It is important to understand the two methodologies by which the authors obtained the material for this book. As they explain, first they completed more than 200 personal interviews from 1996 to 2006; after analyzing the responses, they identified 21 broad topic categories that emerged from the conversations. “The strongest of these made it into the book.” Then, with their manuscript already drafted, they tested their assumptions by creating a unique independent survey to challenge their conclusions. The authors’ “World Success Survey” was made available online on April 18, 2006, to subscribers of Knowledge@Wharton. More than 365 people from around the globe responded within the first week.
The authors challenge conventional thinking about how successful people stay successful. Those interviewed, as well as those who responded to the “World Success Survey,” redefine success, for example, that everything in life should be kept in “balance.” One of those interviewed characterizes it, as culturally defined, “balance is in fact bullshit–as a popular concept, it ranks right up there with the idea that that there is just one passion for your life, and when you know what it is, you’ll be happy. It rarely works that way.” What is the lesson to be learned? Successful people concentrate primarily on finding a place only for everything that is of greatest importance to them. That’s the “balance” they should be seeking. During an interview of Katherine Hepburn, when asked what the secret to her success was, she stated “Elimination. I simply got rid of anyone and anything that really didn’t matter one bit to me. You know, dead weight, excess baggage, that sort of thing.” She was not among those interviewed by Porras and Emery but her observation is nonetheless relevant…and informative.
The authors allowed those interviewed as well as those surveyed to speak frankly about their successes but, more importantly, about their failures. Builders think of both success and failure as feedback. They don’t judge either as a complete win or loss. Moreover, they view each “failure” (however defined) as an especially valuable learning opportunity. Technology pundit Esther Dyson asserts that anything worth doing “will keep you in a constant state of trial and error, so take good notes as you stumble along. When you make mistakes, just be sure to make new ones.” Throughout their narrative, the authors insert dozens of apt quotations from an extraordinarily diverse range of sources; they also suggest (in their own words) what they consider to be key points.
It takes serious commitment, self-discipline, and sometimes great courage to sustain engagement in the practice of aligning career and personal life. Pores and Emery believe that “the only thing that provides lasting success (and happiness, if that’s part of your personal definition of success) is the day-to-day practice and struggle to move the three circles–Meaning, Thought, and Action–toward alignment in your life and work. It is an adventure that you are better off embracing with all of your heart and soul because it is a challenge that never ends as long as you are here.” To build success which lasts, therefore, create a life that matters. It is as easy and as difficult as that.
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