What Makes You Tick?: How Successful People Do It—and What You Can Learn from Them

Berland and Schoen, founding partners of a strategic research firm, take on a familiar subject—examining the common traits of highly successful people—with a fresh twist, arguing that success is achieved not by remaking your personality but by enhancing the skills you already have. They offer ways to use your own skills, attributes and personality as a path to charting an individualized course to achievement. Studies of 50 leaders in a variety of fields (e.g., Mark Burnett, Steve Forbes, Mario Andretti, Bob Woodward) make up the meat of the book and offer models as a learning tool as well as shedding insight into how the successful think. The authors identify four major categories of successful individuals—“Natural-Born Leaders,” “Independence Seekers,” “Visionaries” and “Do-Gooders”—and determine the inner personality, motivational and external traits that comprise each group. By identifying and embracing the unique potential of these archetypes, readers will be well positioned to put their best self forward. (June)