The First 90 Days: A book review by Bob Morris
The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded Edition: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels
Michael D. Watkins
Harvard Business Review Press (2013)
How and why the first 90 days in a new leadership position can sometimes seem like 90 minutes
This is a revised and updated edition of a book I read when it was published in 2003. Although much has (and hasn’t) happened in the business world since then, Michael Watkins’ insights are (if anything) even more relevant and more valuable now than they were then because the actions taken by those in a new role, especially one with more challenging leadership responsibilities, will largely determine whether they succeed or fail. “When leaders derail,” Watkins notes, “their problems can almost always be traced to vicious cycles that developed in the first few months on the job.” Ninety percent of those whom Watkins interviewed agreed that “transitions into new roles are the most challenging times in the professional lives of leaders.” They could be internal promotions, reassignments and/or relocations, or a new hire. These and other transitions are thoroughly discussed in the book.
These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye, also listed to suggest the scope of Watkins’ coverage.
o Avoiding Transition Traps (Pages 5-6)
o Understanding the Fundamental Principles (9-12)
o Getting promoted (21-24)
o Table 1-1, “Onboarding checklists” (34)
o Identifying the Best Sources of Insight (54-57)
o Table 2-1, “Structured methods for learning” (61-62)
o “Emotional Expensiveness” (63-64)
o Planning for Five [Transition-Specific] Conversations (90-93)
o Planning the Expectations Conversation (98-100)
o Adopting Basic Principles (121-122)
o Avoiding Common Alignment Traps (141-143)
o Getting Started (146-148)
o Avoiding Common Team-Building Traps (167-170)
o Building Support for Early-Win Objectives (202-220)
o Understanding the Three Pillars of Self-Management (227-237)
o Table 10-1, “Reasons for transition failures” (245)
The information, insights, and counsel he provides in this book reveal what he has learned thus far about what he characterizes as “The Vicious Cycle of Transitions” and “The Virtuous Cycle of Transitions.” The former involves sticking with what you know, falling prey to the “action imperative,” setting unrealistic expectations, attempting to do too much, coming in with “the” answer, engaging in the wrong kind of learning, and neglecting horizontal relationships. (Please check out Figure 1-2 on Page 7.)
With regard to the latter cycle, the “virtuous” one, can enable anyone involved in a transition to create momentum and establish an upward spiral of increasing effectiveness. (Please check out Figure 1-3 on Page 8.) To repeat, this updated and expanded edition develops in greater depth and wider scope the core concepts introduced in the first edition. The objective in 2003 remains the same now: “get up to speed faster and smarter.”
Michael Watkins can help each reader to do that; better yet, he can each reader, especially those with supervisory responsibilities, to help others to do that. That achievement is indeed an admirable objective. However, we are well-advised to recall Thomas Edison’s observation, “Vision without execution is hallucination.”
Ten Types of Innovation: A book review by Bob Morris
Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs
Larry Keeley with Ryan Pikkel, Brian Quinn, and Helen Walters
John Wiley & Sons (2013)
“Vision without execution is hallucination.” Thomas Edison
With regard to the Edison quotation, I agree while presuming to add, “Execution without discipline is merely activity.”
Larry Keeley wrote this book with Ryan Pikkel, Brian Quinn, and Helen Walters. “As the principal author of the text, I am responsible for the basic arguments throughout, and the system of ideas here either succeeds or fails because of me.” However, as explains in the Preface, it really is the result of a team effort. Each of his colleagues made significant and unique contributions, as did Bansi Nagii. Although not one of the authors of the book, Nagii “played a role in refreshing and advancing the Ten Types of Innovation.” As I read the book, I recognized that it is an excellent example of the collaborative process by which breakthrough innovations are achieved if (HUGE “if”) sufficient discipline has been developed by everyone involved.
The material is carefully organized and effectively presented within three categories of innovation types: Configuration, Offering, and Experience. As Keeley explains, more than 2,000 of what were at that time (i.e. in 1998) considered to be innovations were discovered, examined, and evaluated. Each was “the creation of a viable new offering.” As he then adds, innovation may involve invention but requires a great deal more (e.g. a deep understanding of customer need), innovations “have to earn their keep” (i.e. return value), very little is in fact new in innovation (rather, the result of an evolving process of improvement), and it is important to “think beyond products” to new ways of doing business, for example, and news ways of engagement with customers. Keeley and his colleagues are convinced that all great innovations, throughout history, comprise some combination of ten basic types that are, as indicated, organized within the three categories. “This is our Periodic Table.” Part Two examines each of the ten in detail.
These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye, also lusted to suggest the scope of coverage in the book:
o Rethink Innovation: Eradicate Lore, Substitute Logic (Pages 2-3)
o How to Organize and Align Your Talent and Assets (26-29)
o Product Performance: How to Develop Distinguishing Features and Functionality (34-37)
o Customer Engagement: How to Foster Compelling Interactions (54-57)
o McDonald’s Invents a Convenient Food System (74-75)
o Lexus Invents a New Luxury Car Experience (76-77)
o Strength in Numbers: Innovations Using a Combination of Types Generate Better Returns (78-79)
o Mind the Gap: Uncover Your Blind Spots (100-103)
o Challenge Convention: See Where Your Competitors Are Focusing — And Then Make Different Choices (104-111)
o Pattern Recognition: See How Industries and Markets Shift — And Learn from Those Who Saw the Signs and Acted on Them (118-125)
o Declare Intent: By Being Clear Where and How You will Innovate, You Massively Increase Your Odds for Success (130-135)
o Innovation Play: Collaborative Creation, and Competency-Driven Platform (168-171)
o Innovation Play: Connected Community, and, Values-Based (178-181)
o Fostering Innovation: Installing Effective Innovation Inside Your Organization (188-195)
o Defining Characteristics of Innovation Leadership (197-199)
I agree with Keeley and his colleagues that “innovation is a team sport. In fact, an organization that depends on individual innovators alone is destined to fail. Understanding how you can wire innovation into your organization — and build a robust internal innovation capability — is an imperative for any firm doing business in today’s world.”
Those who read this book will especially appreciate the provision of “stories” (mini-profiles) of dozens of organizations, including five for each of the ten categories plus 21 others that illustrate (to varying degree) innovation initiatives whose primary focus is one of these three: on the innermost workings of an enterprise and its business system; on an enterprise’s core product or service, or a collection of products and services; or, on more customer-facing elements of an enterprise and its business system. In Part Seven, Keeley and his colleagues suggest how to put the various practices into practice and thereby “go beyond the book to create [their reader’s] own innovation revolution.”
The best business books tend to be research-driven and that is certainly true of this one. Authors of the best of the best business books make brilliant use of their research when sharing information, insights, and wisdom with their reader. I know of no other that does that better than does this one. To Larry Keeley, Ryan Pikkel, Brian Quinn, and Helen Walters, I now offer a hearty “Bravo!”
Vijay Govindarajan: An interview by Bob Morris
Vijay Govindarajan (“VG”) is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on strategy and innovation. He is the Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He was the first Professor in Residence and Chief Innovation Consultant at General Electric. He worked with GE’s CEO Jeff Immelt to write “How GE is Disrupting Itself”, the Harvard Business Review article that pioneered the concept of reverse innovation – any innovation that is adopted first in the developing world. Harvard Business Review rated reverse innovation as one of the ten big ideas of the decade. VG works with CEOs and top management teams in Global Fortune 500 firms to discuss, challenge, and escalate their thinking about strategy. VG wrote the NYT and WSJ Best Seller, Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere.
Here is an excerpt from my interview of VG. To read the complete interview, please click here.
* * *
Morris: When and why did you and Chris Trimble decide to write Reverse Innovation? What specific objectives did you have in mind?
Govindarajan: Growing up in India, I knew that the only way to solve our problems is innovation— India has too many problems and the country has too few resources. So I dedicated myself to research and write about innovation. Reverse Innovation brings me full circle back to India.
Morris: Were there any head-snapping revelations while writing it? Please explain.
Govindarajan: The biggest surprise was that innovations for the poor can transform the lives of the rich.
Morris: To what extent (if any) does the book in final form differ significantly from what you and Chris originally envisioned?
Govindarajan: Any book is an evolutionary process. It started with one company experience, GE. As we studies a dozen other companies, our theory evolved.
Morris: You and Chris Trimble have worked closely for several years. Please explain how all that happened.
Govindarajan: We have complementary strengths, yet both are committed to impacting practice. It has therefore been a great partnership.
Morris: In recent years, there has been sometimes severe criticism of M.B.A. programs, even those offered by the most prestigious business schools such as Tuck. In your opinion, in which area is there the greatest need for [begin italics] immediate [end italics] improvement? Why? Any specific suggestions?
Govindarajan: B-Schools need to connect theory with practice. After all we are an applied field. We should look to Medical Schools, Law Schools, and Engineering Schools for inspiration— not look for legitimacy from Pure Sciences like Physics and Chemistry.
Morris: I have read all of your books and then re-read most of them before formulating the questions for this interview. In your opinion, which of these books did you find most challenging to write? Why?
Govindarajan: Reverse Innovation since it brought to closure my life’s dreams.
Morris: Throughout history, which person do you think was the greatest innovative thinker? Please explain your selection.
Govindarajan: Thomas Edison because he understood that innovation is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Most people miss this point. Bulk of the innovation challenge is in the 99% perspiration— innovation execution. This is my central research area and this is what Reverse Innovation is all about.
Morris: There are several people whom both you and I hold in high regard. Please share your thoughts and feelings about each. First, Peter Drucker
Govindarajan: Great role model.
Morris: Next, the two Thomas Watsons, father and son
Govindarajan: Created new markets
Morris: Finally, C.K. Prahalad
Govindarajan: Friend, philosopher, and guide
Morris: In your opinion, what will be the single greatest challenge that CEOs will face during the next 3-5 years? Any advice?
Govindarajan: How to grow in a slow growth world? The key is innovation.
* * *
To read the complete interview, please click here.
To read my review of Reverse Innovation, please click here.
VG cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:
His faculty page
His blog
Reverse Discrimination page
The Creative Mindset: Classic Insights
Edgar Degas
These are among my personal favorites. Please share yours.
o “I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.” Thomas Edison
o “All points are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” Galileo Galilei
o “Art begins with resistance – at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.” Andre Gide
o “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci
o “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
o “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” Michelangelo
o “It’s a pity one can’t imagine what one can’s compare to anything. Genius is an African who dreams up snow.” Vladimir Nabokov
o “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” Pablo Picasso
o “The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.” Linus Pauling
o “Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words” ‘Ye must have faith.’” Max Planck
o “The real voyage id discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust
o “Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look.” Jonas Salk
o “A life making mistakes is not only more honorable but m ore useful than a life spent doing nothing.” George Bernard Shaw
Vijay Govindarajan: An interview by Bob Morris
Vijay Govindarajan (“VG”) is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on strategy and innovation. He is the Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He was the first Professor in Residence and Chief Innovation Consultant at General Electric. He worked with GE’s CEO Jeff Immelt to write “How GE is Disrupting Itself,” the Harvard Business Review article that pioneered the concept of reverse innovation – any innovation that is adopted first in the developing world. Harvard Business Review rated reverse innovation as one of the ten big ideas of the decade. VG works with CEOs and top management teams in Global Fortune 500 firms to discuss, challenge, and escalate their thinking about strategy. VG wrote the NYT and WSJ Best Seller, Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere.
Here is an excerpt from my interview of VG. To read the complete interview, please click here.
* * *
Morris: When and why did you and Chris Trimble decide to write Reverse Innovation? What specific objectives did you have in mind?
Govindarajan: Growing up in India, I knew that the only way to solve our problems is innovation— India has too many problems and the country has too few resources. So I dedicated myself to research and write about innovation. Reverse Innovation brings me full circle back to India.
Morris: Were there any head-snapping revelations while writing it? Please explain.
Govindarajan: The biggest surprise was that innovations for the poor can transform the lives of the rich.
Morris: To what extent (if any) does the book in final form differ significantly from what you and Chris originally envisioned?
Govindarajan: Any book is an evolutionary process. It started with one company experience, GE. As we studies a dozen other companies, our theory evolved.
Morris: You and Chris Trimble have worked closely for several years. Please explain how all that happened.
Govindarajan: We have complementary strengths, yet both are committed to impacting practice. It has therefore been a great partnership.
Morris: In recent years, there has been sometimes severe criticism of M.B.A. programs, even those offered by the most prestigious business schools such as Tuck. In your opinion, in which area is there the greatest need for [begin italics] immediate [end italics] improvement? Why? Any specific suggestions?
Govindarajan: B-Schools need to connect theory with practice. After all we are an applied field. We should look to Medical Schools, Law Schools, and Engineering Schools for inspiration— not look for legitimacy from Pure Sciences like Physics and Chemistry.
Morris: I have read all of your books and then re-read most of them before formulating the questions for this interview. In your opinion, which of these books did you find most challenging to write? Why?
Govindarajan: Reverse Innovation since it brought to closure my life’s dreams.
Morris: Throughout history, which person do you think was the greatest innovative thinker? Please explain your selection.
Govindarajan: Thomas Edison because he understood that innovation is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Most people miss this point. Bulk of the innovation challenge is in the 99% perspiration— innovation execution. This is my central research area and this is what Reverse Innovation is all about.
Morris: There are several people whom both you and I hold in high regard. Please share your thoughts and feelings about each. First, Peter Drucker
Govindarajan: Great role model.
Morris: Next, the two Thomas Watsons, father and son
Govindarajan: Created new markets
Morris: Finally, C.K. Prahalad
Govindarajan: Friend, philosopher, and guide
Morris: In your opinion, what will be the single greatest challenge that CEOs will face during the next 3-5 years? Any advice?
Govindarajan: How to grow in a slow growth world? The key is innovation.
* * *
To read the complete interview, please click here.
To read my review of Reverse Innovation, please click here.
VG cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:
His faculty page
His blog
Reverse Innovation page
Win-Win Partnerships: A book review by Bob Morris
Win-Win Partnerships: Be on the Cutting Edge with Synergistic Coaching
Steven J. Stowell and Matt M. Starcevich
CMOE Press (1996)
“Vision without execution is hallucination.” Thomas Edison
Do not be deterred by the fact that this book was first published in 1996. Long before that, one of Albert Einstein’s faculty colleagues at Princeton pointed out that he always asked the same questions each year on his final examination. “That’s quite true. Every year the answers are different.” Steven Stowell and Matt Starcevich are not — nor make any claim to be — Einstein’s intellectual peers but they have formulated a model for synergistic coaching that remains relevant almost two decades after they introduced in this book. Stowell and Starcevich help their reader to formulate the questions that need to be asked regularly because, as in quantum physics, the answers will change as dynamics and interelationships change.
Healthy organizations have effective communication, cooperation, and (especially) collaboration at all levels and in all areas of operation. In fact, in today’s global marketplace, the healthiest organizations have effective communication, cooperation, and collaboration between and among everyone involved. For individuals as well as for organizations, Stowell and Starcevich correctly suggest, effective partnerships – whose raison d’etre is collaboration — involve mutual respect and trust as well as shared responsibility, integrity, openness, and synergy.
We also know that the best coaches tend to be the best teachers and the best students. That was true of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle as well as of John Wooden, Vince Lombardi, and Pat Summitt. In the business world, every day, there are supervisors — although perhaps known only to their associates — who are also great coaches. They establish and then nourish mutually beneficial (win-win) relationships with others. I agree with Stowell and Starcevich that C-level executives can learn at least as much from their direct reports as those direct reports learn from them. In healthy organizations, it is common practice for leaders to become followers, and vice versa, based on knowledge and competence. That is perhaps the best example of what Stowell and Starcevich characterize as “synergistic coaching.”
Its defining characteristics are best understood in terms of the values of mutual respect and trust, exemplified in three types of synergistic coaches’ relationships: with themselves, with each of those entrusted to their care, and with the relationship shared with them. Moreover, mutually beneficial relationships must be nourished constantly. In her brilliant book, Growing Great Employees, Erika Andersen suggests – and I agree – that the most effective leaders have a “green thumb” for “growing” people in the “gardens” of free enterprise. It is worth noting that, for example, GE’s senior-level executives – including CEOs such as Reggie Jones, Jack Welch, and Jeff Immelt — have devoted at least 20% of their time to coaching GE’s high-potential middle managers.
Stowell and Starcevich recommend an eight-step process and devote a chapter to explaining each, then conclude with eight “Wrap Up Points” to keep in mind when establishing and then building a learning relationship. They also insert dozens of insights throughout their narrative that are both thoughtful and thought-provoking. Yes, this book was published 17 years ago but, as I indicated earlier, the issues it addresses and the values it affirms are – if anything – more relevant now than they were in 1996.
All organizations need effective leadership at all levels and in all areas. Therefore, one of their most important strategic objectives must be to establish and then nourish a leadership development program such as the one that Steven Stowell and Matt Starcevich envision. In my view, it will require rock-solid and (key word) generous support from those in the C-suite but it must also offer a compelling vision that energizes, hopefully inspires wide and deep buy-in with both passion and a sense of urgency. Finally, it requires a LOT of sustained, collaborative, often boring, seldom easy work. I agree with Thomas Edison: “Vision without execution is hallucination.”
Marching backward into the future….
In his latest book, Denial, Richard Tedlow provides a wealth of information and insights as he examines a number of especially interesting situation throughout U.S. history. Here’s a composite excerpt:
“The United States in 1900 did not have improved roads…We didn’t have gas stations. Indeed, we didn’t have much gas…We did not have traffic lights or rules of the road…Automobiles were expensive in 1900. No bank would lend you money to buy one. Dealerships would not finance their purchase…The few cars that had been tinkered together by the turn of the century did not have all-weather bodies. Nor did they have headlights…
“What must be kept in mind is that most of us march backward into the future. We see what was. If we are particularly perspicacious, we can see what is. Our true visionaries, however, can imagine what might be. Think of the term “horseless carriage.” The automobile was originally named not for what it was but for what it was not. So people looking at cars in 1900 could reasonably conclude that they would never bed used for commuting regularly to work. You wouldn’t drive when it was dark, raining, or snowing.
“Cars did not have self-starters. You had to crank the engine to get it going, and this could prove dangerous. Indeed, it could be fatal…Many early cars, such as Ford’s own quadricycle, did not have steering wheels. They had tillers instead. What other vehicle has a tiller? A boat. People think in terms if analogy, and it was not terribly outlandish to think of a horseless carriage as a ‘land yacht.’ As a plaything for the rich…”
Here’s where Tedlow’s narrative really gets interesting.
“Bicycle manufacturer Albert A. Pope predicted in 1900 that within a decade there would ‘be more automobiles in use in the large cities of the United States than there are now horses in those cities.’ Both Edison and Pope, however, were predicting that cars would be electric. Edison said this would be possible by the development of an improved storage battery.”
That was 110 years ago.
Boundless Potential: A book review by Bob Morris
Boundless Potential: Transform Your Brain, Unleash Your Talents, Reinvent Your Wortk in Midlife and Beyond
Mark S. Walton
McGraw-Hill (2012)
“Potential” means “you ain’t done it yet.” Darrell Royal
Few of us of us ever fully develop the potentialities that we possess at birth and I agree with Mark Walton that most (not all) human limits are self-imposed. This is what Henry Ford had in mind years ago when observing, “Whether you think you can or think you can‘t, you’re probably right.” So, the challenge is to develop a mindset that recognizes what is possible and a faith in what can be done with possibilities.
As Walton explains, “This book’s pages contain the real life experiences and pragmatic wisdom of uncommon men and women – people who have led the second half of their lives in an extraordinary way.” Each preferred to raise the bar rather than lower their expectations. Such people Walton “came to describe as [begin italics] reinventive, and, by extension, to label the nature of their pursuits reinventive work.”
Some of the most valuable material in the book is provided by five extraordinarily [begin italics] reinventive [end italics] people, their comments brilliantly framed by Walton, who generously share their thoughts and feelings about the rollercoaster life each seems to have lived. Sherwin B. (“Shep”) Nuland, Horace Deets, Marion Rosen, Gil Garcetti, and Rita K. Spina are kindred spirits with the seniors that Warren Bennis and Bob Thomas discuss in their book, Geeks & Geezers. “We believe that we have identified the process that allows an individual to undergo testing and to emerge, not just stronger, but better equipped with the tools he or she needs both to lead and to learn. It is a model that explains how individuals make meaning out of difficult events — we call them crucibles — and how that process of ‘meaning making’ both galvanizes individuals and gives them their distinctive voice.”
Walton recommends a process by which to “transform your brain, unleash your talents, [and] reinvent your work in midlife and beyond.” Make no mistake about how immensely complicated and frequently perilous this process is. That is why he provides a wealth of information, insights, and wisdom that, she fervently hopes, will help leaders and those aspiring to leaders to complete a transition from being limited by what James Collins
characterizes as “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom” to the fulfillment of what Walton views as “boundless potential.”
Here are a few of the dozens of passages that caught my eye:
o “The years of midlife and beyond are simply a new developmental period. The key word here is ‘developmental.’” Sherwin (“Shep”) B. Nuland was a prominent surgeon and faculty member at Yale University Medical School and 64 when he wrote his first bestselling book, Pages 19-33 and 175-177
o “The Design of Reinvention,” Figure 3-1, Page 40
o “We divide life into: you learn, you work, you do leisure. No overlap, please. Well, that’s crap!” Horace Deets, Pages 66-70 and 92-94
o “Home Run in the Desert,” Pages 90-92
o Marian Rosen’s “Magic Touch,” The Rosen Institute and the Rosen Method (pain reduction and management), Pages 97-112
o “New Powers Emerge,” Pages 107-110
o “The Trilogy of Wisdom,” 127-128
o “I was forced [at age 70] to reinvent myself.” Gil Garcetti, former D.A. in Los Angeles (e.g. Simpson trial) who became a world-renowned photographer, Pages 146-156
o “The Eugeria Paradigm,” Pages 168-170 [Note: The word eugeria means "a normal and happy old age."]
o “For me, at any rate, I will just go on doing. Because I cannot imagine giving up on what’s still in my heart and in my mind.” Rita K. Spina, age 80. She earned BA, MA, and PhD degrees and retired from teaching (at age 77) to become a community activist to oppose uncontrolled growth., Pages 189-201
Walton concludes his book with several specific suggestions for his reader to consider. They are provided as “Lessons” and “Discoveries,” and best revealed within the narrative, in context. With regard to the title for this commentary, I selected it because it supports Thomas Edison’s observation, “Vision without execution is hallucination” and, more to the point, it also supports the values that Mark Walton and his senior collaborators affirm and exemplify throughout this book.
Think and Grow Rich: A book review by Bob Morris
Think and Grow Rich: The Original Classic
Napoleon Hill, with an Introduction by Tom Butler-Bowdon
Capstone Publishing Ltd. (2009)
The “Supreme Secret” of success: “Anything the human mind can believe, the human mind can achieve.”
Those who have read one or more of the volumes that comprise Tom Butler-Bowdon’s 50 Classics series already know that he possesses superior reasoning and writing skills as well as a relentless curiosity when conducting research on history’s greatest thinkers and their major works. For these and other reasons, I cannot think of another person better qualified to provide the introductions to the volumes that comprise a new series, Capstone Classics.
Think and Grow Rich was based on two decades of research conducted by Napoleon Hill (concluded in 1928) after being retained by Andrew Carnegie to complete an analysis of 500 of the most successful people in the United States and elsewhere. The title of his original report, Laws of Success, consisted of 1,500 pages in a series of seven volumes, in which Hill lists and discusses 17 “principles of achievement.” It is worth noting that this volume in the Capstone Classics series also contains both the “Publisher’s Preface to Original Edition” and the “Author’s Introduction to Original Edition” (published in 1937) and a list of those interviewed by Napoleon Hill over a 20-year period.
Unlike so many others, Butler-Bowdon provides more, much more than a flimsy “briefing” to the given work. For this volume, he creates a context, a frame-of-reference, for Napoleon Hill’s insights in a 16-page introduction in which he addresses subjects, themes, and issues such as these:
o A brief but remarkably insightful review of pertinent details in Hill’s circumstances when retained by Carnegie
o His magazine ventures, notably Hill’s Golden Rule and Napoleon Hill’s Magazine
o Hill’s DRAFT of a book, The 13 Steps to Riches, based on material introduced in Laws of Success
o Original title of DRAFT was changed to Use Your Noodle to Win More Boodle and then, finally and thankfully, to Think and Grow Rich
o Hill’s “four clear elements of success” (i.e. desire, faith, plans, and persistence)
o The moral and spiritual foundation of Think and Grow Rich
o 31 reasons why people fail
o The self-defeating aspects of personality that many (most?) people do not recognize
So what is “The “Supreme Secret” of success revealed by Hill in a later work, Grow Rich with Peace of Mind, published in 1967, three years before his death? “Anything the human mind can believe, the human mind can achieve.” Although it may now be fashionable to dismiss (often with ridicule) all such aphorisms, the fact remains that every success in life does indeed require an idea, an insight, that someone then makes a reality.
Thomas Edison was right: “Vision without execution is hallucination” but execution without purpose is merely effort without value. As Butler-Bowdon suggests, “Hill was saying that there were no limits to what a person can do [unless self-imposed], and history has proved it so thousands of times with the stories of any remarkable person.”
As indicated earlier, Tom Butler-Bowdon’s purpose in this introduction is to create a context, a frame-of-reference, for Hill’s insights. He does so brilliantly in this instance and in each of the other volumes in the Capstone Classics series that have been published thus far.
The best commencement address yet to be delivered: “Students Don’t Know Much About History”
In an interview conducted by Brian Bolduc, featured in the Wall Street Journal (June 18, 2011), the award-winning historian, David McCullough, says textbooks have become “so politically correct as to be comic.” Meanwhile, the likes of Thomas Edison get little attention.
* * *
“We’re raising young people who are, by and large, historically illiterate,” David McCullough tells me on a recent afternoon in a quiet meeting room at the Boston Public Library. Having lectured at more than 100 colleges and universities over the past 25 years, he says, “I know how much these young people—even at the most esteemed institutions of higher learning—don’t know.” Slowly, he shakes his head in dismay. “It’s shocking.”
He’s right. This week, the Department of Education released the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which found that only 12% of high-school seniors have a firm grasp of our nation’s history. And consider: Just 2% of those students understand the significance of Brown v. Board of Education.
Mr. McCullough began worrying about the history gap some 20 years ago, when a college sophomore approached him after an appearance at “a very good university in the Midwest.” She thanked him for coming and admitted, “Until I heard your talk this morning, I never realized the original 13 colonies were all on the East Coast.” Remembering the incident, Mr. McCullough’s snow-white eyebrows curl in pain. “I thought, ‘What have we been doing so wrong that this obviously bright young woman could get this far and not know that?’”
To read the complete article, please click here.
* * *
My guess is that many (most?) school and college graduates have few employable skills in terms of (a) what they know and (b) what they can do.
David McCullough has twice received the Pulitzer Prize, for Truman and John Adams, and twice received the National Book Award, for The Path Between the Seas and Mornings on Horseback. His other widely praised books are 1776, Brave Companions, The Great Bridge, and The Johnstown Flood. He has been honored with the National Book Foundation Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award, the National Humanities Medal, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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