brooks is the William Henry Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School and Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School. He is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates.

Since 2020, Brooks has been a columnist for Atlantic magazine, writing on topics of happiness and meaning. He hosts a podcast called How to Build a Happy Life. He is the author of 12 books, including a number on conservativism, free enterprise, and politics. His last book before From Strength to Strength was Love Your Enemies, which explored how the United States can bridge political divisiveness.

In his first stint in academia, Brooks published articles on, among other topics, giving to charitable causes. He studied the role of religion, class, and social capital on charitable giving to determine which groups of people gave the most. He looked at the effects of giving on the donors, concluding that it makes people happier. In his current teaching positions at Harvard, he focuses on management and leadership in businesses and nonprofit organizations.

As a result of researching this book, Brooks left his job at the American Enterprise Institute, a position that required fluid intelligence. He was of the age he was writing about and put his research into practice. He jumped to the second curve by returning to academia as a professor, a job that draws upon crystallized intelligence and where he can act as a mentor.