Alain de Botton

Speeches by Alain de Botton are witty discussions of contemporary life. In particular, he examines the relationship between happiness and one's work life.

Success and failure, de Botton, points out, are key elements in achieving contentment. Of course, success and failure are intrinsically tied to one's career and one's career is constantly being evaluated by society at large; as such, happiness is often affected by a person's place in society. Though this view may sound fatalistic, speeches by Alain de Botton are anything but. He encourages his audience to develop more personal accounts of failure and success, based on their own lives rather the abstract definitions provided by society.

Alain de Botton is an accomplished author. His most recent work, 'The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work,' and his 1997 extended essay, 'How Proust Can Change Your Life,' have been well received.