Go to johnkobara.com
Quest
121 questions of liberation
from the prison of self-domestication
by John E. Kobara & Cristina Gallegos
“Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
~ Rainier Maria Rilke
In a world that is doing everything in its power to tell you what and how to be, this is a time to ask questions. To answer questions. To question answers.
Quest is a book of questions, 121 essential life questions offered as tools to make the reader’s next decision easier and cohesive. Quest aims to positively disrupt and dislodge the darkness from life’s stuck corners.
It’s all first person, unvarnished, and jaunty. To spur the reader along, Gallegos and Kobara add mature insights to the questions, sharing from their vast and, at times, humorous life experiences in both philanthropy and corporate sectors. Blended with a selection of unfiltered younger voices ranging from 6 to 19 years old, curated out of thousands of direct interviews answering to prompts such as “what have I always dreamt of doing?”, “what is God to me?”, “what is my relationship with money?” or “what is my blind spot?”
While there is no pressure, there is nevertheless guidance and a gentle hand holding, as the questions are structured in seasons of life (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter), and indexed in categories such as “Change”, “Identity”, “Goals”, “Pain” , “Self”, “Path”, “Time” and “Legacy”.
Quest is both a reading book and a writing book with a blank page allocated to every question to dare the reader to jot down their own insights. In the end, the book is a simple sequence of steps that once put together, become part spiritual journey, part pragmatic voyage. All one needs to do is begin.
Answer the Quest!
QUEST REVIEWS
What to expect from Quest?
- 121 questions and YOUR answers.
- Answers from the authors as well as from the unadulterated youth ages 6-18 providing fresh perspectives.
- A writing book not a reading book. The full empty page after each question is a working space. Jot down or draw anything.
- Your answers make up this book’s substance.
- Organized into the seasons of life and indexed by topics
- Go at your own pace, in your preferred order, at any stage of your life.
WARNING: This book contains disruptive content which could dramatically and positively alter your point of view. Everything in here is true, except what we made up. You may encounter unnecessary amounts of hubris, shards of ego, some pasteurized preachiness or other artificial and synthetic ingredients that have been known to aggravate human subjects. The reader may experience symptoms of dizziness, hallucinations, vertigo, and in rare cases, self-awareness. Embarking on this Quest could be threatening to the life you are currently leading.
Who is Quest for?
Quest aspires to help people who seek more meaningful and purpose-driven lives. We see it as a tool for anyone interested in deepening self-development and understanding.
People facing change, parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, book clubs, and even classrooms see value in addressing and discussing the questions.
A generative book.
In the spirit of true philanthropy, all of the proceeds generated by this book will be donated to two charitable recipients focused on the preservation of democracy and diverse discourse: Coro of Southern California and the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy.
In addition, the book’s intellectual property license is open source through Creative Commons, enabling anyone to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, as long as attribution is given to the authors. Building upon one another’s generosity is the purpose of Quest. We want this book to flourish and inspire new versions without a focus on money or preservation of rights.
The story behind Quest.
Meet the authors.
Cristina Gallegos
Cristina M. Gallegos, born in communist Romania as the daughter of an entrepreneurial woman and a Renaissance man, wrote short stories as a 10-year-old and started her first business in high-school, at the time when having a business was illegal. She won her first literary award at the age of 17, capturing first prize at a national competition for emergent young artists with a mid-century centered novella on love and loss across two generations. She moved to California in the late 90’s.
An eclectic writer with a wide range encompassing poetry, essays, fiction, and business writing, Gallegos is equally at home when coalescing words in short or long form, as long as the result instructs, provokes, and entertains.
When not a writer, Gallegos is a consumate entrepreneur. She is a 6 times Founder and has 30+ years of experience in business, with more than two decades spent in philanthropy. As such, Gallegos’ sweet spot sits at the intersection of the for-profit and non-profit worlds bridging the gap through deep understanding of what makes people tick, and fueling her business writing with rich and useful content.
Gallegos is the CEO of Skylarx, a Triple Bottom Line consulting firm with a presence in the US and the EU, working to align public, philanthropic, and business efforts to strengthen the global society and the people who make it great. She often shares insights from the trenches, writing and speaking publicly about the art and science of change.
Cristina Gallegos is the author of 16 books, including travelling and activism essays volumes “The Soaring Always Pays for the Thud” and “Chasing the World”, feminist poetry volumes “Be f*cking brave” and “Songs without music”, and the business tome of leadership intelligence “Ferocious intent”.
Each year, a robust percentage of Gallegos’ time is allocated for Pro Bono work and a portion of Skylarx profits are donated towards social change. As an immigrant and a Latina from Eastern Europe married to a Chinese/Mexican man, Gallegos lives “diversity” to the bone. She is an art collector, a particle physics aficionado, a philosopher, painter, gardener, and passionate photographer. She has traveled to 90+ countries and territories on 6 continents.
John Kobara
Whatever wisdom John shares comes from the dreams of his great-grandparents who were killed by the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, and from the hopes of his grandparents and parents who were imprisoned in the internment camps of Poston Arizona during World War II. Their sacrifices inspire John’s quest to become his best self.
He headed to Los Angeles to earn degrees from UCLA, USC, Occidental College and a post-graduate Coro fellowship, igniting his 45-year love affair with the imperfect paradise of the City of Angels. His education, both formal and experiential, have humbled him and empowered his curiosity. His quest took him on a career traversing all sectors with an emphasis on education, equity, and equanimity. He survived three start-ups in three different decades. He worked in what he calls the “for-purpose” field, interrupted by for-profit and public-sector jobs. He held many big titles and important positions but usually not at the same time.
While he was a frequent public speaker, John started conducting workshops for executives about managing careers and organizational change taking him all over the world. These conversations led him to start blogging in 2008. John has written more than 1000 posts. His current iteration Your Weekly Ass Kicker is going into its 5th year.
In 2022, John and his wife Sarah became Executive Producers of the award winning documentary film: Race Epidemic-The Resurgence of the Yellow Peril.
His asymmetrical career sculpted his point of view. It taught him the great power of asking questions. All of this conspired to help John write his first book. It is the story of his ancestors that energize these pages with the hope they might energize you.
Visit johnkobara.com for more information and content from John.
Purchase QUEST today!
Contact
Love to hear your feedback and your ideas to help us share Quest with many others.