He came to Harvard with a strategy for everything, and met the woman who showed him what he'd missed.
In 1973, a woman walked into a Harvard Square café and sat down at the next table. He reached for her jacket without asking. She stopped him cold.
He was a German student at Harvard Business School, trained to find the pattern beneath any problem. She was an American psychologist who saw through people before they finished their first sentence. He had never been seen so clearly. She had never met someone so determined to know himself — and so far from managing it.
Falling with Purpose moves between their courtship and the world that formed him: postwar Germany, coal dust and factory floors, soccer and jazz, first love, family silence, and the strategy rooms of BCG. At its center is a single German word: Durchblick — the ability to see through confusion to what truly matters. In business, that clarity is a weapon. In love, you must put the weapon down.
For anyone who has ever been very good at the wrong things.
Download a Sample to Look Inside →Advance Praise
"We both made a decision that any serious strategist would have called a mistake: we chose our families over our careers. Neither of us has spent a single day regretting it... It is a surprising book — part love story, part strategic memoir, and a case study in what strategy cannot teach."
"Reads so well it is difficult to put down — the narrative simply compels you to know what happens next... what ultimately wins in this beautiful story is wisdom — a triumph all the more meaningful for having been gained through pain."
"Brings postwar Germany vividly to life with rare authenticity — the weight of a shattered country rebuilding itself... Michael traces the growth of a man decoupling from expectations to find himself. A magical story about evolving. Bravo!"
"Rare insider access to the birth of modern business strategy, told in clean, thought-provoking prose that prompts insightful conversations about ambition, purpose, and what matters in life. A warmhearted book for the business-minded who just want to find their way with a loving partner by their side."
For Book Clubs & Reading Groups
Falling with Purpose was written to be discussed. The immigrant journey, the fifty-year marriage, and the search for purpose at 80 spark powerful conversations.
A 12-question discussion guide and a one-sheet PDF are emailed to your organizer before the meeting, ready to print, share, or pull up on your phone.
The love story, the immigrant journey, building a life and a business from scratch: these topics take your group beyond the book into conversations that matter.
The author can join your Zoom call for a conversation, not just about the book, but about the questions it raises for your own life. How do you pursue ambition without losing the people who matter? How do you recognize love when it arrives at the wrong moment? How do you build a life that holds both?
Bring your questions. He's lived the tensions.
Always free · No limited spots
Free for every book club · No bulk purchase required
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General Inquiry
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From the book
It took fifty-two years to tell this story. In June 2025, Andrea and I celebrated fifty years of marriage. For our anniversary, she asked again the question she had first asked in 1973, just after we met: "Tell me your story. Where do you come from? What makes you the person I want to see at breakfast?"
At the time, I answered as best I could. But I did not know my own story. I knew the episodes. I did not yet recognize the pattern. I spent much of my life cultivating clarity in the outer world, where strategy is rewarded and problems are expected to yield to analysis. It took considerably longer to understand that love requires a deeper version of the same clarity.
When your luck walks to the table next to you, you better be ready to grab it by the jacket.
We'll email it to you within a day or two.
Book Club Scheduling
Free · 20–45 minutes · Recording encouraged · Limited dates each month
Michael will reply personally with available dates. If you asked for the Discussion Guide, it's on its way to your inbox.
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