“Your intention isn’t something you possess. It’s something you continually pursue.” This is one of many pronouncements that comprise this freeform commentary on wealth and happiness by Canadian portfolio manager and family enterprise advisor Derek Henderson.

Here, Thoreau, Socrates, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, and other seekers make for strange bedfellows as Henderson expounds on the nature of wealth and how to attain happiness. Citing ancient philosophy and personal experience, he challenges modern Western strategies for success.

Henderson addresses business professionals, including money managers like himself who, despite a surplus in their retirement accounts, have encountered a void in their lives. In five parts, he outlines a journey of self-discovery. Among those he seeks guidance from are Bob Marley who, in a 1979 interview, famously declared, “Possessions make you rich? I don’t have that kind of richness. My richness is life.” Ironically, the author notes that “the same principles that uncover financial wealth also reveal the wellsprings of a life well lived.” (“Intention. Harmony. Discipline.”)

Henderson advises: “We spend to soothe boredom. Consume to dull anxiety. Scroll to fill silence” when instead we should “stop chasing…start listening…learn to move like the surfer, not by counting waves, but by feeling them.”

This isn’t the kind of self-help guide delivered with rigidly formatted chapters, concise summaries, and therapy exercises. It’s more a collection of thoughts presented with a hodge-podge of italicized rhetoric (How can we choose priorities if we’ve never questioned what we’ve been taught to want?), bolded commands (“Executed. Repeated. Lived.”) and revelations in augmented fonts (“Intention isn’t just a noun. It’s a verb.”) As such, the narrative often feels fragmented.

Overall, it’s an extended rift on the adage: money can’t buy happiness. While Henderson has done much research (cited at the book’s end), the basic idea is simple and feels redundant over the book’s 412 pages.

Still, those willing to persevere will find some helpful mantras here for living a richer life.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.