Book News: Paperback coming out March 11, 2025
The Answer is You: A Guidebook to Creating a Life Full of Impact, paperback edition is coming out March 11, 2025!
You are very welcome to order the hard cover if you prefer or pre-order a paperback copy on Bookshop.org, Barnes&Noble, Amazon, Indigo - so many choices!
What has changed since the hard cover of this book came out in April 2022?
I started writing the proposal for this book in the depths of the pandemic. By the time the hardcover came out, we were just emerging from the worst of it.
Unfortunately, why I wrote this book, to help everyone get in the game of solving world challenges, and live lives full of impact, seems more relevant than ever. I say unfortunately, because as I write this, entire neighborhoods of Los Angeles are burning to the ground, a clear signal to all that climate change is accelerating and exacerbating natural disasters. Since the pandemic, further wars and displacement have wrecked the lives of many across the world. And in the US, one in five children lives in food insecure households, a figure that has only crept up since the end of pandemic-era benefits.
Where do I find hope in all of this? In each and every one of you. The book is an invitation to use your superpowers—your skills and experience, to do good in the world and help solve the challenges facing your communities.
We need you and we need everyone to get in the game.
Things in my life have changed, and partly owing to this book. I have left MIT Solve in the very capable hands of my successor Hala Hanna, who you first get to meet in Chapter Five. I now serve as the President and CEO of Newman’s Own Foundation, whose mission is to nourish and transform the lives of children who face adversity. While the book centers a lot on people I had met through MIT Solve, I had in fact written a paragraph about Newman’s Own’s unique business model in this book, at the end of Chapter Five. That was years before I was even interviewed for the job!
For the book, I interviewed 21 social entrepreneurs, activists, and changemakers from all around the world, ranging from Afghanistan, Nigeria, the Navajo Nation, and more. One was 16 when I interviewed her, one has grandchildren, a good half are Solver teams from m time at MIT Solve but I did not want it to be just about tech-based social entrepreneurs, so there are many others as well. The biggest thank you to all of these incredible problem-solvers who accepted to spend time on Zoom with me sharing their success, trials, tribulations, doubts, and more so that I could showcase their impact and their work.
First and foremost, I hope you will find their stories, their passion, their superpowers and their continual search for a solution to a problem that robbed their sleep, inspiring and fascinating.
But this is also a book for you and for all of those who are (or are looking to start) in the hard business of creating a life full of impact. Throughout these stories, I intersperse my own advice and frameworks. Through these, I am hoping to give you a sense of how to think about your own superpowers, the problems that resonate with you, your purpose, powers, privilege, and more so that you too can get started or continue living a life full of impact, whether that is through your career, your volunteering, your giving, and more.
I hope you find it helpful–because overall, as per the title: The Answer is You.
We will only solve the biggest challenges of our time: injustice, inequality, and the climate crisis if we all get in the game, and do the best we can to change its unfair rules. I would love your thoughts and feedback if you get a chance to read all or part of it!
The good news is that if you do buy this book, 50% of the net profits I make will go towards some of the organizations who are featured in the book as well as Solve Innovation Future the philanthropic investment vehicle of MIT Solve.
I would also love your thoughts and ideas on marketing as my publisher and I think this through, notably do please write in your ideas on:
Book clubs and book stores you like who might be interested
Relevant speaker series, conferences, corporate employee events, student clubs, or other venues who you think would like to host a talk
Journalists / bloggers / newsletter owners / ‘influencers’ I should get in touch with in the hope that they review or write about the book
Fun and creative ways to market whether in-person, virtual, on social media and more
If you want to be involved somehow – e.g. you want to host a mini-book party at your house or work, you want to start a discussion group with your friends, you want to write a review on Amazon or on your own newsletter, all most appreciated!
Unfortunately, the book is not going to market it itself (I am not after all an Obama or Stephen King) but I wrote it because I hope it will be useful and engage those who are or want to get started in using their talent and ingenuity to better the world, so all you can do to help is most appreciated.
With immense gratitude,
Alex Amouyel.
