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Stories can unite people around a shared experience.

Losing a family member or a close friend can be isolating. But is there a chance to transform a personal tragedy into an opportunity to grow and make a positive impact on others?

Ian Ziskin ‘80, an executive in residence and past adjunct professor in ��ñ��’s School of Management, has dedicated his new book, , to answering that question.

A collection of 35 essays written by Ziskin and his academic and professional colleagues reflecting on their experiences losing loved ones, the book focuses on how people have processed loss. That can involve what they learned working through its physical toll or balancing the ordeal while maintaining the responsibilities of their professional lives.

“Most of the book is focused on getting the benefit and wisdom and experience of lots of different people who’ve experienced loss, and what they have learned from a lost loved one,” Ziskin said. “This book causes the reader to think deeply about what they learn from a challenging negative experience in their lives, and how they came out of it a better person and leader.”

Ziskin started his career as a business leader and entrepreneur more than 40 years ago. He co-founded the Consortium for Change and was president of the EXec EXcel Group LLC, a consulting and coaching firm specializing in human capital strategy, leadership, talent development and organizational transformation. His clients and corporate work span more than 25 industries, including Fortune 1000, entrepreneurial, publicly traded and privately held businesses.

But for Ziskin, this book is a truly personal project. He conceived of it after his brother and mother died within six months of each other in 2023 — his 60-year-old brother died from cancer, and his 93-year-old mother followed.

When Ziskin began researching for the book, he became fascinated with exploring how people transform painful life experiences into opportunities to gain valuable new perspectives. He surveyed about 150 people within his professional and personal network, and he noticed that specific themes emerged from their stories.

Among them:

• Cherishing relationships
  
• Dreaming big, then going bigger
• Courage and resilience

“Something I didn’t understand until writing the book was that so many of those who contributed essays talked about the catharsis they had gone through in actually writing down thoughts about this person they lost,” Ziskin said. “Many of these contributing authors shared how much writing these stories changed their perspective, and reliving what they had learned from this person proved very helpful.”

For example, one of the essay authors writes about being a 14-year-old boy whose father committed suicide and the realization that even 60 years later, he still hadn’t confronted all of his feelings until he shared that story for Ziskin’s book.

Learning from stories like these can help us build better relationships, Ziskin said, and that can reinforce the skills needed to become better leaders in every aspect of our lives.

“A leader’s job is to bring out the best in others. This book helps us think about what they want to be known for as a leader and the relationships one cultivates along the way,” Ziskin said. “There’s an expression that ‘he or she who dies with the most toys wins,’ but this book shows that’s not entirely true. What really matters is that he or she who dies with the most high-quality relationships wins.”