Just Enough: Tools for Creating Success in Your Work and Life

Defining success, learning how to achieve it and feeling satisfied with the results--all in a world where nothing ever seems to be enough--are the challenges addressed by the authors of this volume. Nash and Stevens, both of the Harvard Business School, believe that""everyone seems to be struggling with the Tantalus effect. This mythological character was punished with an eternal, raging thirst."" As they point out, such constant striving means perpetual stress and no contentment. Per their definition, success isn't measured by money alone; it involves four pillars of professional and personal life: happiness, achievement, significance and legacy. Illustrating their ideas with real examples (of both celebrities and non-celebrities), as well as with the ponderings of a few ancient philosophers, the authors explain what these pillars mean, how to define them for oneself, why""going for the max"" is dangerous and how to calibrate one's own version of""just enough."" Though the prose seems excessively wordy for a book teaching readers how to eliminate excess, the topic is interesting and well researched--and likely to strike a chord with people juggling many demands in a fast-paced, success-hungry society.