Success Built to Last: Creating a Life That Matters

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

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.