The journey of life is a complex one. Throughout it, we find ourselves assailed on all sides by forces both in and outside our control. Learning to navigate these complexities and barriers is not an easy task, but it is a manageable one. Marcus shares his stories to help you construct your own toolkit for surviving in today’s world, so that you might meet with success, happiness, and completeness.
For the Love Of… is a collection of essays that contain personal advice from Marcus Johnson, an accomplished musician and entrepreneur. Marcus has managed to stay afloat in cutthroat industries, ultimately achieving success despite venturing into the saturated markets of live and recorded music, and wine and spirits. Along the way, he encountered many obstacles and faced numerous pitfalls that almost cost him his sense of self. Forging ahead, against the grain, Marcus found his rhythm, his “flo,” and began to find joy even in the midst of working his way around countless roadblocks on his journey to success. Shared in these pages are lessons that Marcus learned along the way that helped him cope as he rode out the highs and lows of making his dreams a reality. He has provided practical strategies and techniques that will inspire you to discover your purpose, pursue your passion, and stay the course in spite of perceived challenges. For the Love Of… will inspire, motivate, and empower you to figure life out regardless of your circumstances.
“Marcus’s unique perspective as both a creative and an entrepreneur allows his message to resonate with so many people from artists to academics to executives. There is something for everyone in this book. I encourage you to come back to it again and again.”
“Marcus has given us permission in this book; permission to be thankful and grateful; permission to honor ourselves and practice self care; permission to be vulnerable and to look at the person in the mirror and permission to be honest with ourselves and the people we love.”
“This book is a testimony wrought with emotion and priceless teaching moments.”
“If you’re looking for a book (life manual) that will enhance the direction of your life along with concrete references of the truth in its advice, this is the book for you!”
Marcus Johnson is an award-winning, Billboard chart-topping, NAACP Image Award-nominated jazz pianist, entrepreneur, and self-empowerment activist. Marcus earned his stripes as an entrepreneur in the music and wine industries after finishing his JD/MBA at the Georgetown University Law Center. He believes that investing in the community and in ones self is the best way to solve the problems and questions facing humanity: Why are we here? The answers: To Dream! To Plan! To Execute! To Listen and Learn! These are the core points of his cycle of success. When Marcus is not dreaming, planning, doing, and reflecting, he speaks publicly on a range of topics, hosts a radio show, and regularly performs his original music on stages both domestic and abroad. Marcus resides in the Washington, D.C. area and is a proud father to his daughter Chase.
For the Love Of… is a collection of essays from Marcus Johnson — Billboard-charting musician, Georgetown-trained attorney, and serial entrepreneur — on living the journey of life with intention, passion, happiness, and love. Drawn from the same ideas he shares in his TEDx talks and seminars, it's a practical toolkit for discovering your purpose, pursuing your passion, and staying the course through the highs and lows. The foreword is by Sheila Johnson, co-founder of BET.
DEEPER is the framework at the heart of the book: Dream, Engage, Environment, Plan, Execute, Reflect. The core idea is simple but demanding: you are not a victim of your life — you are engaged in it. Dream your own dream (not your parents', not society's). Engage it like a binding agreement with yourself. Choose your environment and the people in it. Put it in a written plan. Execute relentlessly. Then reflect — because wisdom doesn't come from experience alone; it comes from listening and learning.
Marcus Johnson is a Billboard-charting jazz pianist (23 Top 10 albums), entrepreneur, attorney, and educator. He holds a JD/MBA from Georgetown, teaches Entertainment Law and Business Development at Howard University, and was named the U.S. Small Business Administration's Young Entrepreneur of the Year. He founded FLO Wine (a USA Today Top 10 Celebrity Wine Line), earned an NAACP Image Award nomination, received the Joseph R. Biden Lifetime Achievement Award, and has spoken at Harvard Law, Cornell, Georgetown, the Smithsonian, and on the TEDx stage.
Because it's written by someone who actually did it — across music, law, business, and wine — and who knows what it takes to bet on yourself when you come from a world that says a traditional path is the only way. It's not theory. It's a field guide for anyone breaking from other people's definitions of success to build a life, and a legacy, of their own.
Yes — For the Love Of… is available as an Audible audiobook (narrated by Marcus), a Kindle ebook, and in paperback on Amazon. You can buy or listen directly from this page.
Entrepreneurs, creatives, students, and anyone navigating change or searching for purpose. As BET co-founder Sheila Johnson put it, "There is something for everyone in this book — from artists to academics to executives."
Hear a sample, in Marcus’s own voice — the introduction to For the Love Of… Then keep listening with the full audiobook on Audible, or get the paperback or Kindle on Amazon.
