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Black Hole Focus: How Intelligent People Can Create a Powerful Purpose for Their Lives

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"...an absurdly motivating book." –A.J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author

Don’t get stuck on a career path you have no passion for. Don’t waste your intelligence on something that doesn’t really mean anything more to you than a paycheck. Let Isaiah Hankel help you define a focus so powerful that everything in your life will be pulled towards it.

Create your purpose and change your life. Be focused. Be fulfilled. Be successful.

Black Hole Focus has been endorsed by top names in business, entrepreneurship, and academia, including 4 times New York Times bestseller AJ Jacobs and Harvard Medical School Postdoc Director Dr. Jim Gould.

The book is broken up into 3 different sections; the first section shows you why you need a purpose in life, the second section shows you how to find your new purpose, and the third section shows you how to achieve your goals when facing adversity.

In this book, you will

How to understand what you really want in life and how to get it Why people with a powerful purpose live to 100 How to rapidly improve focus and change your life using the secret techniques of an international memory champion How people like Jim Carrey, Oprah Winfrey, and J.K. Rowling transformed pain into purpose How to start a business by avoiding willpower depletion and the life hack lie Black Hole Focus includes exclusive case studies from medical practitioners, research scientists, lawyers, corporate executives and small business owners who have used the techniques described in this book to achieve massive success in their own lives.  About the Dr. Hankel is an internationally recognized expert in the biotechnology industry and prolific public speaker. He's given over 250 seminars in 22 different countries while working with many of the world's most respected companies and institutions, including Harvard University, Oxford University, Roche Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly & Company, Baxter International and Pfizer. Dr. Hankel uses the science of purpose and the principles of entrepreneurship to help people achieve their biggest goals.  

222 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

94 people are currently reading
1051 people want to read

About the author

Isaiah Hankel

5 books61 followers
Isaiah Hankel is the Founder and CEO of Overqualified™, a career consultancy helping experienced professionals reclaim their value in today’s job market. For more than 15 years, Isaiah has worked with over 20,000 highly accomplished professionals with advanced degrees and decades of experience to help them land meaningful roles across industries. Through Overqualified™, Isaiah pioneered a system that transforms the outdated “overqualified” label into a strategic advantage - teaching seasoned professionals how to communicate their worth, eliminate bias in hiring, and leverage deep experience as a competitive edge. His insights help mid- to late-career professionals transition careers with clarity, confidence, and purpose.

Isaiah is the author of the forthcoming book Too Good to Get Hired (April 2026), a bold investigation into why highly qualified candidates are often overlooked and how they can break through outdated hiring systems. The book blends research, case studies, and practical frameworks for experienced professionals to stop underselling themselves and start securing the roles they deserve.

A three-time bestselling author and sought-after career expert, Isaiah’s writing has appeared in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Success Magazine, Recruiter Magazine and more.

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5 stars
142 (35%)
4 stars
119 (29%)
3 stars
98 (24%)
2 stars
26 (6%)
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15 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
Profile Image for James Mccracken.
1 review
May 3, 2014
Isaiah has written an excellent guide to help all of us be more driven to be who we want to be. What made this book stand out for me was the authors attention to referencing published research on the topics he is discussing. This not only lends weight to his case, but also provided me with the opportunity to go deeper.

Reading this book makes it clear that more is not only possible, but achievable. All you have to do is decide what you want to do, make your plan, and start walking. This to me is entrepreneurship. Deciding your path, gathering your supplies, and making things happen for you.
Profile Image for Musa.
256 reviews7 followers
August 23, 2015
If you've ever felt "stuck" with where you are in life and wanted to be inspired on how you can make a change. This is a book I'd recommend you to read.

Concepts in the book aren't "revolutionary", they're practical, simple steps to help you structure your thought process, have it documented and realizing it step by step. I like that each of the chapters are not very long and comes with a theme and I've actually done quite a bit of thinking reading this book.

Don't rush it through, take a moment to pause and think when you read this book, I'm sure you'll pick up a few things just like what I did. Recommended if you're up for a reflective moment.
Profile Image for Clete Hanson.
1 review3 followers
April 28, 2014
A very good book once you get into it

The first section of the book seems to start a little slow. It talks about why you need a purpose and why focusing your life is important. The problem was that it seemed pretty theory-driven which made me concerned that the whole book would be theoretical. But then things picked up. The second section was very real and practical and provided a step-by-step system for figuring out what was important to me and what my strengths were. The third section was my favorite though because it showed me how to achieve all of the goals that I set in the second section. I really liked all the science in the book too, like how our reticular activating system controls our awareness and how we only have a certain number of decision-making units. Highly recommended for any entrepreneur, university student or coach.
Profile Image for Melissa.
1 review47 followers
April 26, 2014
This Book Really Does Deserve 5 Stars

As a Mom I'm always looking for inspirational content that is also actionable. I'm an entrepreneur at heart and am always looking for ways to think outside the box, like by setting up passive income streams and building strong relationships. Black Hole Focus gave me practical ideas for doing both and I've already started using many of the methods presented in the book to improve my life. I usually don't write reviews but I had to for this book. If you're looking to get on the cutting-edge in both your professional and personal life, Black Hole Focus is definitely for you.
Profile Image for Georgia Porto.
2 reviews
Read
February 1, 2016
AMASING, infinite source of inspiration, motivation and personal empowerment
2 reviews
August 21, 2014
Very easy and motivating book. I was and still kind of stuck in my life at this time, but because of the many advices I'm able to look at my challenges in a different way. If you are stuck, just read it and enjoy it!
Profile Image for Errol Samuel.
5 reviews
October 19, 2016
Probably the most inspiring book I have ever read. If you follow the steps you will be so much better prepared to attack your goal. A book you will keep coming back to.
Profile Image for Esraa.
121 reviews24 followers
February 5, 2017
Amazing book about purpose and how you can live your dream life , the only limits you have is the ones you make .
74 reviews1 follower
August 4, 2015
1. If you read the table of contents you'll get everything out of this book and save yourself quite a bit of time. If want to say that you got all the details read also the first sentence of each chapter.
2. Maybe I've grown up on another planet but I'd surely laugh my a.. off if I'd hear someone expressing their life mission with so many empty buzzwords as the ones in the book.

Profile Image for Raka Adrianto.
62 reviews1 follower
February 21, 2021
The authors gave bits of chapters, full of wisdoms from his post-grad experiences. If you’re PhD students, facing uncertainties in a world full of surprises and noises: this come in handy. The length helps in applying it right away (though someone needs to rehearse it again, just to be sure).
Profile Image for Pravdomir Dobrev.
21 reviews1 follower
September 28, 2018
This is one of the most mind-blowing self-learning books that I have read. There is a considerable research made behind every single sentence written in this book. It is not a typical self-helping book. I will definitely recommend this book to most people.
Profile Image for Jason Braatz.
Author 1 book68 followers
May 20, 2019
This is a disappointing array of synopses what other authors have researched and written about. The much better book on focus is The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results ; the author in this book though narrates only in brevity on "focus" and yields more to the topic described in The 4-Hour Workweek. Net/net, the title doesn't quite fit the content. Furthermore, the rule of thumb for reading (or writing) non-fiction, especially in a self help or a business category, is to already be an expert in the field of that particular topic and write from experience. The author admits in this book that he's in the process of building a business and lifestyle, unlike Timothy Ferriss who has been writing ab experientia. The anecdotes from the author's time attaining a PhD are cumbersome, the author's concept of having a slogan is overdone, and his assertions on how to be in (or to attain?) "black hole focus" aren't mapped out at all. I was hoping for new ideas or experiments that could be shared based upon Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's work on this subject - or at least something similar. Instead, the author only cites Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience once and offers nothing new.
Profile Image for Fabrizio Stucchi.
120 reviews1 follower
January 15, 2017
A good book about goal setting, four star till page 90, the rest can be skipped as it does not add anything, just a collection of suggestions not bound through any logic sequence.
Profile Image for Barnabas.
165 reviews5 followers
June 18, 2021
This book has been a great read about why our purpose is important, how to find it and how we can achieve it more effectively.
The book has a lot of great references for scientific studies (essentially the author IS a scientist), it had many memorable quotes, and also practical case studies of real people and their choices how they achieved their purpose.

1) The author started by mentioning a great metaphor of sheep (who are basically motivated literally by carrots and sticks) - he had seen this first hand as a farmboy.
2) One great example was about hope and rats, who can stay alive for 240 times longer (60 hrs, vs 15 minutes!!), if they are lifted out of the water and get more hope.
Another was a study about goals, which found that you have a 33% higher chance of achieving any goal if you write it down.
(I liked this one specifically, because it contradicted realistically the urban legend that 97% of people don't have any goals, and the rest of the 3% makes more money than they together.)
3) Based on Tim Ferris's observation: Calculate and Focus on daily income versus monthly or yearly income to achieve financial independence
4) The biggest impact for me was about Deliberate Practice, which I consider a keystone habit of successful people. The author listed six different ways how to increase ways to do deliberate practice. (association/convergent/metamorphosis/ritualization/automation/adjustment). This was a great summary the biggest take-away for me.
5) I was very happy to hear that someone agreed with my philosophy of saying "AND" not "OR". This thought is: "Build Rome around your safety net" - which basically means that you should not leave your situation behind, and the life you've built until this point, but trying to build secondary pathways /incomes/qualification and participate in fulfilling activities while you KEEP your current JOB. Burning all the bridges may not work for everybody after all.
6) Connect with others: Connections crush qualifications anytime and everytime. As the John Maxwell quote said: "Your network is your net worth". I'd rather have 1000 friends versus $1000.
7) You should create a Personalized Escalator Pitch: this one must be much shorter than an Elevator Pitch. Imagine someone coming down the escalator from the other direction – this is all the time you have to create an impression and let people know what's your purpose.
8) The three skills that will matter in the Idea Age:
- Be a good oral communicator - learn public speaking skills
- Focus on taking actions (implement physically what you learned as soon as you can to develop your skills)
- Choose the right idea (it's about the mental choice the only humans can make and it's never going to be automatic)

The book well worth reading and re-reading.
5 stars well deserved from me - Thank you Isaiah!
Profile Image for Svetlana Kurilova.
204 reviews18 followers
February 20, 2019
The best part of this book is relatability. Learning from someone with a similar background, similar challenges and similar doubts about the future and change is priceless.

Make sure to take actions and not just read the book. The action steps described in details are transformational. From discovering your purpose and the driving force (AKA your WHY) to an evaluation of the current position, from defined priorities to creating benchmarks, from vision to decision to conviction. This book is packed with inspiring stories and believe me, it is packed with scientific proof and data to back up any statement made.

A must-read for anyone who feels stuck, is looking for a change or wants to make a bigger impact. And yes, graduate students and postdocs, I am sure you will benefit from this read too! ;)
Profile Image for Nanci Arvizu.
Author 18 books10 followers
June 30, 2020
Excellent motivational book. Gives way more than cheerleading over the same kinds of stories.

This is a growth mindset book and gives great advice, especially the Five Hour Rule.

Sit down and work at your dream for five hours a day. One task, the big one, and do it. In my case, the big task is writing. Just Writing.

If you're needing to clear the path and get moving towards your goals, this a great book to listen to while traveling from point A to B.

Profile Image for Andrius Zygmanta.
13 reviews2 followers
June 26, 2017
The book brings what it promise with the title - purpose creation for intelligent people. There are some new ideas, but mainly older/known ideas re-told in such way that would appeal and make sense to an intelligent mind. This book needs to be studied and applied in practice.
Profile Image for Jesper horn møller.
2 reviews
November 24, 2019
Great book on how to build a strategy for your focus and how to build a purpose in life. Tons of practical tips and tools for busy people wanting to get things done rather than elitist theory. Can recommend 👌
Profile Image for Luigino Bottega.
Author 7 books17 followers
June 26, 2021
“Purpose” is the key element of curiosity, discovery and growth in Self-awareness. Asking the cause for things has allowed us to evolve as a human species and is the basis of our freedom of choice.
Inspiring book!
Profile Image for Cassandra Lee Yieng.
Author 4 books4 followers
December 15, 2022
I listened to this as an audiobook, and it can kick you into taking action in your life. It's not the most rigorous treatise on living your best life, but if you need to get unstuck, listening to this audiobook is a great start. Read lightly.
Profile Image for Lucy Gould.
Author 3 books60 followers
January 7, 2023
Loved this book! It’s incredibly helpful, even as someone who isn’t perusing a science field. It gave me some helpful techniques to keep focused on my goals and I think that my writer friends would benefit from at least a few of these chapters.
Profile Image for Courtney Allen.
26 reviews4 followers
August 18, 2017
Really LOVED this book and would recommend it for anyone thinking through what is going to make them more passionate in their careers and lives.
8 reviews
Read
November 15, 2025
This book helps to sharpen my knowledge in making sure I cut out all the white noise of life and have a better focus on what truly matters in life.
97 reviews
December 24, 2025
Pretty average rise and grind psychobabble. At one point, the author claims to have read 300 self-help books. It shows.
Profile Image for Brian Johnson.
Author 1 book1,046 followers
October 27, 2023
An uber-inspiring, practical guide to discovering and living your purpose while creating your greatest life possible

“I’ve always been fascinated by black holes. The idea of some massive force so intense that absolutely everything is pulled into it is awe-inspiring. Nothing escapes a black hole. In fact, black holes are called ‘black’ exactly because nothing escapes them—not even light. The world’s top physicists used to believe that anything that entered a black hole was obliterated. But this is no longer a popular viewpoint. Current research shows that, instead of destroying objects, black holes transform them.

Imagine if your purpose in life was as powerful as a black hole. With a force this strong, absolutely everything in your life would be pulled towards it. Nothing would escape. Every thought, every action—your entire identity—would be sucked into it. And, as a result, who you are, what you have, and how you live would be completely transformed.

Determining your ultimate purpose in life is the toughest decision you will ever make, which is why so few people actively decide on one. Instead, most people let life make this critical decision for them. These people fritter their lives away in an endless stream of tiny, meaningless decisions that elicit no great change and leave no real impact. They spend all their time and resources putting out day-to-day fires and focusing on short-term objectives.

Black Hole Focus will show you how to avoid this hollow fate, how to decide your purpose, and how to align your life around your chosen path.”

~ Isaiah Hankel, Ph.D. from Black Hole Focus

Black holes.

Just contemplating the sheer, fierce power of them is, indeed, awe-inspiring, eh?

I mean, NOTHING escapes a black hole—not even light. Yowsers.

Although physicists used to think that everything got destroyed in a black hole, now they believe that it’s less about destruction and more about transformation.

Isaiah Hankel is a young, smart, passionate guy and this an uber-inspiring, practical guide to discovering and living your purpose while creating your greatest life possible—with black hole-like focus + transformative mojo.

If you’re into that sort of thing (particularly if you’re also young and ambitious and looking to crush it), I think you’ll dig it. (Get a copy here.)

The book is packed with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share a few of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

Some of my favorite big ideas from this book include:

1. Sheep vs. Strategists - Which are you?
2. How’s Your Ikigai? - A matter of life and death.
3. Swimming Rats - 240 times longer.
4. Greatness - 2 step process.
5. Singularity - The physics of purpose.
6. Vision —> Decision - Move from fantasy to reality.

I’ve summarized those Big Ideas in a video review that you can watch here.

I’ve also added Black Hole Focus by Isaiah Hankel to my collection of Philosopher’s Notes--distilling the Big Ideas into 6-page PDF and 20-minute MP3s on 600+ of the BEST self-development books ever. You can get access to all of those plus a TON more over at heroic.us.
152 reviews
March 14, 2017
Nothing particularly new or particularly motivating beyond the idea of striving to achieve those crazy dreams you really actually want, instead of the achievable mundane goals we chase instead.
Profile Image for Calvin Lee.
3 reviews
May 7, 2020
Disappointing. There are some great ideas, but they are lost in a mess of anecdotes and lazy references.

The book starts off slow and with purpose (ironic), but towards the end it becomes apparent that the author doesn’t really know how these ideas converge – it becomes a mess of 1-2 page “chapters”, some being as short as a single paragraph.

The author also throws in ideas from other similar books, and even has the audacity to say: “there are so many self help books out there that just repeat themselves”. This is true, but at least the ones referenced are written with more integrity.

In one of the chapters it suggests creating a list of BIG goals, “hike Mt. Fuji”, “run a marathon”, “publish a book”. And, I have to wonder if this book was just a tick in the box for Isaiah.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews

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