The Adversity Paradox

Harvey Mackay, Doris Christopher, Pete Dawkins, Clay Jones and John Pappajohn know that the answer to how you recover from career toppling adversity, and then go on to achieve pinnacles of success lies in firsthand knowledge of "the adversity paradox". They all attest to having found that the knowledge they gained from overcoming adversity played such a crucial role in their success trajectories, they now consider adversity a friend. While many motivational business books promise easy access to prosperity and power by way of secret insight, quick and easy steps, or "insider tips" that are dubious at best, The Adversity Paradox tells it straight and offers no secret formula or silver bullet; instead it offers candid accounts from those whose skills, resourcefulness, and confidence have been tested by adversity and who have put their misfortunes to good use by gaining invaluable business lessons from them. The paths to success are diverse, but The Adversity Paradox identifies patterns that anyone can study and learn from. Business people working to overcome humble beginnings, lack of knowledge, unexpected setbacks, or any manner of misfortune may find the greatest tool for creating business success lies in this new book.

Adversity comes to all of us in ways we may not expect or choose. Often, it is unwanted and untimely. And still it boldly demands something of us. A response. Perhaps it's the pain of sickness, death, or simply getting older. Maybe it's the struggle of constant change, or the suffering of disillusionment that comes with life and its many losses and limitations. However it comes, Ben reveals how such experiences can be transformed into a catalyst for magnificent joy and a profound sense of personal empowerment and strength. The Empowerment Paradox shows you how to turn life's roadblocks and stumbling blocks into robust building blocks. It reveals a powerful and desperately needed series of vital virtues to strengthen your emotional and mental center. These virtues, when developed, provide clarity and understanding for dealing with the complexities of life. They offer the power you need to rise up and become the best version of yourself. Suffering, struggle, and adversity all offer us an opportunity-this book shows you how to seize it.

The coauthors of the bestselling Peak Performance dive into the fascinating science behind passion, showing how it can lead to a rich and meaningful life while also illuminating the ways in which it is a double-edged sword. Here’s how to cultivate a passion that will take you to great heights—while minimizing the risk of an equally great fall. Common advice is to find and follow your passion. A life of passion is a good life, or so we are told. But it's not that simple. Rarely is passion something that you just stumble upon, and the same drive that fuels breakthroughs—whether they're athletic, scientific, entrepreneurial, or artistic—can be every bit as destructive as it is productive. Yes, passion can be a wonderful gift, but only if you know how to channel it. If you're not careful, passion can become an awful curse, leading to endless seeking, suffering, and burnout. Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness once again team up, this time to demystify passion, showing readers how they can find and cultivate their passion, sustainably harness its power, and avoid its dangers. They ultimately argue that passion and balance--that other virtue touted by our culture--are incompatible, and that to find your passion, you must lose balance. And that's not always a bad thing. They show readers how to develop the right kind of passion, the kind that lets you achieve great things without ruining your life. Swift, compact, and powerful, this thought-provoking book combines captivating stories of extraordinarily passionate individuals with the latest science on the biological and psychological factors that give rise to—and every bit as important, sustain—passion.

Marcus Bullock was sixteen years old when he was sentenced to eight years in an adult maximum security prison. Today, he's the founder and CEO of Flikshop, the mobile application keeping families connected to incarcerated loved ones. The most incredible stories are often the ones that don't make the biggest headlines. The Underdog Paradox: Secrets to Battling Adversity and Stories of Real Life Superheroes chronicles the journeys of five entrepreneurs who defy the odds en route to building a brighter future. This book shows that anyone can go from ordinary to extraordinary by channeling an underdog mindset. No matter who you are, where you're from, or what you want to be, you have the power to make a difference.

Insightful and easy-to-read summaries of fifteen great books. There are dozens of leadership and career books published every year, each promising a different path to success. How are readers expected to get the information they need without reading every one of them? Soundview Executive Book Summaries has developed a reputation for being the premier business book selection service in the country. Each month Soundview editors select and summarize the best books so that readers can get a better idea of what's out there and which books will give them an edge. Soundview follows up its previous books (The Marketing Gurus, The Management Gurus, and The Sales Gurus) with this collection of fifteen synopses of definitive books from authors who know the challenges of having a great career. They include Daniel Pink, Seth Godin, Stephen R. Covey, and Marchall Goldsmith. Two of the summaries have never been published. Each book is represented by main points, key examples, best quotes, and more.

You're anxious all the time, experiencing panic attacks over and over, and maybe afraid to leave your house or to be left alone for even a few minutes.. You are avoiding simple things like driving, eating in restaurants, attending family functions, or going to the supermarket. You are terrified of the next wave of anxiety or the next panic attack. Your anxiety problems are ruining your relationships, your family life, and your career. Your anxiety problems have you afraid, confused, lost, and feeling hopeless. How did you get here? What went wrong? You've tried so many things, but nothing has cured your anxiety? What can you do now? The Anxious Truth is a step-by-step guide to understanding and overcoming the anxiety problems that have plagued you for so long. This book, written by a former anxiety sufferer, best-selling author of "An Anxiety Story", and host of the The Anxious Truth podcast will walk you through exactly how you got to where you are today, why you are not broken or ill, and what the true nature of your anxiety disorder is. Next, the book will walk you through what it takes to solve your anxiety problems, how to make an anxiety recovery plan, then how to correctly execute that plan. The Anxious Truth isn't always what you want to hear, but it's what you NEED to hear in order to solve this problem once and for all and move toward the life you so desperately want. Based firmly on the principles of cognitive behavioral therapies that have been shown over decades to be most effective in treating anxiety problems, the Anxious Truth will teach you how to move past your anxiety symptoms, past endless digging for hidden "root causes", and into an action oriented plan that will help your brain un-learn the bad reaction and fear habits that have gotten you into this predicament. The Anxious Truth will take the cognitive mechanism that got you into a corner, throw it in reverse, and use it to your advantage, backing you out of this jam and into a life free from irrational fear and needless avoidance. More than just a book, The Anxious Truth goes hand-in-hand with The Anxious Truth podcast (https://theanxioustruth.com) and the growing and vibrant social media community surrounding it. Read the book, listen to five years worth of free podcasts chock full of helpful advice and information, and join a large online community of fellow anxiety sufferers that are done talking about this problem and ready to actually take action to solve it. Change is possible. No matter how long you've suffered with your anxiety issues, you can get better. The Anxious Truth will tell you what you need to hear and will arm you with the information, understanding, and skills you need to get the job done. Let's do this together!

Success in today's business economy demands nonstop innovation. But fancy buzzwords, facile lip service, and simplistic formulas are not the answer. Only an entirely new mindset -- a new attitude toward success and failure -- can transform managers' thinking, according to Richard Farson, author of the bestseller Management of the Absurd, and Ralph Keyes, author of the pathbreaking Chancing It: Why We Take Risks, in this provocative new work. According to Farson and Keyes, the key to this new attitude lies in taking risks. In a rapidly changing economy, managers will confront at least as much failure as success. Does that mean they'll have failed? Only by their grandfathers' definition of failure. Both success and failure are steps toward achievement, say the authors. After all, Coca-Cola's renaissance grew directly out of its New Coke debacle, and severe financial distress forced IBM to completely reinvent itself. Wise leaders accept their setbacks as necessary footsteps on the path toward success. They also know that the best way to fall behind in a shifting economy is to rely on what's worked in the past -- as when once-innovative companies like Xerox and Polaroid relied too heavily on formulas that had grown obsolete. By contrast, companies such as GE and 3M have remained vibrant by encouraging innovators, even when they suffered setbacks. In their stunning new book, Farson and Keyes call this enlightened approach "productive mistake-making." Rather than reward success and penalize failure, they propose that managers focus on what can be learned from both. Paradoxically, the authors argue, the less we chase success and flee from failure, the more likely we are to genuinely succeed. Best of all, they have written a little jewel of a book, packed with fresh insights, blessedly brief, and to the point.