In his exuberant, conversation style, author Robert N. Jacobs chats to his 14-year-old daughter, Ava, during a road trip through magical Iceland. Rekindling their father-daughter relationship, Robert offers Ava some practical advice on how to live a more abundant life and, therefore, make her life more rewarding. Much of Robert’s advice is designed to build confidence by expanding Ava’s mind, exploring ideas, and challenging her to think more deeply. Robert helps Ava define her own definition of happiness and success, also giving advice on how to build powerful, positive new habits, and the importance of associating with people who bring out the best in her. He goes on to say that Ava should travel far and wide in the world and inside her mind, and if she manages that, she will discover how infinitesimally small in importance we and our problems really are, and how ignorant we are of the vast majority of what there is to know. In so doing, he encourages Ava to always be curious and to be a lifelong student of life, highlighting what Albert Einstein explained in his ‘Paradox of Wisdom’: the wiser we become, the more we realise how little we know. Finally, Robert explains his own belief in the importance of living a spiritual life and how it saved his own life.
Essentially, Aspire for Abundance is a book about love: the love a father has for his daughter by providing her with what he calls his ‘recipe’ for living an abundant life. The book is about cause and effect and how every decision has its consequences. Robert shares some of the consequences of wrong decisions made in his life and even though Ava will have to carve out her own path through life by being her authentic self, his hope for her is that she will not have to make any or some of the many mistakes he made. Robert’s goal for Ava is that at the end of the road trip she will be more equipped to successfully handle what life throws at her, and better prepared in her understanding of how to thrive and live a more abundant life. Do you think he was successful? Read and find out.