Book excerpt: What attitudes make the difference between failure and success? In Discovering Unexpected Gifts, author Stephen Now gives us a way to illuminate life’s experiences, through his reflections on loss, love, fear, rejection, healing, and acceptance. Listeners hear how the author is transformed by challenging and joyful experiences, both “gifts,” and explaining how to assign value to both the events, some that are clearly blessings, as well as the ones that seem like obvious setbacks. He demonstrates the idea that life experience need not be a series of successes or achievements to be beautiful. Discovering Unexpected Gifts points to something beyond ourselves as we begin to understand we play a part in bringing unexpected gifts to others—and in so doing find meaning, purpose, and joy.