Modern Achievement
A New Approach to Timeless Lessons for Aspiring Leaders
Success in the contemporary world is a process that must be navigated with care, says the enlightening business book Modern Achievement.
Asheesh Advani and Marshall Goldsmith’s dynamic business book Modern Achievement gathers lessons for aspiring leaders that represent a more contemporary framework for achievement amid rapid change.
In response to increases in fluidity, globalism, and diversity and in opposition to titles including Think and Grow Rich and How to Win Friends and Influence People, this book suggests contemporary means of attaining professional success, empowerment, and contentment. It acknowledges that young leaders have to adjust to ever-shifting realities but says that they can still impact the world despite these dynamic challenges—if they adopt new mindsets and benchmarks for achievement. Its sections name ways of being fixed, flexible, and freestyle; their internal building blocks involve topics like meritocracy, making connections, seeking advice, and seeing education as its own reward. The book’s broad philosophies are distilled into concrete specifics for everyday application.
The book’s lessons are embellished by illustrative leadership stories. These include tales from the Junior Achievement Worldwide nonprofit Advani, which aims to help young people become entrepreneurs. Junior achievers share their tales here, as of being diagnosed with an incurable bowel disease, losing the ability to walk, and visualizing what it would take to manage the pain and regain it, in order to show the value of perseverance. Their diverse viewpoints result in edifying variety as they tackle issues including anxiety, the challenges of balancing the needs of one’s company with one’s entrepreneurial impulses, and resisting others’ expectations in favor of one’s own notions of success.
Less expansive are the book’s more familiar references, as to the insights of business leader Richard Branson, who likes to show interest in others to be more interesting to them. Further, some of its advice extends beyond the workplace, diluting its focus, as where it makes suggestions for not letting fear prevent the pursuit of one’s passions and for experiencing the world differently in order to “better understand yourself, others, and the world around you.”
While eye-catching, the book’s pages are also busy to the point of distraction. They feature a jumble of pullouts, different fonts, exercises, graphics, and sketches. Big-picture lessons are splashed across entire pages in capital letters—the poster treatment for reinforcement. And the book’s overreliance on jargon is also overwhelming; it makes free use of terms like “feedforward” and “performance prove mentality,” obscuring its points.
Success in the contemporary world is a process that must be navigated with care, says the enlightening business book Modern Achievement, which introduces growth-minded guidance for aspiring leaders.
Reviewed by
Joseph S. Pete
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
