The Power of Regret

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For our first book selection, I would love to introduce you to Daniel Pink. If you have not had the pleasure of reading one of his many books, this might be the ONE that will get you started.

The Power of Regret (How looking backward moves us forward)

Are you one of those people that fully live their lives? Nothing to lose, no regrets. Well, Daniel Pink says that there is no such thing as having no regrets and that if you truly understand this you can better live a life well-lived.

His books are a blend of study, research, provoking discussions, interviews, and practical take aways that will leave you wanting more. This is by no means a long book at 214 pages (not including a substantial notes sections providing you with more information and references to the work). If you are already tempted to get another one of his creations, I would HIGHLY suggest DRIVE or WHEN which I have read before to an equal amount of satisfaction.

What I like the most about Daniel Pink is that he takes the regular everyday topic and makes you and his audience look at it in a different way. After reading the Power of Regret, I caught myself doing a bit of an inventory on my own list of regrets and imagining “what if?”, if only for a moment.

One thing that I wanted to touch upon here was through his World Regret Survey, where he interviewed over 16,000 individuals in 105 countries, came the concept of us having four (4) core regrets:

• foundation regrets: which are at the basis of our lives (education, health, finance…). He also refers to these as platform regrets.
• boldness regrets: regretting the path not taken, the chances not pursued…
• moral regrets: those are formed based on key decisions usually directing us towards a wrong course.

• connection regrets: those that occur over time as we neglect the people with whom we have connections or relationships.

One last section you will not want to miss: What to do with your regrets. No, no hints from me. Sorry, I won’t spoil your reading with anymore insights.

—Sylvie Edwards

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