The Success Equation

In this provocative book, Michael Mauboussin offers the structure needed to analyze the relative importance of skill and luck, offering concrete suggestions for making these insights work to your advantage by making better decisions.

“Much of what we experience in life results from a combination of skill and luck.” — From the Introduction The trick, of course, is figuring out just how many of our successes (and failures) can be attributed to each—and how we can learn to tell the difference ahead of time. In most domains of life, skill and luck seem hopelessly entangled. Different levels of skill and varying degrees of good and bad luck are the realities that shape our lives—yet few of us are adept at accurately distinguishing between the two. Imagine what we could accomplish if we were able to tease out these two threads, examine them, and use the resulting knowledge to make better decisions. In this provocative book, Michael Mauboussin helps to untangle these intricate strands to offer the structure needed to analyze the relative importance of skill and luck. He offers concrete suggestions for making these insights work to your advantage. Once we understand the extent to which skill and luck contribute to our achievements, we can learn to deal with them in making decisions. The Success Equation helps us move toward this goal by: • Establishing a foundation so we better understand skill and luck, and can pinpoint where each is most relevant • Helping us develop the analytical tools necessary to understand skill and luck • Offering concrete suggestions about how to take these findings and put them to work Showcasing Mauboussin’s trademark wit, insight, and analytical genius, The Success Equation is a must-read for anyone seeking to make better decisions—in business and in life.

Since its first publication, Michael J. Mauboussin's popular guide to wise investing has been translated into eight languages and has been named best business book by BusinessWeek and best economics book by Strategy+Business. Now updated to reflect current research and expanded to include new chapters on investment philosophy, psychology, and strategy and science as they pertain to money management, this volume is more than ever the best chance to know more than the average investor. Offering invaluable tools to better understand the concepts of choice and risk, More Than You Know is a unique blend of practical advice and sound theory, sampling from a wide variety of sources and disciplines. Mauboussin builds on the ideas of visionaries, including Warren Buffett and E. O. Wilson, but also finds wisdom in a broad and deep range of fields, such as casino gambling, horse racing, psychology, and evolutionary biology. He analyzes the strategies of poker experts David Sklansky and Puggy Pearson and pinpoints parallels between mate selection in guppies and stock market booms. For this edition, Mauboussin includes fresh thoughts on human cognition, management assessment, game theory, the role of intuition, and the mechanisms driving the market's mood swings, and explains what these topics tell us about smart investing. More Than You Know is written with the professional investor in mind but extends far beyond the world of economics and finance. Mauboussin groups his essays into four parts-Investment Philosophy, Psychology of Investing, Innovation and Competitive Strategy, and Science and Complexity Theory-and he includes substantial references for further reading. A true eye-opener, More Than You Know shows how a multidisciplinary approach that pays close attention to process and the psychology of decision making offers the best chance for long-term financial results.

No matter your field, industry, or specialty, as a leader you make a series of crucial decisions every single day. And the harsh truth is that the majority of decisions—no matter how good the intentions behind them—are mismanaged, resulting in a huge toll on organizations, the people they employ, and even the people they serve. So why is it so hard to make sound decisions? In Think Twice, now in paperback, Michael Mauboussin argues that we often fall victim to simplified mental routines that prevent us from coping with the complex realities inherent in important judgment calls. Yet these cognitive errors are preventable. In this engaging book, Mauboussin shows us how to recognize and avoid common mental missteps. These include misunderstanding cause-and-effect linkages, not considering enough alternative possibilities in making a decision, and relying too much on experts. Through vivid stories, the author presents memorable rules for avoiding each error and explains how to recognize when you should “think twice”—questioning your reasoning and adopting decision-making strategies that are far more effective, even if they seem counterintuitive. Armed with this awareness, you'll soon begin making sounder judgment calls that benefit (rather than hurt) your organization.

A smart, common-sense book that will help you improve your energy so that you can achieve goals faster and more efficiently. Get up, check phone, eat breakfast, drop off the kids, work, work, work, commute home, make dinner, feed the family, check email, put the kids to bed, binge-watch a show, check email again, drop into bed exhausted. Wake up. Repeat. Our days and weeks are filled to the brim with the busy stuff of life, which includes the constant bombardment of the twenty-four-hour news cycle and pervasive social media updates, notifications, and pings, pings, pings. That's 21st-and-a-quarter-century stress, and it's a serious doozy. We have goals for our careers and our lives, but with all the noise and constant demands, we get stalled out, stuck. We simply don't have the energy to progress in the areas that are most important to us. And yet, we wonder, isn't there a better way? Author, motivational speaker, and coach Michelle Cederberg's response to that question is an unequivocal yes! In The Success-Energy Equation she shows you how, by using the wisdom of science and your innate common sense, you can combat 21st-and-a-quarter-century stress and tap into a well of energy that will fuel every area of your life. She shows you how slowing down and listening to your body can help you work better, and how a focus on health and energy management will sustain your efforts in all you do. With the right tools and guidance, great things are possible for you. The Success-Energy Equation teaches you how you can boost your energy to: - Go from being stuck on autopilot to thriving with awareness - Set worthwhile goals that feed your sense of purpose - Work better, smarter, and with more focus - Improve your attitude, self-confidence, and self-efficacy - Create a life of greater clarity and fulfillment - And much more. Energy is a magic multiplier that will drive you toward higher levels of success in life. It's also your not-so-secret weapon against 21st-and-a-quarter-century stress. Engage your success-energy, reach your goals, and live a life you truly want.

The bestselling author of The Miracle Morning shares the secret to unlocking your full potential—all day, every day. “A simple, proven formula for creating extraordinary results in your life.”—Lewis Howes, New York Times bestselling author of The School of Greatness Even after the incredible success of his book The Miracle Morning, Hal Elrod realized that he still had more to share with the world. What he had discovered was a timeless but overlooked formula for success. The world’s top achievers have used it for centuries. He used it to thrive against seemingly insurmountable odds, from overcoming life-threatening health challenges to near financial collapse. That formula is The Miracle Equation, and it couldn’t be any simpler: Unwavering Faith + Extraordinary Effort = Miracles By establishing and maintaining Unwavering Faith that you can achieve anything you desire, and then putting forth Extraordinary Effort until you do, you’ll create results beyond what you believe to be possible. In The Miracle Equation, you’ll learn how to • Replace fear with faith • Move from resistance to acceptance • Let go of negative emotions • Turn off your stress response • Overcome your limitations to unlock your limitless potential • Develop emotional invincibility • Grow from happiness, which is fleeting, to inner peace, which is lasting And with the Miracle Equation 30-Day Challenge to guide your way, you’ll create a step-by-step plan to actualize your miracles and become the person you need to be in order to succeed. No goal is out of reach! Praise for The Miracle Equation “The Miracle Equation isn’t just a book, it’s the formula that I myself have used to achieve greatness beyond what I ever believed was possible. Hal Elrod has taken the mystery out of miracles and gives you a simple, proven formula for creating extraordinary results in your life. Highly recommended.”—Lewis Howes, New York Times bestselling author of The School of Greatness "You're only two decisions away from achieving everything you want. And my friend, Hal Elrod, has simplified these two decisions into a simple equation for achieving results. Follow it, and your success is virtually guaranteed. If you want your biggest goals to move from possible, to probable, to inevitable, you better read The Miracle Equation."—Mel Robbins, bestselling author of The 5-Second Rule

The #1 international bestseller from the author of The Book of Awesome that “reveals how all of us can live happier lives” (Gretchen Rubin). What is the formula for a happy life? Neil Pasricha is a Harvard MBA, a New York Times–bestselling author, a Walmart executive, a father, a husband. After selling more than a million copies of the Book of Awesome series, wherein he observed the everyday things he thought were awesome, he now shifts his focus to the practicalities of living an awesome life. In his new book The Happiness Equation, Pasricha illustrates how to want nothing and do anything in order to have everything. If that sounds like a contradiction in terms, you simply have yet to unlock the 9 Secrets to Happiness. Each secret takes a piece out of the core of common sense, turns it on its head to present it in a completely new light, and then provides practical and specific guidelines for how to apply this new outlook to lead a fulfilling life. Once you've unlocked Pasricha’s 9 Secrets, you will understand counter intuitive concepts such as: Success Does Not Lead to Happiness, Never Take Advice, and Retirement Is a Broken Theory. You will learn and then master three brand-new fundamental life tests: the Saturday Morning Test, The Bench Test, and the Five People Test. You will know the difference between external goals and internal goals and how to make more money than a Harvard MBA (hint: it has nothing to do with your annual salary). You will discover that true wealth has nothing to do with money, multitasking is a myth, and the elimination of options leads to more choice. The Happiness Equation is a book that will change how you think about pretty much everything—your time, your career, your relationships, your family, and, ultimately, of course, your happiness.

This book supplies a simple, memorable, and effective formula to solve problematic behaviors in the work environment and life in general. An invaluable guidebook, it will help readers move beyond mediocrity and achieve happier, more successful lives. The Work-Life Equation: Six Key Values That Drive Happiness and Success is for the millions of people and business managers who are surrounded by bad behavior—with its attendant mediocre or unsatisfying results—at work and in their private lives, but who hope and dream for happier and more successful lives. The book begins with a frank explanation of the need for self-awareness and self-improvement, then describes how the "winning formula" and the equation for happiness and success in work-life—(H,S) = f(4C,2R)—can be applied via six types of behaviors to effect sweeping changes. The formula means Happiness and Success can be achieved by (is a function of) Cooperation, Consideration, Compassion, Courtesy, Respect, and Responsibility. The book focuses not just on the meaning of these values but also on how to "better live" them. It concludes with a self-assessment tool for the individual, team, or organization to complete that enables objective measurements of behaviors and identification of areas of potential improvement. Dismissing the familiar, corporate value clichés, the author focuses on six key values most readers probably learned as kids but have forgotten about in adulthood—or didn't realize were still apt and relevant. The book provides priceless information and guidance for all readers but will be especially appreciated by those in the corporate workplace interested in self-improvement and success, educators and business students, executives looking to shift their firm's behavioral atmosphere in a positive direction, and individuals seeking inspiration and hope in their daily lives.