Eating Glass

The Inner Journey Through Failure and Renewal

By: Mark D. Jacobsen

Narrated by: Mark D. Jacobsen

Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

I have done my best to name the thoughts, feelings, and opportunities that accompany the journey through failure, because in naming a thing we gain power over it. What I ultimately hope for are empowered men and women who confidently embrace their stories to live more effectively and wholeheartedly in the world.

Fail fast, fail often, fail forward...

We live in an age that acknowledges the importance of failure to success. Yet our relentless focus on success can leave us ill-prepared for the trauma, grief, and confusion that can accompany failure, whether in business, relationships, or life.

We all have experiences that shatter our sense of self and leave us gasping to breathe. The aftermaths of these experiences are rich seasons in which we can experience tremendous personal flourishing, but few of us are prepared for them or have trustworthy guides.

In Eating Glass, Air Force officer, Stanford PhD, and serial entrepreneur Mark D. Jacobsen has written a compassionate and practical guide to navigating these seasons. Drawing on his own experiences - including a failed humanitarian nonprofit and a grueling PhD process - he guides listeners through four stages: Failure, aftermath, healing, and renewal. With unflinching honesty and a consistently redemptive spirit, he names the thoughts and feelings we all experience in these seasons, giving listeners permission to embrace their own stories.

Eating Glass provides steady assurance that we are never alone in our journeys, and that our seasons of failure are fertile times in which we grow.

©2021 Mark D. Jacobsen (P)2021 Mark D. Jacobsen

Failure is always built upon successes

Mark's story is an unguarded and brutally honest self-reflection of aspirations unfulfilled. A man's standards can be measured by how high tries to reach. When he assesses his own achievements as small, he views the world with clear vision and practical judgement. It is refreshing to read how an ambitious achiever skips over the less common accolades, lamenting his missing the moon amidst a culture that fixates on superficiality in nearly every facet of artificial engagement. The conversational confession that is "Eating Glass" reflects the counter-cultural maturity of a humble and exceptionally talented leader and innovator. Bravo brother, for sharing the pragmatic and vulnerable reality that comes with daring greatly, particularly amidst a culture that fixates on superficiality to spin sensationalized alternate personas.

Refreshingly vulnerable

The stories of failure and disappointment, and the emotions that follow, are rarely discussed. And never like this. I appreciate Mark’s honesty, raw emotions, and stories. I’m sure these stories and lessons are impacting the students you teach now.

Struggle transmuted into hard-won wisdom

There are two definitions of failure - failing to achieve an objective and collapsing under a burden too great to bear - and Mark D. Jacobsen has been through both. This book tells his story but it’s more than a memoir. It offers insight but it’s not self-help. It’s a meditation - a deeply-considered reflection on the author’s own experience of failure, recovery, and renewal. It’s not about avoiding failure: that’s impossible. Nor is about short-cutting what follows: that’s only superficially desirable. Rather, by illuminating and expounding upon the stages of his journey, he helps us to find comfort, meaning, and hope as we make our own.

Powerful and Introspective

A gripping sojourn through the trials and tribulations that we face when our dreams meet hard reality and we’re forced to grapple with failure. I recommend this book for anyone who is struggling with entrepreneurship or for those who simply want to reflect on their life’s misadventures be they professional or personal, public or private. The author provides a brutally honest account of his own life’s ups and downs and invites the reader to embrace the process of healing and renewal. I found ‘Broken Glass’ to be both difficult and heartwarming, but most of all it was a story I could identify with - and it led me to contemplate and come to a better understanding of my own journey.