“Was my first marriage a failure? It wasn’t successful, but it certainly wasn’t a failure,” Stevenson says in the book. “At a minimum, I’ve got three great sons and a slew of grandkids to prove that.”

Not only focused on Stevenson’s personal life, Sinoway writes that there are also important lessons to be learned from Stevenson’s professional career. Based on his work at the Business School researching entrepreneurship, Stevenson has emphasized the importance of applying an entrepreneurial spirit to all parts of life, which he defined as “the pursuit of opportunity without regard to the resources currently controlled.”

To Stevenson, being an entrepreneur is less of a career or personality type, and is instead a process anyone can participate in. He emphasizes a process of living life looking forward instead of backward.

Almost six years after his mentor’s close encounter with death, Sinoway said in an interview that he hopes that his book can convey to others some of the lessons he learned from Stevenson.

“For students at Harvard and elsewhere, we get so driven by success,” Sinoway said. “The question is, if you fast-forward your life 30 or 40 years, it’s great that you’re successful, but will you be satisfied?”

—Staff writer Brian C. Zhang can be reached at brianzhang@college.harvard.edu.