DAVIDPATRICKADAMS
DAVID PATRICK ADAMS
Bringing Experience To Bear
Welcome
My work is focused on three distinct areas.
First, my role as President of Linley Foundation and our flagship “The America I Want Is…” program. Secondly, my Not Quite Satisfied writing and public speaking program in which I explore through picture ideas, what a life well lived might look like in the 21st century. And, finally, my Portrait Interview filmed memoirs.
I
I founded Linley Foundation over 15 years ago with my partner Maria Lucia Ferreira. Our first projects were developing education and scholarship programs in northeast Brazil.
We also invested in infrastructure improvements, such as schools and clinics, in the fishing villages to the north of João Pessoa, Paraíba.
Although our foundation has evolved over the years, we remain firmly focused on education and dialogue as means for bringing about practical change.
Countries, as with people, do better when, in times of change, they are willing to reflect and reassess the direction in which they are going.
I believe America is at just that point.
Facing geopolitical and demographic changes, as well as lingering historical injustices, America is in the throes of an immense debate between competing visions of itself.
It's a remarkable opportunity for reinvention.
Linley wants to help facilitate the process. As a nonpartisan foundation, we have launched our flagship “The America I Want Is…” program. Our goal is to provide a national platform for individual expression, collective listening and citizen involvement.
II
Not Quite Satisfied
Picturing Your Life
Living a Rich Life in the 21st Century
What is a successful life?
How can we be sure, when looking back at our lives, we will say “Now that was a life well lived.”
These are some of the questions I am investigating in a book I am writing, and in my public lecture series Not Quite Satisfied.
The Danish philosopher, Kierkegaard, wrote “We live our life forward, we understand it backward.” I believe he's right.
However, Kierkegaard offers the memoirist’s perspective. We live our lives and, towards the end, we do a grand review, neaten things up, tie up the loose ends, and put them into a coherent story.
I believe that as young adults we can picture a coherent life even before we start out living it. My methodology is not about "rules," "steps," or advice.
It’s about developing a number of picture ideas, or metaphors, which can provide us the scaffolding and structure to live a beautifully rich life no matter what chance throws our way.
III
A PI is a conversation about your life.
It comprises two private, informal, filmed sessions. We talk about your stories, your values, your hard-earned truths, your version of things, in your own voice with all your expressiveness. It’s at once humorous, serious and fun.
The result is a professionally edited video—a rich personal portrait and a legacy for future generations.
My methodology has been influenced by the ideas of the philosopher Martin Buber. While we all exist in the constant presence of ourselves, he said, our self is a part of reality only in so far as it is relational.
I have been doing PI interviews for over 13 years. My subjects have included men and women from all walks of life. Many had received a PI as a gift from friends or family, who wanted to be certain that their lives and stories were recorded for posterity.
A PI is a remarkable “relational” experience for me and my clients. It also gives me private pleasure to think it will continue creating new relationships far into the future.
“The most important conversations you'll ever have are the ones you'll have with yourself.”
About me
My skills are drawn on my experience as a university teacher, entrepreneur, business consultant, public speaker, interviewer and writer.
My discipline base is the humanities, which includes literature, music, philosophy, history and psychology. I am a true believer in the humanities. There is hardly a better tool kit for understanding ourselves, working with others, and meeting life’s challenges.
Yet there's nothing like experience.
Someone once pointed out experience is not enough. We must reflect on our experience. I couldn't agree more. Our experiences are like books in our private library, which we re-read over the years and never understand in quite the same way. They are the gifts that keep on giving.
More about myself and my work
The importance and fun of giving back
Public Speaking
Memoir and Legacy, Not Quite Satisfied, 6 1/2 Principles of Life
Mentorship
Mentorship and Second Acts. How to reinvent yoursel
Leadership