What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
In many ways, this is a typical “leadership” book. Like most leadership books, it focuses on probable social foibles practiced by the reader, and–like most leadership books–it offers solutions.
The message of the book itself is relatively simple. In terms couched in religion, “Put others before yourself.” Goldsmith, a Buddhist, explains that placing others first benefits you in the long run. Ignoring for a moment the selfishness still inherent in this mindset, he’s not wrong. The best way to lead is to serve; enlightened self-interest demands behavioral selflessness. It’s a simple enough solution, and it hearkens back to Sunday school talk of the “Golden Rule” and being nice. (Of course, it does have deeper roots, in the Suffering Servant model of the Messiah, and Christ’s own teachings about being first, being last, and washing feet, but I digress.)
The downside of this book is that it is so predictable. There just isn’t much in here that couldn’t be gleaned from a quick course on personal ethics. Granted, Mr. Goldsmith works hard to make these truths evident to people who are disinclined to believe them–the hyper-successful, the CEOs, the meteoric risers, and so on–but if you don’t fall into that category, then there’s nothing new or revolutionary here. Even when Mr. Goldsmith goes out of his way to dedicate an entire chapter to priorities–warning against “goal obsession” to the exclusion of more important things in life–he’s not writing anything that should surprise the reader.
(He makes a claim about goal obsession, by the way, in that it is the worst flaw because it’s the one that spawns other flaws–perhaps forgetting that the 20th flaw, the need to be “me,” did the same thing in the example he used.)
There are a few minor typos, and a general focus on enlightened self-interest (unsurprising in a book for people who make vast quantities of money), but the biggest hurdle this book tries to overcome–and, in my opinion, cannot–is that it has nothing new to add to the conversation. People are selfish, and if they want to succeed, they should not be selfish. This just isn’t breaking any new ground.
Perhaps in person, when doing his consulting, Mr. Goldsmith is far more effective, even revolutionary, in helping people resolve their interpersonal deficiencies. In text, though, it’s old hat.