An interview with David Brooks on if you need to achieve your life goals before serving others, why commitment is the key to a meaningful life, how to overcome loneliness, why attachment is more important than freedom and his best career advice.

Welcome to the 30th episode of 5 Questions with Dan Schawbel. As your host, my goal is to curate the best advice from the world’s smartest and most interesting people by asking them just 5 questions.

This episodes guest:

My guest today is New York Times op-ed columnist and bestselling author, David Brooks. Born in Toronto, Ontario, he spent his childhood in New York City and then Philadelphia. In 1983, he graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in history. During school, he wrote reviews and satirical articles to campus publications. Upon graduation, he was the police reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago, which influenced his conservative political views. Then, he was an intern at the National Review. When that ended he spent time at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and wrote movie reviews for The Washington Times. Two years later, The Wall Street Journal hired him to edit the book review section. In 2000, Brooks penned his first book called Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There. In 2003, he became an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times. Since then, he has written several other books including his latest, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life, which we’ll be discussing in this episode.

The 5 questions questions I ask in this episode:

Do we have to achieve personal goals before serving others?
Why is commitment the key to creating a meaningful life?
What’s the best way to overcome loneliness?
Why should we choose attachment over personal freedom?
What is your best piece of career advice?

Follow David’s journey:

Episode 30: David Brooks