In late May I received a Linkedin message that put a broad smile on my face.

“Charles Handy to give rare talk in Dublin – June 28^th ”.

I thought that Handy (80) was retired and no longer doing public engagements.

I first discovered him when I was a young impressionable business graduate in the early 1990s.

When I stumbled across his seminal work – The Empty Raincoat – I was struggling with what direction to take in my life. Every day I was surrounded by people who wanted to be accountants and financial controllers. It felt like being marooned in a very foreign country with no word of the native tongue.

This wonderful book made much more sense of the business world that I wanted to be part of. A place where people could be part of small meaningful organisations, set their own agenda and make a meaningful contribution to their community and the wider world. He spoke of developing a portfolio life and choosing the projects that you want to work on.

Thanks to Charles Handy I choose a career in marketing. I’ve worked in politics, as a journalist and an entrepreneur, and have spent most of the last 10 years very fulfilled as a portfolio worker.

If you go to one event in Dublin this summer, go and see Charles Handy this Thursday. I’m told there are still some tickets left. He is one of the greatest business thinkers that we have ever produced.

On the night Handy will make a presentation on ‘The Changing Shape of Work and Home.’

Check out the event here.