Review:

There are almost infinite perspectives on success and its origins, many of which are mentioned on this site. Thomas Harrison takes a bit of a different approach by looking at one’s genetic makeup and the role it can play in one’s entrepreneurial success. I admit that before reading this book I was skeptical with the school of thought that some people are born entrepreneurs and others are not. I was relieved to learn that Harrison is not from this school.

The book does base many of its arguments on the notion that certain genes relate to one’s success but the real value in this is knowing which traits make up these successes and understanding how to identify them and understand how to best leverage them to your benefit. The real premise here is that the first step to success is taking an inventory of yourself and your traits to understand from where you are starting. This concept of taking a personal inventory is certainly not new and is expressed in great detail in other books on this site including those written by Tony Robbins and Stephen Covey. If you have not looked into those, I encourage you to do so.

Throughout the book Harrison has included a series of self evaluations and quizzes the reader can take to get an understanding for which traits are more prominent in one’s genetic makeup and which might need more development. The five big traits on which Harrison focuses are: Openness to Experience, Extroversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. I will not take the time to dive into these given that Harrison does a much better job in 200 or so pages than I could in a few sentences, but I certainly encourage you to learn more. There is great value not only in understanding how these five traits stack up in your life but also in the lives of those around you both professionally and personally. This latter understanding can often be nearly as valuable as the former.

These evaluations are very worth the effort for more than one reason. On the one side, people often talk about developing your weak traits to bring them up to the level of your more dominant ones. The other side of this, which has been gaining more and more momentum, is identifying your biggest strengths and focusing your effort on those. The value of this is that it keeps you from focusing on your weaknesses, which can often be hard for people to get past. Focusing on strengths allows you to start in an area of confidence in your life and building upon it. Everyone has strengths regardless of one’s situation and those strengths need to be recognized and taken advantage of. Doing this will help you to prescribe your own future and enjoy your own successes; something that can be difficult when your focus is on your weaknesses.

Focus on the wrong traits (the weak ones) can lead us to think that we are incapable of doing something because of what we have or have not learned or what we do or do not know. Another origin of this is thinking along the lines of “I grew up in an unsuccessful family/situation and do not think like successful people.” This is what is often called a limiting belief. Harrison has empirical evidence that family has little bearing on ones success potential. The problem is that everyone thinks they are a victim of their circumstances. The point to realize is that it is not your circumstances that are limiting, but it is your belief about those circumstances. You are in charge of your current circumstances and you are in charge of your future circumstances. You will never see a successful entrepreneur (or probably any entrepreneur for that matter) who believes she is a victim of her circumstances. The more exposure you allow yourself to other entrepreneurs and various forms of success, the more this will become clear.

Another valuable concept from Harrison is one must create an addiction for success. Associate success with pleasure and make it something you have to have. This starts with exposure and knowledge of other successes around you and ends with your definition and achievement of success. This is one of the main reasons why I continue to read and add books to this site. We have the opportunity to be exposed to a lifetime worth of success by associating ourselves with successful people through relationships, books and our own experiences. The more we can learn about what has lead others to success and what most drives us to achieve and succeed, the greater our chances of realizing our dreams. One fantastic way to start learning is by exposing yourself to challenges and calculated risks as early as possible. Make mistakes. Make improvements. Perfect your understanding of what is required for your own success. Set goals, small and big. Accomplish them and set bigger and bigger ones. Remember that achieved goals do not motivate. Map out your vision. Allow your vision to evolve. That is what keeps you growing.

About a year ago I found myself confronted with many of the challenges mentioned above. I realized I was in a career situation that did not press my limits, allow me to take risks and leverage and develop my skills. The moment I realized this I stopped everything. I explained my findings to my colleagues and superiors and respectfully left my career. That was the first of many risks. I had no idea what was next but I certainly knew i was not what I had been doing. From that point I spent a lot of time with myself and my journal going through many of the self-evaluation concepts above, and thinking about what success meant for me.

As Harrison emphasizes, I took time to think big and I imagined and ingrained in my mind what success felt like for me. It is very hard these days for most people to remove themselves from their busy lives and take time for themselves to just think. I encourage you to do it at least once a week as I have described and as Harrison does. My personal time is reserved weekly with a sunset over the pacific and my journal. You must find your own time like this and be sure to take it. Within a short period of time, after recognizing my true traits and strengths, I found myself in my ideal career situation. To this day I continue to thrive and build upon my successes.

I know this review has been longer than most and I would like to touch on a few more key points before closing. Successful people associate themselves with others who have been successful. Harrison encourages you to develop your own panel of advisors who will help you and provide guidance on your journey to success. I have touched on this before. It is what I call my Personal Board of Directors, which I continue to develop. They have been integral in my various stages in life and career.

I will close with one of Harrison’s (and may others’) key points. One of the single most important things to realize on your journey toward a successful life is that the word “no” will be heard more often than not. As Harrison says, learn to love the word “no” and never think or say the words “why me?” The word no only serves to make you stronger and there is no reason to think that you should hear it any less than others around you. Once you have established your key strengths and traits, you will find a confidence in what you believe and the word no will no longer bring you down but instead will motivate. You are going to hear “no”. There’s not a doubt about it. That is par for the course of being an entrepreneur.

Celebrate your small victories and success on a day to day basis and your larger ones as they come due. You will soon find that “no” does not have the effect on you that it used to. When working towards one of these victories, always ask yourself what is the worst that can happen. At the very best you will experience the successes of your dreams and at the worst you will hear “no” and take away an invaluable lesson. That to me is win/win. Success does not just come in large packages and in fact sometimes it can be disguised as failure. You must understand yourself and build your confidence so that you will know the difference as you come across each milestone in your journey toward your personally prescribed success. Instinct will no doubt help you develop that understanding and it is never too early to start.

Valuable Quotes:

“And of course, behavior can be modified by adopting specific behaviors and mental attitudes, it’s called learning.”
—Thomas Harrison

“Never start anything you don’t finish.”
—Thomas Harrison’s Father

“The more we experience success, the more we train our brains both to crave it and to look for ways to create or recreate it.”
—Thomas Harrison

“I liked succeeding better than failing, so I began to rely on myself rather than the excuses that were
around me.”
—Peter Ueberroth

“Vision is not a static thing. You need to redefine it constantly.”
—Thomas Harrison

“If you want to be super-successful, be prepared to supersize your challenges.”
—Thomas Harrison

“Risk is opportunity to the entrepreneur.”
—Thomas Harrison

“The entrepreneurial attitude is that there are an unlimited number of opportunities.”
—Thomas Harrison

“If you’re afraid of being wrong, you won’t do anything new, different or entrepreneurial; you’ll certainly never be lead dog. You’ll just follow all your life.”
—Thomas Harrison

“Entrepreneurs not only see around corners; they believe what they see.”
—Sam Zell

“Entrepreneurs are able to attack an opportunity and pursue it relentlessly even though they may not know precisely when it will pay off.”
—Thomas Harrison

“Passionate understanding creates confidence.”
—Thomas Harrison

“We learn more from screwing up than from getting it right. After all, we don’t question why we got something right. But if something blows up on us, we sure as heck try to figure out what happened so we can prevent it from happening the next time.”
—Thomas Harrison

“Life is not about what happens to you. It’s about dealing with whatever happens to you.”
—John Bogle Sr.

“When you’re honest and have the ability to marry that honesty with talent, with value, with intellect, with standing for something important—watch out. You’re an entrepreneur—a successful one.”
—Thomas Harrison

“You can’t be a success with no reputation. tYou can’t be a success with a bad one.”
—Pat Croce

“You should always be testing your limits.”
—Sam Zell

-Reading for Your Success