Arthur Brooks
President
American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
Education
Thomas Edison State University
B.A., Economics
Florida Atlantic University
M.A., Economics
Pardee RAND Graduate School
Ph.D., Economics
Podcasts
0:43:1803: How to Build an Awesome & Happy Work Life With Dr. Arthur Brooks, AEI [Main T4C Episode]
Dr. Arthur Brooks is the president of the American Enterprise Institute*, a non-partisan public policy think tank in Washington, D.C. He's also a NYT’s bestselling author and a social scientist whose expertise is on how to build a happy life. At 19, Arthur dropped out of college to play the..
Career Path
Interview Highlights
“If you like your job or your job is just okay and you’re really unhappy, here’s the advice that I’ve got: pay attention to faith, pay attention to your family and pay attention to your friends. And if you pay attention to those three F’s, you have a much higher likelihood of enjoying your life than you currently do.”
Best Career Advice
As a political conservative in his field, Arthur was worried about his career trajectory. His mentor, political scientist James Q. Wilson, told him: “Be twice as productive and four times as nice as the liberals.”
Career Challenge
“10 years ago, when I came in as president of AEI, I was a college professor. I was just a guy in professorial obscurity, beavering away writing really esoteric academic journal articles, like genetic algorithms and public economics. It’s super fun. It was good. And I wind up getting drafted for this very public job, it’s got a lot of TV, and it’s got a lot of speeches. And this is really super new to me, by the way, hundreds of employees, I’d never had even one employee in my life. And we were in debt. I mean, we were running a deficit, which means I had to cut costs 16% my first 60 days on the job, all of this together, it was hell.”
Professional Interests
American Enterprise Institute, LinkedIn Guide to Networking
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