Whether we’re aware of it or not, societal conventions and norms often dictate how we approach success and career development. Are you climbing the ladder the way society “expects” you to, or are you carving your own path to success? Convention says you have to start from the bottom of the totem pole and work your way up, right? Not necessarily.
According to Shane Snow in his book Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success, the most successful innovators and entrepreneurs take “smartcuts” (shortcuts with integrity). They use lateral thinking to come up with unique solutions to problems that would otherwise stand as roadblocks to success. They train with mentors and get feedback on a regular basis to accelerate their development. They leverage tools and technology to achieve goals with less effort. The list goes on…
If you’re interested in learning how to accelerate your success strategically, I recommend picking up a copy of this book.
Here’s a summary from Amazon Books:
“Entrepreneur and journalist Shane Snow (Wired, Fast Company, The New Yorker, and cofounder of Contently) analyzes the lives of people and companies that do incredible things in implausibly short time.
“How do some startups go from zero to billions in mere months? How did Alexander the Great, YouTube tycoon Michelle Phan, and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon climb to the top in less time than it takes most of us to get a promotion? What do high-growth businesses, world-class heart surgeons, and underdog marketers do in common to beat the norm?
“One way or another, they do it like computer hackers. They employ what psychologists call ‘lateral thinking’ to rethink convention and break ‘rules’ that aren't rules.
“In Smartcuts, Snow shatters common wisdom about success, revealing how conventions like ‘paying dues’ prevent progress, why kids shouldn’t learn times tables, and how, paradoxically, it’s easier to build a huge business than a small one.
“From SpaceX to The Cuban Revolution, from Ferrari to Skrillex, Smartcuts is a narrative adventure that busts old myths about success and shows how innovators and icons do the incredible by working smarter – and how perhaps the rest of us can, too.”
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