Product Description

Chosen by BusinessWeek as one of the top 5 books of 2006 in careers.  Read the full story at businessweek.com. 

Imagine discovering what successful people have in common, distilling it into a set of simple practices, and using them to transform your life and work. Authored by three legends in leadership and self-help — includingBuilt to Last co-author Jerry Porras — it challenges conventional wisdom at every step.Success Built to Last draws on face-to-face, unscripted conversations with hundreds of remarkable human beings from around the world. Meet billionaires, CEOs, presidents of nations, Nobel laureates and celebrities — the rich, the famous and the unknown. Meet unsung heroes who've achieved lasting impact without obvious power or charisma. Famous or not, most started out ordinary. Discover how successful people "harvest" their strengths and their weaknesses, their victories and their surprising failures. Discover how you can find meaning in your life and work just as they did and summon the courage to follow your passions. Above all, see how they've sustained successfor decades and you can too.

Foreword by Senator John McCain

Acknowledgements

Introduction–From Built to Last to Success Built to Last

Chapter 1: From Great to Lasting–Redefining Success

Part I: Meaning–How Successful People Stay Successful

Chapter 2: Love it or Lose–Passions and the Quest for Meaning

Chapter 3: Portfolio of Passions–It’s Not About Balance

Chapter 4: Why Successful People Stay Successful–Integrity to Meaning

Part II: ThoughtStyles–Extreme Makeovers Start in Your Head

Chapter 5: The Silent Scream–Why It’s So Damn Hard to Do What Matters

Chapter 6: The Cause Has Charisma–You Don’t Have to Be Charismatic to Be Successful

Chapter 7: The Tripping Point–Always Make New Mistakes

Chapter 8: Wounds to Wisdom–Trusting Your Weaknesses and Using Your Core Incompetencies

Part III: ActionStyles–Turning Passion into Action

Chapter 9: Earning Your Luck–Preparing for Serendipity by Using Big Hairy Audacious Goals

Chapter 10: Naked Conversations–Harvesting Contention

Chapter 11: Creating Alignment–The Environment Always Wins

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out–A Look at the Research Behind Success Built to Last

Endnotes

Biographical Index

Index

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1026989 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From the Back Cover

Chosen by BusinessWeek as one of the top 5 books of 2006 in careers.  Read the full story at businessweek.com. 

Imagine discovering what successful people have in common, distilling it into a set of simple practices, and using them to transform your life and work. Authored by three legends in leadership and self-help — includingBuilt to Last co-author Jerry Porras — it challenges conventional wisdom at every step.Success Built to Last draws on face-to-face, unscripted conversations with hundreds of remarkable human beings from around the world. Meet billionaires, CEOs, presidents of nations, Nobel laureates and celebrities — the rich, the famous and the unknown. Meet unsung heroes who've achieved lasting impact without obvious power or charisma. Famous or not, most started out ordinary. Discover how successful people "harvest" their strengths and their weaknesses, their victories and their surprising failures. Discover how you can find meaning in your life and work just as they did and summon the courage to follow your passions. Above all, see how they've sustained successfor decades and you can too.

Foreword by Senator John McCain

Acknowledgements

Introduction–From Built to Last to Success Built to Last

Chapter 1: From Great to Lasting–Redefining Success

Part I: Meaning–How Successful People Stay Successful

Chapter 2: Love it or Lose–Passions and the Quest for Meaning

Chapter 3: Portfolio of Passions–It’s Not About Balance

Chapter 4: Why Successful People Stay Successful–Integrity to Meaning

Part II: ThoughtStyles–Extreme Makeovers Start in Your Head

Chapter 5: The Silent Scream–Why It’s So Damn Hard to Do What Matters

Chapter 6: The Cause Has Charisma–You Don’t Have to Be Charismatic to Be Successful

Chapter 7: The Tripping Point–Always Make New Mistakes

Chapter 8: Wounds to Wisdom–Trusting Your Weaknesses and Using Your Core Incompetencies

Part III: ActionStyles–Turning Passion into Action

Chapter 9: Earning Your Luck–Preparing for Serendipity by Using Big Hairy Audacious Goals

Chapter 10: Naked Conversations–Harvesting Contention

Chapter 11: Creating Alignment–The Environment Always Wins

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out–A Look at the Research Behind Success Built to Last

Endnotes

Biographical Index

Index

About the Author

Jerry Porras coauthored (with Jim Collins) Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, which has been translated into twenty-five languages and sold more than one million copies. He is Stanford Graduate School of Business Lane Professor of Organizational Behavior and Change, Emeritus, and directed the School’s Executive Program on Leading and Managing Change for sixteen years. He has also lectured on visionary companies before senior management audiences worldwide.

Stewart Emery is considered one of the fathers of the Human Potential Movement. He served as the first CEO of est, cofounded Actualizations, led seminars in dozens of countries, and has coached over 12,000 people in the last three decades. He is the bestselling author of the books Actualizations: You Don’t Have to Rehearse to Be Yourself and The Owner’s Manual For Your Life. As a consultant, he asked questions that led MasterCard to its legendary “Priceless” campaign.

Mark Thompson captured the insightful stories that formed the foundation for Success Built to Last from hundreds of personal interviews with enduringly successful people around the world. He is an executive coach, advisor to senior management teams, award-winning audio book producer, and former executive producer of Schwab.com. Forbes Magazine listed him as one of America’s top venture investors with the “Midas” touch.

Customer Reviews

creating a life that matters
Success Built to Last is one of the most insightful books I have read for years.

It is entertaining, thought-provoking and also realistic in its conclusions. I have now have a much deeper understanding into the lives of the famous and not so famous who have truly made an impact on the world, not only through their success in business or through their wealth but equally due to their determination to succeed and their belief in what they do.

If there is one thing that this book has taught me it is the importance of believing in what you do and making the most of your life. After reading this book I certainly plan to do this in future.

What Does It Take to Make a Difference?

Almost everyone wants to be more successful. As evidence of that, look at the rows of shelves in book stores filled with self-help and success-related titles. But no one wants to be successful for the proverbial 15 minutes and then sink into ineffectiveness and obscurity.

Jerry Porras (coauthor of Build to Last), Stewart Emery (an important figure in the Human Potential Movement) and Mark Thompson (an unstoppable interviewer and executive coach) have combined their diverse talents to provide powerful insights into what has worked best for those who have sustained personal success for over 20 years. The book is one part methodology, one part great stories and one part keen insight.

Here was the process that led to the book. Interviews were held during 1996-206 with over 200 high profile people who had enjoyed lasting success (CEOs, community leaders, professionals, politicians and small business people). For the most part, they avoided the geniuses in favor of people who built extraordinary results from more ordinary abilities and resources.

In early 2006, surveys were done on a worldwide basis with subscribers to Knowledge@Wharton to test the findings from the interviews.

Regression analyses were used to sort out the key influences. The results were used to structure the book's key conclusions.

What did they learn?

The key concept is that continually successful people combine meaning, thought and actions in mutual consistent ways that provide sustained performance.

Let me describe each area a little. Meaning is important because it ignites passion in you and others. Success requires persistence. Without continuing passion, it's hard to be persistent enough to be a lasting success. In addition, passions bring energy. It turns out that continually successful people have all kinds of passions. Ultimately, successful people respond to a calling to answer their passion in a way that seems right, comfortable and full of integrity.

Thought is important because successful people use their own gauges of success . . . rather than the applause of others. Many successful people lack charisma . . . but their cause has more than enough charisma to attract all of the support they will ever need. You also need to learn by choosing to try hard things where you can make new mistakes to direct you in the future. But turn pain into performance. Don't let wounds hold you back.

Action benefits from taking on Big Hairy Audacious Goals (a remnant of Built to Last's research), seeking out knowledge by using conversations to test and develop ideas, and establishing alignment within those who are helping you succeed.

What kind of a leader are they describing? Some frequently cited examples in the book include Charles Schwab, Sir Richard Branson, Jack Welch, Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, Herb Kelleher, Elie Wiesel, Condoleeza Rice, and Marva Collins. There are also plenty of non-marquee names whose stories will often impress you more than those you have heard of before. Even in the familiar stories, I found that the details included material that I didn't know before.

Basically, Abraham Maslow would have recognized these Builders (as the authors call their successful people) as his self-actualized individuals.

Two things stand out about the book. First, the authors make it clear that these lasting successes had a hard time achieving. It was rarely easy. Second, without a comparison group, I found myself wondering if there's a substantial body of self-actualized people who work hard at the same things . . . but don't ever receive much notice from those they are trying to influence. That second question is very important. What are the odds of becoming a long-term success if you follow this advice? I don't know, but you'll certainly feel like you're pursuing a life worth living . . . no matter what the cost is.

If you would like to re-examine your life, Success Built to Last provides a good template for comparisons that will cause you to look for more meaning, thought and action.

Enjoy!