Feb 25, 2021

Unreasonable success and how to achieve it

I just finished reading Unreasonable Success and How to Achieve It by Richard Koch and I thought it was okay (3 stars out of 5).

The author defines unreasonable success as one individual having such an unreasonable impact changing the world or unexpected success that goes beyond what an individual’s talents seemed to indicate earlier in their life.

Much of the book felt a bit repetitive but I think the author nailed it with his 9 landmarks of unreasonable success. The landmarks are:

1. Self-belief
2. Olympian expectations
3. Transforming experiences
4. One breakthrough achievement
5. Make your own trail
6. Find and drive your own personal vehicle
7. Thrive on setbacks
8. Acquire unique intuition
9. Distort reality

I also very much enjoyed reading about some of the 20 players in the book that were covered: Bill Bain, Jeff Bezos, Otto von Bismarck, Winston Churchill, Marie Curie, Leonardo da Vinci, Walt Disney, Bob Dylan, Albert Einstein, Viktor Frankl, Bruce Henderson, Steve Jobs, John Maynard Keynes, Vladimir Lenin, Madonna, Nelson Mandela, J.K. Rowling, Helena Rubinstein, Paul of Tarsus, and Margaret Thatcher.

I did not care for the political characters but found Jeff Bezos, Leonardo da Vinci, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, and Steve Jobs particularly fascinating. This inspired me to order their biographies so I can learn more about those individuals.