The Touchstone Tools

Fulfilling your greatest potential in life is like building a dream house: it takes a special set of tools to realize your vision.

Joseph Holland dedicated his life to helping Harlem’s homeless. His tireless outreach efforts revealed an essential truth: people lead fulfilling lives because of their foundational values. Drawing wisdom from his real-life experiences, Holland developed a method that allows anyone to build a solid spiritual and moral foundation to thrive in the face of adversity, live each day with inspiration, and rise to his or her divine destiny.

Part road map for success, part motivational pep talk, and part memoir of a life of service, each chapter in The Touchstone Tools outlines one of ten tools for achieving personal transformation. These tools—responsibility, vision, self-esteem, discipline, association, planning, work, wealth, love, and faith—are more than moral precepts; they are structured ways to improve spiritual well-being. Practical and engaging, The Touchstone Tools will help those who want to change their outlook and transform their life.

Joseph Holland is a community-based entrepreneur, attorney, writer, and ordained minister with more than thirty years experience working at the grassroots level in law, business, community service, and government. He earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Cornell University, where he was an All-American football player, and holds a law degree from Harvard Law School. Holland has received numerous awards and honors for both his business and social-service accomplishments. In 1993, President Bill Clinton recognized him at a White House event for his community-building initiatives. Stemming from his work with the homeless, Holland founded Holistic Hardware, a life-skills program, and cofounded the Beth-Hark Christian Counseling Center. His spiritual memoir, From Harlem with Love: An Ivy Leaguer’s Inner-City Odyssey, was published in 2012. His first play, Cast Me Down, enjoyed an off-Broadway run; and his second play, Homegrown, experienced two extended runs at Harlem’s National Black Theatre.