What's Next

Navigate Life’s Transitions With This Actionable, Practical Guide

Two little words. They hit you at every threshold of your life—crossing the graduation stage, starting your first real job, changing careers at midlife, facing the unsettling quiet after the retirement party. Your whole life depends on how you answer What’s next?

Author Ed Hajim has been answering that question for more than ninety years. From a childhood spent in foster homes and orphanages, Hajim built a legendary Wall Street career spanning five decades, chaired the University of Rochester’s board of trustees, and became a beloved author, speaker, and philanthropist. Along the way, he developed a simple, powerful vocabulary for navigating life’s transitions. In this direct, actionable companion to his acclaimed memoir On the Road Less Traveled and his fable The Island of the Four P’s, Hajim hands that vocabulary to you.

This isn’t a memoir, and it isn’t recycled motivational fluff. Its a working guide to designing a life—built for both young adults stepping into the world for the first time and for anyone standing at a crossroads later in the journey.

In these pages, you will learn to:
Answer the “threshold question.” What’s next? with certainty instead of dread Adopt the “Three Mantras”: anything is possible, education is the solution to almost everything, and never be a victim Discover your true passions (and how to stop confusing them with hobbies) Define the principles you’re willing to take a hit for Choose the partners who will shape your success in work and in life Read the waters of change so you can position yourself ahead of it Build harmony across the “Four Realms” of self, family, work, and community
Change is life’s most reliable constant, and the only person who can answer What’s next? is you.