“John Sikkema was living the good life, but felt something was missing. In this provocative book, he shares his story and seven life-changing principles that will help you become the person you were created to be. Along the way, you’ll also learn how to align the work you do with the person you are, instead of the other way around. Reading Enriched could well be a turning point in your life.”
– Ken Blanchard,
Co-author of The One Minute Manager® and Great Leaders Grow

“Enriched will prove to be of great value to many people contemplating a deep desire to find more meaning and purpose in their lives, rather than that which the frantic pursuit of money and position has up to now provided them. In a culture which under-values the wisdom and experience of elders, this is a transparently honest, insight-packed and easily-read book that will help many to transform their own lives and positively impact those around them at the same time.”
– Hon John Anderson AO,
Former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia (1999-2005)

“A Remarkable story, ordinary and yet extraordinary! Many similarities to successful Asian baby boomers to making a great living but missing out on life. In “Enriched” John Sikkema combines stories of both his successes and failures, giving us insight, hope and practical wisdom to move from purely a success focus to one of significance. It will inspire you to review, renew, reconnect, reshape, re-ignite, re-invent yourself and reclaim the life you’ve always dreamed of living. One that can count for something bigger than yourself!.”
– San Wee,
Chairman of Learning Point Group, Singapore

“In Enriched, John Sikkema gives you a powerful strategic plan (blueprint) for undertaking a second-half career that is full of adventure and significance. By the time you get to the last page you will know what you need to do. I could not stop reading this book, I loved it and it hits right where MANY men and women are these days. John’s story will change lives!”
– Dean Niewolny,
CEO, Halftime, Dallas, Texas

“It is my hope that Enriched will inspire and encourage others to follow in John’s footsteps, and that each one of us will reach out and empower others in our sphere of influence to follow his example. I compliment John for his bold initiative in writing this book. It is a new and refreshing perspective that challenges the old paradigms of success and pursuit of wealth and opens our respective world-views to live purpose-driven lives.”
– David Bussau AM,
Co-founder of Opportunity International

“Reading this book is like having a conversation with a wise mentor. John Sikkema shares honestly from both his successes and failures to help you turn your career into your passion. Enriched will inspire you to do what you’ve always wanted to do with your life but didn’t think was possible. Enriched is totally new and fresh (which is hard to believe with millions of books in the world) – it is an honest, from-the-heart account guiding the reader to a new and exciting place in their calling and purpose.”
– Markus Koch,
CEO, Daniels International

“Enriched is an inspiring read. If we all pick up this responsibility to do a little or a lot within our own capacity to make the world a better place, what a great lift it will give to one’s wellbeing and self-esteem.”
– Frank Costa OAM,
Chairman of Costa Group; Former Mayor and President of Geelong Football Club, Melbourne

“In Enriched, John artfully weaves a tapestry of personal story, practical guidance and inspiring encouragement. He will help you discover what you are most passionate about and how to match that passion with the knowledge, skills and talent you have been given. If you find that appealing – if you want your life to count for something beyond the value of your portfolio or the title on your business card – you have come to the right place.”
– Bob Buford
Author of Halftime, an American Best-seller

“In Enriched, John Sikkema skilfully weaves his own remarkable story with practical wisdom to help you navigate your own journey from success to significance. This book will challenge and encourage many people who have had great careers but want to do more than just make a living. John points the way towards a life filled with meaning, purpose and adventure.”
– Tim Costello AO
CEO World Vision Australia

“In offices and workplaces everywhere there are young people who are asking how do I integrate my passion for making the world a better place into my work? They expect their workplace to offer them the opportunity to do it now, not to put it off until they are further advanced in their career. Having been a judge in the Australian Financial Review’s Young Executive of the Year awards I know many young executives earnestly desire to lead lives which make a difference. This book, with John’s candid personal story, is helpful to both those starting their career and those who have been in business many years, to help us recognise when we are at important decision points in our lives and the consequences of the choices we make.”
– Wendy Simpson
Chairman Springboard Enterprises

“Life is an adventure and Enriched is the best kind of adventure story. It’s funny, it’s poignant, it’s insightful, it’s real and it’s a great read. What are the factors that make for a great life? What are the attitudes and mindsets that make it possible to not only achieve goals in life but allow you to do so with your integrity intact, your wife still in love with you, your children proud of their Dad, and your own heart satisfied that you have made your years count for something of value? That’s where John Sikkema takes us in this book. I commend it to you.”
– Dr Allan Meyer
Co-founder Careforce Lifekeys

“John Sikkema shares in Enriched how he discovered that living his life for others was the key to living his own thrilling adventure. His business success became a precursor to a life full of meaning and fulfillment that is far more important than financial reward. There are many valuable lessons we can all learn from these pages that we can apply to create our own daring adventure doing what we are called to do.”
– Kevin Bailey
Head of Philanthropic Services, Shadforth Financial Group

“At some point in every person’s life journey, questions about the meaning and purpose of life emerge. John Sikkema in Enriched has navigated this important territory well and is an excellent guide for us. This book is full of wisdom and insight. Highly recommended!”
– Mark Conner
Senior Pastor, CityLife Church, Melbourne

“Do you ever get the feeling that there’s something “better” out there for you? There is! In Enriched, John Sikkema shares his own remarkable story with brutal honesty and offers practical guidance to help you navigate your own journey. Conventional wisdom says work hard, save your money and you’ll have a great retirement. John tosses a hand grenade into this conventional wisdom and shows us a new way to live. A must-read – if you follow John’s advice in this book, your life and others’ lives will never be the same.”
– Jossy Chacko
Founder and President of Empart Inc.

“I wish this book had been around when I was starting my career and then later when I was building my own business. It would have saved me from inflicting considerable pain caused to my family during those years of single-minded focus on business, before learning what I now know to be true about my real purpose. This book ought to be required reading for every young professional.”
– Terry Winters
Company Director and Entrepreneur, Melbourne

“What an incredible book. Successful CEO, John Sikkema, tells his story – of the hurdles and challenges he faced that brought him to the brink of losing the most significant things/people in his life. In doing so, he redefined wealth. This is a must read!”
– Glenn Williams
CEO, Outward Looking International

“If you are looking for purpose and meaning in what you do, John Sikkema’s story will enlighten and surprise, in how one man dealt with this dilemma. There are many insights that will definitely challenge the notion of ‘what is important and what is priority.’ (This story is for them.) John’s storytelling and personal experiences will not only keep you reading, it will leave you with the question. ‘so what does this mean for me and those closest to me?’”
– Dr. Lindsay McMillan OAM
Managing Director, Converge International

Since I wrote Halftime in 1994, something of a movement has emerged in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of men in their mid-forties and beyond – and an increasing number of women – have discovered that the very best and most fulfilling years of their life are ahead of them. I call it the ‘second half’. Unlike our great grandfathers, whose life expectancy was around fifty years, today’s forty-year-old can expect another entire lifetime – thirty to forty years – of healthy, productive living. And whereas the generation previous to my own looked forward to retirement, most of us see nothing particularly attractive about terminal leisure.

At the same time, however, we generally have found that pursuing our work solely for the sake of success or increased wealth offers diminishing returns. As many successful people have discovered, growing your net worth may gain you more money, but it doesn’t give you a life. And the thrill of the chase that sustained us in our twenties and thirties no longer delivers what we thought it promised. It’s not that hard work and contributing to your profession are wrong. It’s just that at some point in the first half of your life you begin asking questions:

How much is enough?

Is this what I want to be doing for the rest of my life?

In all that I am gaining, what am I missing?

The inner desire to move from making a living to making a difference is universal in the developed world. It is what opened John Sikkema’s heart to a still, small voice that told him he could not go on living as he was, and because he had the courage to listen and make some ‘mid-course corrections’ in his life, he’s well into a productive, adventurous second half.

As am I. In fact, I am now in the third decade of my second half and still have no plans to retire. Instead, I’m still working on things that provide immeasurable significance for me because they relate directly to my life mission. When I took over my family’s cable television business, my goal was to make money, and we did. Lots of it. And although I look back fondly at my first-half years, I can honestly say I am having more fun and experiencing more fulfilment in my second half.

And so can you. In Enriched, John artfully weaves a 
tapestry of personal story, practical guidance and inspiring encouragement. He will help you discover what you are most passionate about and how to match that passion with the knowledge, skills and talent you have been given. If you find that appealing – if you want your life to count for something beyond the value of your portfolio or the title on your business card – you have come to the right place.
As a good friend and recovering venture capitalist once said to me, “People have it backwards. Most people worry about what they will sacrifice in the second half. The sacrifice is in the first half – the travel, the stress, the triviality of so much of it. The second half is where the real joy is.”

In John’s case, he found his life was enriched by investing in others so that they could become more successful. That’s where he found “real joy.” With his help, you are about to discover your own source of joy.

– Bob Buford,
Author of Halftime, an American Best-seller

This foreword is included in the Free Sample Chapter.

Immediately after I had completed my role as CEO of our financial planning group, the phone began ringing. “Would you come and speak at our conference?” Or, “We’d love to have you lead a seminar for our organisation.”
Word had spread about how I had succeeded in building such a fast-growing and successful national company from Hobart, a provincial city on the island state 
of Tasmania.

The attendees of these seminars were mostly owners of small businesses. After I had spoken, several would approach me and ask if I would be available to coach them on an ongoing basis. Because so many were located in different cities all over Australia, I had to say no to most of them.

For those who I did help, we often spent a half or whole day in a strategic planning session. I would usually meet with these business owners in their boardrooms and have a great time brainstorming and roughing out a plan to take their business to the next level over the next one to three years. The meetings invariably ended on a high note, as they now saw a constructive way to move forward.

But I would finish with one last question: “Do you have a plan for your own personal life, distinct from your business?” Silence, followed by, “Not really.”

Then I discovered a very interesting truth.

As I probed deeper, asking them about their families and aspirations, they would suddenly get very passionate about their personal dreams, which had been put on hold while they pursued the ‘business’ of building wealth and attaining success. What seemed to really matter to them had been buried in their subconscious or given a low priority because life had become too busy. You could say they were rich on paper, but their lives were not yet enriched by a sense of purpose and meaning.

I myself was nearly a casualty of this type of business and financial success by doing the opposite – that is, trying to somehow make my life-purpose fit my business goals. It seems silly now, but back then it appeared to be a normal path to take.

During those one-on-one business coaching sessions, we often needed to double-back and modify the business plan so that it became more aligned with their personal dreams and aspirations. This was what I had personally and painfully discovered in my own life through a series of events that got my attention. Ultimately, it led me to redefine wealth and make the transition from simply being rich to having an enriched life.

I traced the birth of my second half career out of this simple market research conducted with these men and women who sought my advice. And ultimately these conversations provided the motivation to produce something bigger – this book.

Over the last few decades there have been an enormous number of leadership books written, most of which provide ideas, methods, formulas and experiences on 
how to become more successful in business. I have personally benefited from reading and applying the principles from many of these books in my own life and business. I am forever grateful to these authors, as 
I would not be where I am today without their books and the ideas they convey. The exceptional ones have been catalysts to help me make important paradigm shifts: E Myth by Michael Gerber, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, Good to Great by Jim Collins and Maverick by Ricardo Semler. However, the more success I achieved in my business, the more challenges I encountered. Much to my frustration, I could not find the answers to some of these important challenges in the usual business success books.

My aim in writing Enriched is to share the answers 
I discovered to those questions that were unanswered in the success books I had read. I hope this book will also help you experience transformation in your life as I did in mine.
I now devote the majority of my time to encouraging others to discover their life-purpose, and with that clarity help them develop a plan to achieve it. By most standards, these people are already ‘successful’. Many are running a thriving business or are in the middle of a remarkable career. But they all have this vague sense that something is missing; life hasn’t turned out exactly as they had hoped it would. So I help them refocus and develop a plan to align their business or career to their 
life-purpose.

The results have been liberating, transformational and truly amazing.

Few things make me happier than seeing someone ‘get it’, and then make the necessary changes that deliver a life that is far more exciting and fulfilling than the one they had previously. If you are open to some unconventional thinking and have the desire and tenacity to apply the principles I outline in this book, you too can know what it’s like to reclaim the life you’ve always dreamed of living.

John Sikkema,
Melbourne, July 2012

This introduction is included in the Free Sample Chapter.

Free Sample Chapter (PDF)