In the latest edition of Search for Meaning, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Ken Lindner, a super-agent, author, and founder of Positive Life Choice Psychology.
In this wide-ranging discussion, Lindner—author of the recently-released bestselling book “Aspire Higher”—delves into his childhood struggle with weight and self-esteem. He and Rabbi Yoshi examine how that struggle shaped not only Lindner’s amateur athletic career, but his ascendance as an agent to some of the top news personalities in the United States.
Lindner details how his father’s long work weeks led him to develop feelings of insecurity and un-love-ability, which in turn led to toxic emotions, binge eating, and bad decisions. At the age of 4, Lindner was so frustrated with his father for his perceived lack of attention and approval that he hurled a brick in his father’s direction. “My aim was as bad as my judgement,” says Lindner, who thankfully missed.
The two reconciled and bonded over paddle tennis, which led to Lindner’s emergence as a paddle tennis national champion, and a paddle tennis win over the famed Bobby Riggs. When he switched to full-on tennis, he became a phenom in Brooklyn and went on to star at Harvard, where in his senior year, he beat the legendary Arthur Ashe in an exhibition match. As Lindner’s confidence grew, he developed discipline and cultivated an even-keeled disposition. He also fell in love with learning. He mastered his emotions, and as he read more broadly, began to examine how control of one’s emotions or desires relates to what Judaism says about strength and power.
“I believe every day is a Rosh Hashanah or a Yom Kippur,” he tells Rabbi Yoshi. “We should assimilate information every day—what we’re doing right, what we’re doing wrong, and how to be better.”
As Lindner’s emotional intelligence and curiosity grew, he began to understand his father more: A Polish immigrant with only the barest of educations, he had lost his father at an early age and worked as he did so that his son could have the education he never had. Lindner discusses his father’s role in the establishment of department store T.J. Maxx, and how that led him to a serendipitous encounter with Sam “Cookie” Weisbord, who persuaded him to work at the William Morris Agency, instead of at a law firm that had the agency as a client.
From Lester Holt, Mario Lopez, Tom Bergeron, and Megyn Kelly, to local talents Christine Devine, Dallas Raines, Pat Harvey, and Colleen Williams, Lindner and his team have worked with a laundry list of stars. He has espoused his positive life choice psychology both in “Aspire Higher” and “Career Choreography,” a book which has its roots in his own experience.
While not officially a client, he’s even counseled Rabbi Yoshi. Over a lunch early in their relationship, he suggested to the then -Head of School at Wise School that he should apply to be the Senior Rabbi at Stephen Wise Temple. Rabbi Yoshi will be celebrating seven years in that position this year, and he will be honored for his 10 years of service to the Wise community at the Wise Gala on May 7.