The successful careerist may find that the darkness embroiled at his centre is the part that wishes to fail in order to open other neglected parts of his life; when he becomes his failure he no longer has to carry that career success as a burden. He can explore avenues that he previously might have labelled under that dreaded organizational swamp-dwelling monster, failure.

Having discovered David Whyte through his reciting of Lost, a beautiful poem, I enjoyed reading his poetry when I stumbled into this book. You see, other than being a poet, David Whyte has also worked as a corporate coach, so he knows a thing or two about corporate work. So much so that he wrote a book about our over identification with work and resulting soul loss. The book is full of beautiful ideas and quotes, the one above really made sense to me — only after I allowed myself to let go of the corporate dream illusion and identity that I feel I finally found myself.

When you do wake, you are rousing a different part of you, a barely experienced life that lies at your core. Having forgotten this central soul experience, you do not recognize where you are. To the part of you that loved your sleep, it feels as if it is waking in the dark. It appears to be lost.