Watch: Film director’s brush with death inspires a new book on life

Have you ever looked for an operational manual to life? Film director Tom Shadyac may have something for you.

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Tom Shadyac seem to have it all: a multimillion-dollar career directing Hollywood blockbusters (like Ace Venture: Pet Detective, Liar, Liar, and The Nutty Professor), a huge house in California, and beautiful expensive cars. But something was missing. “As I got stuff, as I ‘won,’ it didn’t pay. I didn’t feel the fruits of that,” Shadyac said on Tuesday’s The Cycle.

For Subscribers

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FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

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FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

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FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

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FOR SUBSCRIBERSThe debate over AI’s future rages on both coasts

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After a near death experience, Shadyac moved to a mobile home park and rid his life of most of his possessions. “It’s a simple life. When I lived in a mansion I didn’t know a single neighbor, now I know all my neighbors,” Shadyac said.

In his new book, Life’s Operating Manual: With the Fear and Truth Dialogues, Shadyac questions the traditional ways we think about our lives and looks at everything from wars to freedom to dig into how our fears prevent us from seeing the truth. “It’s something that many of us feel but don’t have the courage to make the adjustment because we have been told our whole lives, ‘This is what success looks like.’ And when we get there it feels vacuous and we don’t have the courage or the energy to shift,” Shadyac said. “Fortunately I have always seen my life as an experiment, I have just wanted to go to what works. And as I felt the charity aspect in my life, the giving aspect, I felt the power and I have walked more into that.”