Can an individual turn the pain of a troubled childhood into a recipe for success as an adult?

In Who's in the Waiting Room?, Neal Goldstein tells his own story of going from high school dropout to lawyer, a dramatic transformation that he achieved by tapping into the power of relationships. Alongside his journey of self-discovery, Neal presents five behaviors anyone can adopt to foster quality relationships: find your people, acknowledge the need for each other, listen more than you talk, recognize the value of face-to-face contact, and find common ground. He explains how the pain of his youth became his power and offers actionable success moves to help anyone recognize how strengthening relationships in their own lives can lead to success and satisfaction.

Goldstein, Neal

At sixteen, NEAL GOLDSTEIN dropped out of high school. It was the last in a long line of defeats for an underprivileged boy, self-raised, in a tumultuous home with an abusive father and a disabled mother. Neal did the only thing he could think to do: quit dreaming of a future, get a job, and look after his mom as well as he could.

Once Neal was able to find the genuine relationships he was searching for, he allowed himself to take the courageous steps of getting his high school equivalency diploma. Now, Neal Goldstein is a partner at the law firm of Goldstein and Bashner and lives with his wife Gina on Long Island. They have four children: Matt, Sari, Jessica, and Lana. He loves traveling, bicycle riding, and walking on the boardwalk in his hometown in his free time.