In a riveting narrative that interweaves compelling stories from education, the military and business, and a wide range of groundbreaking new research, he identifies the six hidden drivers behind unlikely success.
by Rom Brafman
In countless studies, psychologists have discovered a suprising fact: For decades they assumed that people who face adversity — a difficult childhood, career turbulence, sudden bouts of bad luck — will succumb to their circumstances. Yet again and again, they found a significant percentage are able to overcome those circumstances and achieve spectacular success.
How is it that individuals who are not “supposed” to succeed manage to overcome the odds? Do such people have certain traits in common? Can the rest of us learn from their successes and apply them to our own lives? Brafman set out to answer these questions.
In a riveting narrative that interweaves compelling stories from education, the military and business, and a wide range of groundbreaking new research, he identifies the six hidden drivers behind unlikely success. Among them: our ability to redirect the focus of our lives to the result of our own efforts, as opposed to external forces; the remarkable way in which a consistent ally who accepts us unconditionally, while still challenging us to be our best can make a huge difference; and that people who are able to tunnel through life’s obstacles have a surprisingly mild disposition — they do not allow the bumps in the road to unsettle them.
By understanding and incorporating these strategies in our own lives, Brafman argues, we can all be better prepared to overcome the inevitable obstacles we face in our personal lives.
$23 hardcover — Crown Archetype, a division of Random House, Inc., 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 31, Number 1, February/March 2012.
April 12, 2012
Book review