What do you think?
The Accordion Player: My Journey from Fear to Love
“My heart was in a cage. My life was a long struggle to find happiness, to overcome fear, and to find love I had lost. I did not give up, and that is what my story is about.” — Dr. Ichak K. Adizes
Seeing every challenge as an opportunity for growth, Dr. Ichak Adizes moved beyond a childhood marked by imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp and immigration to an unfamiliar country to discover the benefits of opening his heart.
Rejecting isolation and fear, he became a renowned thought leader who advises companies and governments worldwide on structuring thriving organizations around a culture of trust and respect.
Dr. Adizes’s personal story is more than a string of external events that propelled him through adversity after adversity to become the insightful, compassionate person he is today. It is also a map of his journey into a heart which, like the accordion that he played to earn a living and put himself through school, ultimately expanded and opened up to the universal truths that connect us all in our humanity.
The Accordion Player is a compelling account of a remarkable life—an unvarnished view of a man whose decision to recognize the value of change and creative conflict allowed him to love. His story reveals the enduring human ability to turn possibility into reality.
Seeing every challenge as an opportunity for growth, Dr. Ichak Adizes moved beyond a childhood marked by imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp and immigration to an unfamiliar country to discover the benefits of opening his heart.
Rejecting isolation and fear, he became a renowned thought leader who advises companies and governments worldwide on structuring thriving organizations around a culture of trust and respect.
Dr. Adizes’s personal story is more than a string of external events that propelled him through adversity after adversity to become the insightful, compassionate person he is today. It is also a map of his journey into a heart which, like the accordion that he played to earn a living and put himself through school, ultimately expanded and opened up to the universal truths that connect us all in our humanity.
The Accordion Player is a compelling account of a remarkable life—an unvarnished view of a man whose decision to recognize the value of change and creative conflict allowed him to love. His story reveals the enduring human ability to turn possibility into reality.
386 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 21, 2023
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 20, 2024
3.5 stars because I thought Ichak's story was fascinating, but his business world and work story isn't something that interested me much. I'm sure there are plenty of people in his line of work, corporate consultants who rehabilitate or help large corporations succeed, who would be fascinated by his work chapters but I probably could have skipped over those. No doubt, Ichak was EXTREMELY successful at everything he set out to do; an admirable corporate giant. He started with NOTHING and by sheer grit, stubbornness, and a hunger to do more, he put himself through school, worked hard, and became invaluable to businesses and governments.
Ichak's life during the Holocaust was tragic and those wounds, mostly inflicted by his insecure father, stayed with him throughout his entire life. He suffered insecurities as an adult, as a husband, as a father, and within every aspect of his life. Ichak was starving for love and he hadn't been able to find it even though he hads been surrounded by it throughout his life. He finally discovered how to open his heart to give and receive love, which is such a beautiful process to read about.
There are a lot of interesting insights in this book from Ichak's self discovery, finding that he is worthy of and capable of real love, and even his thoughts on the Jewish/Arab conflict in Israel. Although I would most likely disagree with him on politics, I would be fascinated to hear his thoughts on government since he's lived in a varity of countries with every kind of restriction and philosophy.
Ichak's life during the Holocaust was tragic and those wounds, mostly inflicted by his insecure father, stayed with him throughout his entire life. He suffered insecurities as an adult, as a husband, as a father, and within every aspect of his life. Ichak was starving for love and he hadn't been able to find it even though he hads been surrounded by it throughout his life. He finally discovered how to open his heart to give and receive love, which is such a beautiful process to read about.
There are a lot of interesting insights in this book from Ichak's self discovery, finding that he is worthy of and capable of real love, and even his thoughts on the Jewish/Arab conflict in Israel. Although I would most likely disagree with him on politics, I would be fascinated to hear his thoughts on government since he's lived in a varity of countries with every kind of restriction and philosophy.
June 12, 2023
Profoundly absorbing story; the making of a humble visionary.
What a fascinating life that could have turned out quite differently. All the horrors of his growing up is what enabled him to achieve and create a paradigm shift for himself and others. He looked to become someone who could love and he discovered that love is his essence.
What a fascinating life that could have turned out quite differently. All the horrors of his growing up is what enabled him to achieve and create a paradigm shift for himself and others. He looked to become someone who could love and he discovered that love is his essence.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews