Vitaliy Katsenelson - Soul in the Game: The Art of a Meaningful Life

Soul in the Game: The Art of a Meaningful Life

Vitaliy Katsenelson

A fascinating, often amusing, occasionally jarring journey just like life itself. Vitaliy Katsenelsons Soul in the Game is one of those much-needed reminders that although we have no control over when were born or when well die, we are the architects of how we live.

General Stanley McChrystal, Author, Risk: A Users Guide

Vitaliy knows how to tell a story. This book reads like a conversation with Vitaliy: deep, insightful, inquisitive and civilized.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Author, The Black Swan

Soul in the Game is a beautiful way to search for the lost value of happiness, strength and health.

Wim Hof, The Iceman, Author, The Wim Hof Method

Wow! This is surprisingly good. Honestly I was suspicious (why should I listen to a money guy talk about life?) but I liked it a lot! Vitaliy brings an insightful, fresh perspective to the question of how to live life. He is caring and considerate, with a really engaging writing style.

Derek Sivers, Author, How To Live

Vitaliy Katsenelson has been singled out by financial media for his brilliant investment strategies, but perhaps even more impressive are his philosophical writings. Soul in the Game is no ordinary self-help tome. Ive never read anything quite like it: a collection of wonderful observations and insights about Vitaliys native Russia (he emigrated to the US in the 1990s), parenting, living one day at a time, and especially creativity: in business, classical music, and art. Vitaliys life is an integrated one, from which we can all draw some surprising and (like his investment approach) contrarian notions. This book is worth anyones time.

Carl Bernstein, Author, All the Presidents Men

Touching, honest and insightful its hard to put this down.

Morgan Housel, Author, The Psychology of Money

Vitally has captured much of the awe I hold for composer creators and he uses that insight to offer positive, constructive steps for us today who want to live life to the fullest.

Marin Alsop, Music Director Laureate, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

The best investment you can make is an investment in yourself and in your relationships. Vitaliys book is a big step forward in that direction. A must read!

Gautam Baid, Founder, Stellar Wealth Partners, and Author, The Joys of Compounding

Soul in the Game is a wonderful compilation of cogent observations and life strategies, derived from the authors unique personal journey. From classical music to the Classics themselves, Vitaliy Katsenelson both educates and inspires.

Jim Chanos, President, Kynikos Associates

A wise and irreverent narrative, replete with humor, life lessons and philosophical insights, which amply demonstrates that being a successful investor and a compelling writer are not mutually exclusive.

Leon G. Cooperman, Chairman and CEO, Omega Family Office

A treasure trove full of bite-sized actionable wisdom.

Rolf Dobelli, Author, The Art of Thinking Clearly

Vitaliy Katsenelsons engagingly readable life-a-log, Soul in the Game, parses so many spirits it will benefit most everyone. Wisdom, life-long learning, human capital, struggles, music composers, immigrant life, philosophy, family life, stoicism and so much more presents for everyone in 76 enjoyable bite sized bursts. Have fun!

Ken Fisher, New York Times Bestselling Author, Global columnist, and Founder & Executive Chairman, Fisher Investments

I thought it would take me a week to read the book, but when I started I could not stop and finished it in a day! After reading, I feel like I have spent one day of my life together with Vitaliy conversing with him through his warm words. His writing style is entertaining and at the same time it engages with the mind of the reader, making you think deeply about your own life. In every chapter, in every sentence and word, you can feel Vitaliy really put his SOUL into it.

Hctor Garca, Bestselling Author, IKIGAI, and A Geek in Japan

Soul in the Game is impossible to categorize. It is part memoir and part self-help book; it is part philosophy and partly about parenting; it is partly a book about writing, music history, and art appreciation. In the end, it is nothing less than a manual on how to live a good and meaningful life and achieve those most elusive and yet desirable of all states: balance and self-mastery. This book has changed me, and it will change you as well.

Robert Greenberg, Composer, and Author, How to Listen to Great Music

Part eclectic autobiography of a diverse life, part endorsement of critical thinking, part investing principles, and part how-to guide on how to be a complete human. Soul in the Game is always interesting, often funny, and at times profound.

Greg Maffei, CEO, Liberty Media

Vitaliy Katsenelsons craft is investing, his art is writing and his passion is to live a meaningful life. All are abundantly in evidence in Soul in the Game. Part memoir, part meditation, part self-help, with mini courses on Stoic philosophy and classical music, this book is personal, quirky, and marvelous. Invest some time with Vitaliy and you will be richer for it.

Bill Miller, CIO, Chairman and Portfolio Manager, Miller Value Funds

Vitaliy Katsenelsons book is a delight to read and contains a great deal of sound advice, including some nice tips on applying Stoicism in daily life.

Donald Robertson, Author, How to Think Like a Roman Emperor

Superb guidance on how to unravel whats really important in life. Theres a gem of wisdom in each short, snappy chapter.

Professor Jeremy J. Siegel, Professor of Finance, Wharton School, and Author, Stocks for the Long Run

From Murmansk, Russia to Denver, USA. When Vitaliy Katsenelson immigrated to the United States from Communist Russia he had plenty of Skin in the Game. Now, a couple of decades later he has even more Soul in the Game. Katsenelson is a learning machine and is on the road to somewhere. Hes going places. This book is his story. His life journey. You will be inspired. Congratulations Vitaliy on your latest (and best book). Like your mother, you might have been born in Russia, but you were made in America!

Guy Spier, Author, The Education of a Value Investor

Vitaliy is a gem and Soul in the Game is a rare read worth relishing. I first met Vitaliy as a fan appreciating his value investing writing, became a colleague appreciating his valued investment ideas, and then became a friend appreciating and learning from how he finds virtue and values in family, fatherhood, and more. Taking threads from markets, music, art, philosophy, personal history, and universal humanity he weaves a tapestry worthy of kings and teaches us how to go long the scarcest asset of all: making meaning.

Josh Wolfe, Founding Partner & Managing Director, Lux Capital

To Jonah, Hannah, and Mia Sarah. Because you dont read my emails.

If someone had suggested a decade ago that I would write a book that had nothing to do with value investing, I would have laughed. Even after writing two books on investing, I thought of myself as an investor who thinks through writing, not a writer. I preferred to leave that stuff to professionals the Dostoevskys and Hemingways and stick to what I knew best: value investing.

However, over the years, I brought life stories about my childhood, my kids, and classical music as supporting actors (often as analogies) onto the main stage of my writing about investing. Kids change you; the realization of your mortality changes you and writing changes you. It was just a matter of time before these life stories wanted to grow out of their supporting roles into lead roles.