And while a life story can be interesting, it is neither the wealth of our pasts, nor the depth of our experiences that determine who we have become. Who we are is rightly revealed by our actions.

Mick Quinn's life was radically transformed in the summer of 2001 while sitting in meditation 
with world-renowned spiritual 
teacher, Andrew Cohen* during
a long-term retreat in the 
South of France.

Mick has been  a bartender, a delivery person, a civil servant, and a founding partner in a pair of multimillion -dollar technology companies based in New York City. 

He also founded an international
executive coaching practice, an import business catering to some 
of Hollywood's finest, and
an 'angel' investment fund.

But, before all this, in 1986, after his studies at Trinity College, Dublin, Mick left his home country for a new life in the United States. Following several years of a thrilling, yet precarious escapade as an illegal alien, he "won" his Green Card in an official lottery.

This was to be the first major 
turning point in his quest for the
"American Dream". The second
turning point came in 1992 when 
he took a meditation class in 
Boston with Will Arntz, the 
director of the hit movie,
"What the Bleep!".

Following the recommendation of 
his teacher, and visionary behind 
The Frederick P. Lenz Foundation 
for American Buddhism. Mick 
moved to New York City. There 
he enrolled at Columbia
University to study computer technology. He also continued his
studies of sales, marketing, business, Buddhism, Zen, and meditation.

In 1994, Mick seized an opportunity
to join a fledgling technology company in New York City. In less than three years the company had become a multi-million dollar operation with offices throughout 
the United States. 

Mick simultaneously maintained 
an interest in spirituality, but it 
was a distant second to personal success.

Now with both his home and 
business addresses on New York 
City’s prestigious Fifth Avenue, 
he was confident that this perfect
balance of spiritual seeking and 
the pursuit of the "American 
Dream" would eventually lead 
to the end of emotional and psychological suffering. Deep 
down, however, ease and
contentment remained elusive.

In 1997, after completing a pre-
IPO merger with a competitor, 
Mick resigned his founding position
in this first start-up. He went on
to form a second successful 
company from the 79th floor of 
World Trade Center, Tower 1. 

* www.guru-talk.com

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By late 1999, Mick sold his interest
in the business to his partners and
started an executive leadership  
practice. He worked with an inter-
national clientele of business 
leaders and entrepreneurs. This 
new career gave him the flexibility 
to pursue his spiritual interests in greater depth.

Mick traveled the US, and to India  
and France to attend workshops and retreats.

There he met other people who 
were also grappling with the 
questions that had plagued him 
since his twenties, ones he had unsuccessfully tried to smother with the myriad distractions 
of a busy life, questions such as: 
Who Am I? and How Shall I live?

His bookshelves were filled with
spiritual bestsellers, but in his 
heart nothing really changed. 
Going from one retreat to the next,
he found rooms full of those who
had been seeking inner peace for
twenty-five or thirty years.

As a curious neophyte, this state
of affairs seemed to hold little 
hope for the success of his own quest. Then, on August 26, 2001, 
in meditation near Nice, France, everything became apparent. 

In those instants of Unity, Mick also realized that the motives and intentions that had been driving his relationships, careers, and his spiritual quest, were exclusive products of individual and collective conditioning. 

What he firmly believed had been his spiritual path was just a holograph of progress, courtesy of conditioning, which had been leading him in grand circles around the possibility of awakening.

On September 9, 2001, Mick 
returned to New York City 
wondering what to do with a 
life that was no longer his.

Compelled by the revelation that life is full and complete just as it is, Mick began to  wind down his 
existing lifestyle and the litany of situations and relationships he had formed based on the presence of concealed conditioning. 

Following the tragic event of 9/11, the loss of several friends and his business at the Towers, Mick choose to move back to his native Europe.

Letting go of a conditioned way of living was not without its cost. But, 
the surprising  part was that when released, the content that was once so closely guarded was no longer wanted. 

A quick search led to the purchase
of a restored 19th-century watermill in northern Portugal. This home was to become the birthplace of Mick's writings.  

This move also led him to meet Debora Prieto, a native of neighboring Spain, and subsequently to their marriage 
and a first publishing contract 
in 2007. Mick and Debora now 
teach together.


Click for more photos 

Mick Quinn
Debora Prieto Morais
Barcelona
July, 2007.