About Laurence Boldt

For over three decades, author Laurence Boldt has been helping people to live their dreams, through his work as a writer, speaker, and career consultant. He is the author of five books, including the bestselling career classic Zen and the Art of Making a Living. This groundbreaking work has been credited by many with revolutionizing the career field, offering a new a vision of work and a new technology of vocational guidance. Boldt's other books include the bestselling How to Find the Work You Love, The Tao of Abundance, Zen Soup and How to Be, Do or Have Anything.

Today, three of Boldt's books are used as graduate-level course texts at leading public and private universities across the country. His books appear on the required and recommended reading lists of such prestigious institutions as Columbia Business School, USC Marshall School of Business, and the Yale Law School. His books have won praise in articles and reviews from such diverse publications as Newsweek, Mademoiselle, Selling, Business Ethics, African Business, Sales and Marketing Management, Publisher’s Weekly, New Age Journal, Common Boundary, and The Simple Living Journal. Laurence Boldt is a leading interpreter of Eastern philosophy to the modern West. His book The Tao of Abundance was recognized as one of the top ten books in Eastern religion in 1999 by the editors of Amazon.com.

Laurence has appeared on hundreds of radio shows and television programs across the nation. An in-demand motivational speaker, Boldt has given seminars, workshops, and lectures for leading business, nonprofit, and educational organizations. He has designed curricula for high school and college courses and corporate training programs. As young man, Laurence completed a forty-day fast. Today, he enjoys writing poetry, reading, meditating, and spending time in nature. An avid backpacker, he has hiked the length of the John Muir Trail.

What People Are Saying

Zen and the Art of Making a Living

“Work is more than a matter of keeping busy all day. It must feed the soul as well. Laurence Boldt has done a splendid job of explaining this truth. I commend Zen and the Art of Making a Living to all thoughtful readers and seekers.”

—Richard N. Bolles,

author of What Color is Your Parachute?

[Zen and the Art of Making a Living] is "upbeat, down-to-earth, and practical. . . . The best part of Boldt's accomplishment is that it doesn't strike any phony notes."

—Milton Moskowitch, coauthor of

The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America

"Zen and the Art of Making a Living is one hell of a book. I [feel] that [it] really challenges What Color Is Your Parachute? for leadership in the career field. Nice Job!"

—Daniel Lauber, author of

Non-Profit & Education Job Finder

President, Planning Communications

"Zen and the Art of Making a Living has been, for many years, a treasured and often referred to addition to my very selective library. It is that rare combination of the inspirational and the practical."

—Dick Richards,  author of

Artful Work and  Is Your Genius at Work?

"After fifteen years, 4,000 clients and authorship of my own career counseling program, this is simply the best book in its field that I have ever seen! I have reviewed almost all career counseling books, programs and strategies available. None is better than Zen and the Art of Making a Living."

—Jim Fritz, V.P. Program Development 

Access Influential, Inc.

How to Find the Work You Love

“In, How to Find the Work You Love Boldt teaches you how to proactively take control of your career by setting your feet in the direction you've always wanted to go. Life then becomes a mission, not a burden; a contribution, not a cage of unmet dreams.”

—Stephen Covey, author of

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

"Once again Laurence Boldt gives us the tools we need to live our passion, follow our true work, and make our living in harmony with our true spiritual path."

—Michael Toms, co-founder New Dimensions Radio,

co-author of True Work: Doing What You Love

and Loving What You Do

"How to Find the Work You Love provides a thoughtful context for reflecting on the deeper meaning and purpose of work."

—Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin,

authors of Your Money or Your Life

"This thin self-help manual provides an elegantly simple approach to defining what you want from life and work. Clear your mind to consider the author's provocative, introspective questions, and you will likely walk away with new insights and ideas to rebuild your career."

—Richard Leider, author of The Power of Purpose

The Tao of Abundance

"The Tao of Abundance is not just another 'get rich without losing your soul' book. The abundance Boldt eloquently speaks of isn't material but spiritual or psychological: it's the experience of living in accord with nature—a challenging lifelong quest. Boldt offers a smart, radical understanding of how quiet ageold wisdom can help us survive our frantic consumerist society with sanity, grace, even leisure."

—Ernest Callenbach, author of Ecotopia

"The Tao of Abundance is recommended reading for anyone searching for a personal definition of enough."

—Vicki Robin, co-author Your Money or Your Life

Zen Soup

"Laurence G. Boldt's Zen Soup is a collection of quotations from philosophers, religious teachers, and wandering sages. Boldt, the author of Zen and the Art of Making a Living, has organized this collection around 25 qualities associated with Zen principles including be here now, beginner's mind, joy, discipline, wonder, mindfulness, and enlightenment. The spirit of Zen ripples through these quotations, such as Joshua Holland's thought: "There is no royal road to anything. One thing at a time, and all things in succession. That which grows slowly endures."

—Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

 "Author of Zen and the Art of Making a Living, Boldt serves up a potful of delicious bits and pieces to help make living an art. "If Zen is telling us anything, it is to be here now, to live in this moment." Get out of the mind and into direct experience. This book is full of placards to mark the way that is no way. From Joseph Campbell, T. S. Eliot, Anaos Nin, D. T. Suzuki, Ram Dass, J. Krishnamurti, Meher Baba, Black Elk, Albert Einstein, Hakuin, Meister Eckhart, Eleanor Roosevelt, and others, Boldt has collected the nuts and cracked the shells and gathered the tastiest of nutmeats into chapters: beginner's mind, courage, be yourself, creativity, humor, discipline, wonder, selfless service, letting go, everyday Zen. . . . A few paragraphs introduce each course. Savor or gulp, but whatever you do, enjoy."

—Anita Manuel,  R.R. Bowker LLC.

How to Be, Do, or Have Anything

"A powerful resource for creating the life you have always dreamed of."

—Jack Canfield, coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul

and author of The Success Principles

"How To Be, Do, or Have Anything by Laurence G. Boldt is one of the best books I have ever read and that I have seen written in the area of achieving your personal goals in life. I believe that it is one of the best books on the market. Laurence has done a great job of explaining clearly and in detail how you can really achieve your dreams in life. It is an excellent book and I would highly recommend it."

—Norman Barlow, Ph.D.

"After a thorough review of Laurence Boldt's book, How to Be, Do, or Have Anything, I must say I wish I could make it required reading in our country's school system as well as throughout the offices of corporate America. Having worked as a counselor and teacher for the last 27 years, I can't honestly say I've ever come across any better resource to help people take control of their destiny. Boldt's book beautifully and powerfully inspires action, and then backs up the encouragement and inspiration with solid, grounding tools to use in actually getting on with those actions in our lives. This book can be used by "already successful" and "still struggling" people alike, unlike so many other self-coaching books that, without admitting it, require a fat wallet to implement all of their suggestions for a better life. How to Be, Do or Have Anything is a solid, undiluted, down-to-earth helping of fortitude and strength. I wish every man woman and child could get a copy into their hands and read it cover to cover. If they did, I'd probably have to find another line of work. Thank you, Laurence Boldt, for a job well done!"

—John Anderson,

New York, NY