The core, the really core point about making your life work is figuring out what you want. I started to say it’s the hard part about it, but it isn’t so hard. It’s just something we don’t do. We never get around to thinking about it, and maybe taking a cup of coffee, sitting down and saying, What do I really want? What do I want to do tomorrow? Where do I want to be a year from now—or 20 years from now?

We just sort of go through life. We never sit down and think about it. Now for Solomon, it was not so very hard to decide. He faced a frightening challenge for a young man, but he did know what he wanted. So his objective was to meet the challenges of being a new, young king following in the footsteps of a truly great and a much-loved king.

But even Solomon, with the passage of time and the accumulation of power and wealth, got a little confused about what he wanted. Now fortunately for us, he wrote a book, and there is a lot that you and I can learn from that book about ourselves. It is the Book of Ecclesiastes.