In this book, you will find the life stories of eight men, elders in their communities, who have achieved what would be seen as a very significant degree of success in their chosen professions, be it sport, finance, corporate management, academia, the media, the law or medicine. Looking at these lives by the standards of our striving and competitive world, these men would be regarded as ‘having made it’, and others certainly aspire to reach the same pinnacles of eminence that these eight men pursued with the choices in their lives.

But these eight stories are cautionary tales, not narratives of unabashed triumphs. The costs of their apparent success have been great, as each of them lost what most mattered to them, their true being, in its pursuit. Each of the eight lives is very different, as each man faced different challenges and opportunities, but what unites them all is the drive to achieve success in this world to bring comfort and security and, most importantly, recognition into their lives in order to soothe the pain they all felt at turning their backs on their true being as young boys.