Permission to Play is required reading for any teen who feels uncertain about their future and is about to embark on “the rest of their life.” Joe shows you how your next steps can launch you on the path to build an adult life that is far better than you can imagine, while respecting your parents and their points of view. Joe not only provides a blueprint for following your dreams, he also injects you with powerful fuel, so you can blast through the excuses that hold you back and build a life that is fun, fulfilling, and promising.
Joe envisions a world where people take action instead of placing blame, where possibility is more prominent than limits, where hunger for learning is greater than the fear of the unknown.
Reprinted from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 16, 2015
Part speaker, part entertainer, part crazy dad, and always fully engaged, author Joe Fingerhut has written a high-impact book that will change lives, save lives, and transform society for teens. In Permission to Play: How Teens Can Build a Life That is Fun, Fulfilling, and Promising, Joe shares his story about his transition from high school to college to a working man in light of his strong desire to do something different and have fun.
Joe did not want to spend his life behind a desk, and during his formative years, he explored all kinds of unusual employment options from working at Six Flags, to selling Cutco knives, to being his University’s school mascot, to being an entertainer who both juggles and rides a unicycle, to being a wedding deejay. He was even a counselor at a kids’ circus camp. Most of all, Joe wanted to travel, but when his parents looked at the education they’d provided him at a private high school and at Loyola University Chicago, they were not supportive of their son’s desire to gallivant around the world. It was time for Joe to buckle down and get serious. Or so they thought.
In this carefully woven narrative, Joe shares how he worked with his parents to understand what their hopes and dreams for his life were, while he also communicated his own passions about what he wanted to do. It could have been a time of extreme conflict between parent and child, but their testy times were few because Joe and his dad approached their differences with mutual respect. Joe took the good advice his father offered, and his dad listened to Joe’s input, learned what Joe wanted in life, and flexed on his demands.
He met his wife while teaching English in Japan, and Joe is now an entertainer and International Youth Conference Speaker, who is in the midst of planning an Asian tour for his release of Permission to Play.
This book is required reading for any teen who feels uncertain about their future and is about to embark on “the rest of their life.” Joe shows you how your next steps can launch you on the path to build an adult life that is far better than you can imagine, while respecting your parents and their points of view.
A study guide is included, which is a perfect resource for small groups, youth groups, and study groups for parents.
Through his book and the study guide Joe not only provides a blueprint for following your dreams, he also injects you with powerful fuel, so you can blast through the excuses that hold you back and build a life that is fun, fulfilling, and promising.
This book was created with local book writing coach Nancy Erickson, The Book Professor, who works to empower individuals to take their experiences and gifts, and to share them with the world in published form.
Joe Fingerhut Keynote Speaker
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