Russell Benaroya - One Life to Lead: Business Success Through Better Life Design

With the pace of change, societal divisiveness, technological advances, and innumerable daily pulls on our time, it certainly can seem as if our lives are completely out of our control. In Russell Benaroyas timely book, One Life to Lead, he reminds us of the untapped and brilliant potential within each of our lives. Russell challenges us to clarify what matters most, embrace what we can influence, let go of all we cant, and be far more intentional in designing a life of true success. Read this book. Thank me later!

John OLeary, #1 national bestselling author of On Fire and In Awe

A successful life and career, I believe, require both an external and internal journey. In this book Russell shares his novel approach to designing both trips. The hard-earned insights captured in his five steps, reflect the humility it took to really get to know himself and the courage it required to translate his potential into action.

Harry Strachan, former professor at Harvard Business School and director emeritus at Bain & Company

As an investor in thousands of start-ups through Techstars, Ive seen time and time again the difference that effective leadership can make in the entrepreneurial journey. One Life to Lead perfectly captures the essential but often unspoken ingredients necessary for great leadership in ones own life as a prerequisite to leading others.

David Cohen, cofounder and chairman at Techstars

Russell Benaroya has done the impossible here. He lays out a specific plan for how to design the life you want to live, the life you deserve to livecovering work, family, and relationshipswith a simple-to-understand, comprehensive framework. He doesnt try to convince you by talking from on high, but rather by exposing his deepest vulnerabilities and sharing how not getting it right led to his own understanding and insight. Everyone can learn something important from this book, and I am going to start recommending it to people I care about tomorrow.

Greg Gottesman, cofounder and managing director, Pioneer Square Labs

With One Life to Lead Russell Benaroya helps us sidestep the oppressive and useless expectations many of us waste decades trying to exceed and move toward a path of curiosity, joy, humility, and purpose. He guides us to real success that we can feel and emanate. I could have used this book twenty years ago, and I am grateful for it now.

Henry Albrecht, CEO, Limeade (a publicly traded global well-being company)

The introduction of One Life to Lead gives us some important clues about what we are about to read. Russell Benaroyas vulnerability about his own life, both personal and professional, draws the reader in to want to learn more about what has worked, (and not worked) for him in his life. A major takeaway for me was to not compromise our core principles. They carry us to the success we all look for. His step by step approach on how to live a good life is straight forward and applicable for everyone.

Greg Campbell author of The Surprising Power of the Coil and The 5-2-1 Principle, former EVP of Coldwell Banker

Russell Benaroya is approaching superhuman status. There are few individuals in the world who come even close to combining Russells unique mix of ultraendurance athlete, successful entrepreneur and CEO, author, and coachall of which are integrated with his authentic care and appreciation for others. I try to learn from him as much as I can. In One Life to Lead, Russell distills real-world lessons into a plan that any leader can follow to design an ideal life and career. I especially recommend this book to anyone who is navigating a work-life transition. If this is you, read this book first! It will provide the foundation and insight to make your most important decisions with high confidence and wisdom. When youre at your best, doing what you are truly called to do, then you and your family benefit, your business benefits, and we all benefit. So invest in yourself by reading One Life to Lead. It is sure to pay priceless dividends for many years to come.

Lex Sisney, author of Organizational Physics and Designed to Scale

The pandemic. It conjures up thoughts and observations, insights and emotions. For me, I am increasingly observing how it has prompted many including myself to stop, take stock, and question whats next? Russell Benaroya has written a timely book that profiles entrepreneurs on their journeys of self-reflection through the lens of his five steps of life design. Applicable not only to entrepreneurs, this model can be applied to corporate executives, nonprofit volunteers, and anyone who has hit the pause button to reflect on what next.

Deanna Oppenheimer, founder, CameoWorks and BoardReady

Russell has stepped into his genius zone in One Life to Lead. He has provided a road map for leaders to navigate their own ups and downs on the journey toward architecting great lives and successful organizations.

Chris Winfield, cofounder of Super Connector Media, entrepreneur and productivity wizard

We do indeed only have ONE LIFE! I loved how Russell encapsulated insights from his own experience as well as the experiences of several others into an easy-to-follow framework and highly engaging book. Its a book that will deliver immense value every time you pick it up to read.

Nitya Kirat, founder of YOSD Consulting and author of Winning Virtually

Copyright 2021 Russell Benaroya
All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Published by Shemoto Press, Seattle, Washington
www.russellbenaroya.com

Edited and designed by Girl Friday Productions
www.girlfridayproductions.com

Cover and interior design: Rachel Marek
Project management: Sara Spees Addicott
Editorial: Bethany Davis
Interior images created by Tamta Kondzharia

ISBN (paperback): 978-1-7370739-0-1
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-7370739-1-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021912017

For my wife and fellow adventurer, Melissa. We built a fence around our partnership to design our life.

There comes a time in the life of individuals when it is appropriate to questionto reflect and search for purpose and meaning in their existence. This is particularly true of those who may have enjoyed some measure of success in their chosen profession or field. There is no end to the supply of books written by business leaders and entrepreneurs about their epiphanies as they try, in retrospect, to better understand their own journey and, of course, to provide prescriptions to others on how to design a more complete and fulfilling life.

The best reflections involve serious introspection and sometimes painful effort to confront the reality of ones existence. The quest to dig deeply into the organization of ones lifeall of itboth personal and professional, takes lots of courage, humility, and self-confidence. To look inside of a life well lived is complex and not easy to do in a deep and thoughtful way. And then to think that your story, your lessons and insights, should be shared with the world is, well, presumptuous. Who are you anyway?