Book Review: Success Built to Last

Success Built to Last: Creating a Life that Matters

“Until you ‘figure out what success means to you personally and to your organisation, leadership is an almost pointless conversation” – Peter Drucker

Jerry Porras, who co-wrote the original “Built to Last“, teams with successful life coaching company co-founder Stewart Emery and top executive coach Mark Thompson, to interview 300 successful people, tagged “builders,” to uncover the secrets of their winning life journeys.

INTRODUCTION

When takling about success, the author’s describe it as:

“the ability to ‘make a difference’, ‘create lasting impact’ and be ‘engaged in a life of personal fulfilment’”

The book is “based on interviews with over 200 people all over the world who have made a difference – large or small – in their field, profession or community, but who have lived a life that they believe mattered”. To find these remarkable people the author’s spoke to Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer, Grammy, Peabody and Grammy award winners including CEO’s from large and small businesses. They also examined lists of people identified as great such as Time Magazine’s Most Influential People, Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award winners, and people identified by Forbes and Fortune magazine. Once identified the people limited the people on the list to those who had sustained success over a 20 year minimum period. This criteria dropped the number of the people on the list to less than 1000 people, removing “celebrities-of-the-moment”. The final group comprised of people across diverse industries, interests and gender, most of whom were over the age of 40, the oldest being 95.

Chapter 1 – From great to lasting – redefining success

The author’s research indicates that there are three elements, that when aligned, create lasting success:

1. Meaning: What you do must matter deeply to you in a way that you as an individual define meaning. It’s something that you’re so passionate about that you lose all track of time when you do it.
2. Thoughtstyle: This is a highly developed sense of accountability, audacity, passion and responsible optimism.
3. Action: Enduringly successful people find effective ways to take action.

“Builders don’t seek goals for their own sake; they find something that holds great meaning for them first, so meaning is on top, informing the rest of the model. Builders manage their thoughts in ways that keep them on track and then take relentless action in pursuit of what matters to them (meaning)……Become consciously aware of what matters to you and then rally your thought and action to support your definition of meaning. That is what we call alignment.”

PART ONE – MEANING – how successful people stay successful

Chapter 2 – Love it or lose it – Passions and the quest for meaning

“The harsh truth is that if you don’t love what you’re doing, you’ll lose to someone who does! For every person who is half-hearted about their work or relationships, there is someone else who loves what they’re half-hearted about. This person will work harder and longer. They will outrun you…. Making success last takes a level of tenacity and passion only love can sustain…. Finding and doing the thing you love offers you a very different experience of work. In fact, it may not feel like work at all. builders typically refer to their work as ‘tremendous fun’….. No one can tell you what risks you should take. We are insisting that you must choose a path that you love, for better or for worse.”

Chapter 3 – Portfolio of passions – it’s not about balance

“Enduringly successful people, many of whom live a life that’s a gift to the world, don’t raise balance as a major issue – not because they had it masterfully handled, but because they were all busy doing what mattered to them….. The balance you’re seeking is a meaningful portfolio, not a balanced one. When you say to yourself you need more balance, ask yourself: if you had it, what would you be doing that you’re not doing now? Chances are a neglected passion is making the request. Pay attention.

Chapter 4 -Why successful people stay successful – integrity to meaning

“If there was one thing they all do consistently – one value that they all share in common – it is integrity to what matters to them. It is integrity to what they believe will make a difference…. Whatever the circumstances, Builders are consistent about one thing: they are always driving for meaning that makes a difference in their lives and work.”

PART TWO – THOUGHTSYTLES – extreme makeovers start in your head

Chapter 5 – The silent scream – why it’s so damn hard to do what matters

“Successful people told us that they’ve been given far fewer reasons to follow their dreams than reasons why they should adandon them… the tragedy for most people is that there is a gaggle of other voices trying to drown out the whisper”

The authors identified four traps that will undermine your ability to respond to the silent scream:

1. Trap No. 1: It’ not considered a worthy career. Assertions that your ideas won’t make a worthy career are often a screen to hide worries (legitimate or otherwise) over security and scarcity.
2. Trap No. 2: Bright shiny objects for our driveways, CVs and ring fingers. Ultimately, no form of acquisition (having) or activity (doing) can lastingly deliver what we long for – the authentic experience of being fully alive.
3. Trap No. 3: The seduction of competence. From our earliest moments, most of us are told to make something of ourselves. but chances are that people who tell you what you should make of yourself have no idea of what to make of themselves…. Do you care more about being loved than being what you love?….. And if you say, I don’t have anything I love, well then there’s a real problem right there, and you have to sit down and say, ‘Why don’t I have anything that I love?’
4. Trap No. 4: The ‘tyranny of the OR’ Enduringly successful people have concluded that their committment to the service of others is also in theri self-interest.

Chapter 6 – the cause has charisma – you don’t have to be charismatic to be successful

“Your personality is not what determines enduring success; it’s what you do with your personality that counts….. The essential difference with Builders is that they’ve found something to do that matters to them and are therefore so passionately engaged, they rise above the personality baggage that would otherwise hold them down. Whatever they are doing has so much meaning to them that the cause itself provides charisma and they plug into it as if it was an electric current… If it’s worth doing, then for heaven’s sake, treat it as if it’s worth doping!”

Chapter 7 – The tripping point – always make new mistakes

“People who have achieved enduring success drone on endlessly about learning from their mistakes. Every builder said setbacks are to be searched for lessons. At a minimum, the lesson mey be not to do the same thing again, or at least do it differently….. Builders use it all. Every experience teaches something. They don’t use a weakness or a setback as a reason to distrust themselves….. If you fail to disect the problem to see what is working and what doesn’t – if you keep throwing away the experience – you may be doomed to repeat it… Builders think of both success and failure as feedback. They don’t judge either as a complete win or loss.”

Chapter 8 – Wounds to wisdom – trusting your weaknesses and using your core incompetencies

“The lesson is always this: weakness was not the cause of the tragedy; rather, the hero’s relationship to the weakness became of the cause of his undoing….. Builders don’t deny their flaws, nor do they allow them to paralyse action. They might feel embarrassed or overwhelmed by them at times, but they still don’t marginalise themselves or the problem. They don’t even ‘overcome’ their ‘disability’. The manage it, include it, cope with it, and don’t let it stop them. In many cases, so-called ‘disabilities’ become embraced as the building blocks of greatness, of success that lasts… Builders claim that it’s your choice whether to be a beneficiary of what there is to harvest from the most difficult situations.”

PART THREE – ACTIONSTYLES – turning passion into action

Chapter 9 – Earning your luck – preparing for serendipity by using big hairy audacious goals

“The overwhelming majority of Builders claim that their success has been a serendipitous journey, and the luck they enjoyed was usually earned, often at great cost. They have done that by focusing on doing work that is meaningful to them and going deep to discover relevant clues along the way. They set big goals and engaged completely in the work at hand. As a consequence, Builders are better prepared to turn things that, on the surface, may seem bad or useless into opportunities.”

Chapter 10 – Naked conversations – harvesting contention

“One of the Actionstyles of enduringly successful people is that contention something they actually seek out. We’re talking here about gloves-off, brutally frank dialogue…. The focus is on issues, not people…. The purpose is to encourage contention in a very precise way to draw out the best, most passionate and creative ideas from their teams.”

Chapter 11 – Creating alignment – the environment always wins

“Builders spend what feels like an excessive amount of time talking about the need to recruit and care for talented people to support their dream…. Watch the behaviour of long-lasting high achievers and you’ll see the difference. The walk matches the talk. People judge your values and character based on the difference between your words and actions. Everyone is better off when deeds and testimony match….. Builders find that when their core values, words and action are in alignment, they feel like they’re on track and, not surprisingly, they attract the right people to their team.”

Summary

I found this to be a great book. Although many books have been written on personal success, this book is unique among them in that the authors have adopted a rigorous and scientific approach to discover what really creates lasting success. The book is written in such a way that it takes the reader into the personal conversations with the people interviewed. The principles, ideas and insight generated by this research provides a solid basis for those looking for a reliable source of principle on which to build their lives. Definitely worth the time and money, a book that you will find yourself going back to over and over again……

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