Gene S. Jones

Serving in a great variety of roles as a game show host, producer, director, business executive, creativity coach and Associate Editor of the Guinness Book of World Records has enabled author Gene S. Jones to see life from multiple points of view, a vast array of experiences that helped him understand others while combining compassion and creativity with a great deal of business acumen. Fueled by decades of curiosity and an endless desire to learn the wisdom traditions of all world cultures, he now shares the profound lessons learned from more than 50 years of studying human nature.


How did you decide which pieces of wisdom to include and which to exclude? What were your criteria for selection?
This decision was one of the most challenging aspects of writing Consolidated Wisdom. In studying the wisdom phrases of the past 5000 years, there is an overwhelming number of quotes to sort through. If I wasn’t very strict about what quotes to put in the book, my book would probably have ballooned to over 1000 pages and lost its focus. One criteria that I did not use is whether I fully agreed with a quote or not. There are a number of quotes in Consolidated Wisdom that are not aligned with my philosophy of life, but at the same time, those quotes are most worthy of being presented to readers so they can make their own choices. What the selection process came down to was choosing quotes that felt like they had significance in our contemporary society.

Was there one area or theme that emerged as particularly prominent or important to you during the writing process? Did you encounter any challenges or unexpected discoveries while researching and/or writing your wisdom books?
To me, the key to writing any book is passion. It is essential to be passionate about your subject matter or else it will be very difficult to see the project through to completion. In my instance, the more I researched wisdom, the more fascinated I became with all the different wisdom traditions of the world. I’ve tried to touch on a number of them in Consolidated Wisdom. One of the most interesting topics to me is the wisdom of indigenous cultures worldwide, as the wisdom of those cultures is also very spiritual. That brings me to the other theme that emerged from my research: the fact that most wisdom traditions overlap with other wisdom traditions, and that most arenas of thought are connected to other arenas. For instance, the wisdom of sports also applies to business and the arts. This led me to feature the interconnectedness of different avenues of thought in Consolidated Wisdom.

What do you hope readers will gain or take away from engaging with your book? Is there a particular action or change in perspective you hope they'll consider?
My hope is that readers will take a number of wisdom phrases to heart and put them to good use. Ultimately, the ideal takeaway from my books about wisdom is for people to form their own Personal Wisdom Codes. By that, I mean adopting a number of quotes that form a code of behavior that matches their beliefs. This is not just something I recommend to others…it is what I have done for myself. After completing Consolidated Wisdom, I started reading through it in search of a dozen or so quotes that literally spoke what I believe in. I ended up with 19 quotes that I copied and assembled on a single page, thereby forming my Personal Wisdom Code. I now keep that list of quotes on my desk and review it almost every day, as it gives me guidance in how to deal with all situations I encounter. The following quote from Modern Wisdom sums up my goal in writing books about the subject of wisdom: To bring wisdom to the minds of others with the hope they will apply it to their daily activities in a way the enables them to make better decisions and therefore live happier more fulfilling lives. I call this type of wisdom actionable wisdom.

The power of a wisdom phrase is determined by its ability to inspire productive positive action.

For readers who are new to exploring wisdom literature or philosophy, where would you suggest they begin?
Stay curious about all aspects of life…and read Consolidated Wisdom…then read Modern Wisdom! In all seriousness, I truly believe that everyone possesses a good deal of innate and/or acquired wisdom. Unfortunately, we often override our wisdom due to other circumstances and emotional states. So my ultimate advice regarding this question is to recommend that people seek out wisdom everywhere they go…in other words, to gain wisdom from experience…while also listening to their inner guidance without allowing outside influences to lead them astray.

Wisdom is timeless, yet the world is constantly changing. How do you believe the wisdom presented in your book remains relevant in today's rapidly evolving society?
First of all, the reason that great wisdom is timeless is because it is capable of adapting itself to changing times. This is why the quotes In Consolidated Wisdom from hundreds and even thousands of years ago are still relevant today.

As I mentioned before, contemporary relevance is the key to wisdom being effective. My research while assembling Consolidated Wisdom taught me that wisdom IS timeless, but in order to be relevant in our modern world, the expression of wisdom has to match contemporary conditions and manners of expression. This is exactly what I’ve tried to do in Modern Wisdom: to express timeless wisdom in the language of our 21st century culture so it can be absorbed and put to good use.

What are you working on now, and how does it relate to or expand upon the themes explored in your two recent wisdom books?
I just started working on the Wisdom Lovers Workbook, which will be an interactive book that combines wisdom phrases with creativity training to provide readers with exercises that increase both their creativity and wisdom capacity. As a creativity coach, I’ve always merged creativity and wisdom

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Visit Gene on his website: 
https://genejoneswisdom.com
Join Gene on Facebook: 
www.facebook.com/GeneJonesAuthor
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@GeneJonesAuthor

LINK for BOOK:
https://www.amazon.com/CONSOLIDATED-WISDOM-ULTIMATE-QUOTATIONS-HAPPINESS/dp/0998324027