The Vagrant: The Inner Journey of Leadership: A Parable

A modern parable for ambitious people on the relationship between success and self-reflection, from the coauthor of the acclaimed Go-Giver series and a renowned authority on leadership.

Have you ever wondered, “If I could go back in time and talk to my twenty-year-old self, what would I say?” In The Vagrant, a brash young executive finds himself asking that exact question when his world is turned upside down.

From Dan Rockwell, creator of the popular Leadership Freak blog, and John David Mann, coauthor of the award-winning classic The Go-Giver, The Vagrant follows Bob, a bright, up-and-coming leader in the health care business who leads a team of forty at a large city hospital. When he’s called up to the seventh floor one fine spring morning, he fully expects a promotion in line with his C-suite aspirations.

Instead, he’s fired.

Moments after losing his job, Bob has a strange alleyway confrontation with a homeless man rambling about “the four impediments of the Apocalypse.” To Bob, his words are nothing but incoherent ranting, but they soon prove eerily prophetic. In the weeks that follow, Bob loses everything he holds dear—his apartment, possessions, reputation, and health—and ends up living on the street . . . until chance leads him back to that same alley and he crosses paths with the strange man once again.

In this timeless, eye-opening tale of redemption, Bob’s tailspin journey through loss and catastrophic failure invites readers to examine the nature of genuine leadership and embark upon their own story of self-discovery.