Missing Persons: A Life of Unexpected Influences - Softcover

"Bruce Piasecki has added his own twist to the endlessly repeatable tale of self-invention, tracking a spiritual journey through love and faith, family and friends. Missing Persons is a book about the absences that define our lives, the tears in the fabric that we spend a lifetime trying to repair." --Jay Parini, Author of The Last Station

"What we first forget and then rescue from our memories make for the best memoirs. Bruce Piasecki, remembering in Missing Persons, inspires everyone to find what is missing in their own life. An inspiring read." --Rabbi Laurence Aryeh Alpern Temple Shabbat Shalom Saratoga Springs, NY

"In this eloquent memoir Bruce Piasecki . . . celebrates the family and friends who made possible his journey from an impoverished childhood to hard earned success." --Lucien Ross Tharaud, Contract Lawyer, Legal Editor

"Bruce Piasecki's writing style possesses a sense of wonder that reaches a new level of imaginative discourse. Here, the magical realism and sensitivity to the people who have shaped his life bring a new understanding of this man, who has already done so much in the realms of business and life." --Thaddeus Rutkowski, author of Haywire

"A delicious read! Missing Persons reveals the man behind business bestsellers like Doing More with Less. Piasecki's evocative vignettes reflect a generosity of spirit and a genuine humility that will inspire you to reflect on your own influences." --William M. Throop, Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies, Green Mountain College

"Bruce Piasecki's memoir is a work of art-- lyrical and luminous . . . a moving account of the people in his life who inspired him. From dirt poor to best-selling author, Bruce never stops thinking and feeling. It is a rare treat to reflect with him on his journey. Poignant and profound." --Sanford Schram, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, Hunter College, CUNY

"How do the street smarts learned at an early age show a born poet and scholar the way to wealth based on 'doing more with less?' In a constantly surprising series of vignettes based on love, labor, and loss, the protean Bruce Piasecki has written a fable for our times, one that reminds us of how powerful the art of ordering our memories can prove. Meet here a Ben Franklin for our times." --R. Laurence Moore, Author of Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans

"Bruce Piasecki's lovely book Missing Persons reminds us that life does not just happen to us. Instead, it demonstrates how life responds to us with magic and surprise!" --Erol User, CEO Founder Erol Corporation, Istanbul Turkey

"Missing Persons is more than a memoir; it is wonderful entertainment and a celebration of memory . . . [Piasecki's] writing clearly reflects the talents of a man who is in love with words and writing. His sentences flow easily, and he has an ability to capture a moment and precisely convey its intensity. He takes a moment that may have happened before and makes it a unique and powerful symbol . . . The author also has broken down the book into short vignettes, each easy to read in a short period. One can either consume the book slowly, savoring each vignette, or devour several scenes in a sitting. Either way, the book is fun to read."

"Piasecki (Doing More with Less), head of a management consulting firm, looks back at his eventful life in a fragmented, energetic memoir occasionally resembling the cut-up techniques of Burroughs and the stylistic methods of the New Journalism works of the 1960s and 1970s. . . . Using an objective third-person approach to the narrative, Piasecki's compulsively addictive memoir, combining rich cinematic touches and psychological elements of memory and dreams, celebrates family life, marriage, reading, writing, and business achievement." (B+W Photos)

“An unpretentious, tactical, and sure-footed examination of the events that shaped his own life.”

--Jay Parini, author of the best-selling historical novel, The Last Station

Bruce Piasecki’s book on business strategy Doing More With Less: the New Way to Wealth, was an immediate success, becoming a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller. Indeed, Doing More With Less is not just a clever book title; it explains the core philosophy of a man, who propelled from an impoverished and fatherless childhood, became an internationally, sought-after resource for the world’s largest corporations—from Toyota and Wal-Mart to Shell and Suncor Energy.

Those who helped and shaped Dr. Piasecki are the focus of his latest work Missing Persons: A Life of Unexpected Influences. Indeed, in this set of 70 vignettes Piasecki channels his poetic side - a side that was first noticed at Cornell when his little-known book of poems was published under the title Stray Prayers in 1973. The memoir, one part autobiography, one part creative non-fiction and written in vignette form, recounts the author’s formative relationships and experiences with intimacy and longing. Meet his mother, and father, his interracial brothers and sisters, his early and late business partners, his lovers, his daughter and his wife. It is told in a unique third person narrative that provides intrigue for the reader as they follow the protagonist through loss, passion, self-invention, a litany of fears and dreams - each revealed in eloquent prose. Through his uniquely informed perspective, Bruce allows us to understand the power of memory and how it influences us. The simplicity that made Doing More With Less a bestseller makes this new work not only compelling, but also life-affirming.

Missing Persons explores the meaning and power of memory, and offers an opportunity for the reader to pause, reflect, and recount the myriad of influences in their own lives.