DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--When people meet Rugger Burke for the first time, they tend to associate him with words like “purposeful,” “calm,” and “present”—but it hasn’t always been that way. In part, his presence is the result of a practice, one set out in his new book describing a journey of transformation. “The Power of 10: A Practice of Engaging Your Voice of Wisdom” was released on Oct. 6, 2015.
Flip the calendar back five years to the day Burke stepped onto a sailboat to join a captain, his wife, and one other crew member to sail across the Pacific. Looking for a break from life, Burke sought relief in sailing away from it all. The preceding 18 months had provided a trifecta of psychological stressors: a career change, his mother’s battle with cancer, and, most important, the end of his marriage. “There were days I could barely get out of bed,” says Burke. The once high-flying lawyer had reached a crossroads.
Until then, his focus had been on building and achieving—acquiring one more thing or climbing to the next level. He lived the mantra: work hard and success will follow. Of course, this strategy works until it doesn't. While Burke was winning the game of law (high-profile clients, big cases) and money (nice house, expensive cars, incredible vacations), he was losing the game of life. Aiming at success, he found satisfaction eluding him.
Burke puts it this way: “You see, success is all about I, me, my. The prize for winning is being alone; you have to beat everyone else. Imagine a footrace. Instead of jogging along in conversation or admiring the scenery, you only have one thing in mind: be first to the finish line. It's not even run as fast as you can. It's only about winning.”
When his wife filed for divorce, everything else in his life fell away. It was time to make a change.
That process began with a trip to a cabin in Oklahoma. There, alone on New Year’s Day in the middle of a blinding snowstorm, he penned what would become the resolutions he would live by, ones that later became the basis for the advocacies in the book. The goal: to begin living with positive intention rather than living in avoidance (i.e., living in fear of failure or rejection). The next step was to put those resolutions into action through facing down his most basic fears: the ocean, sharks, and loss of control. It was the beginning of a journey that would change his life.
Over the weeks at sea, he contemplated the course of his life and, more broadly, all our lives. What is the source of real happiness? How can you have both success and satisfaction? And maybe most important, how can you learn to make the right choices—ones leading to that life? The result is the book that follows.
Burke quit the practice of law. He now sits on various boards, works with leaders, and co-leads a private investment firm dedicated to creating, funding, and inspiring businesses that elevate humanity.
