G. Richard Shell

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“What a fabulous book! When grounded in wisdom, your journey towards success can be a journey of growth and fulfillment for yourself and others. Richard Shell shows you how to access the wisdom that is already inside your own heart and mind.”

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Chade-Meng Tan, Jolly Good Fellow of Google and New York Times Bestselling author of Search Inside Yourself

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“Although there are hundreds of books about ‘how to succeed,’ Richard helps you think through what success actually is – and he is one of the most reliable guides I know to help you figure this out for yourself.”

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Angela Duckworth, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, winner of the Joseph E. Zins Early Career Award, and co-developer of the GRIT Scale.

“Fantastic coaching for the game of life! Achieving our personal mission is even more important than achieving our business mission. This book will show you how!”

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Marshall Goldsmith – the New York Times bestselling author of MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

“If you are embarking on a new life adventure, Shell’s inspiring guide will not only help you figure out what you were meant to do — this book will give you the tools to turn your calling into your Monday morning reality.”

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Laura Vanderkam, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast and All The Money In The World

“G. Richard Shell has written a book that is at once wise and practical, attentive to the scientific literature and full of gripping stories of individual lives.”

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Barry Schwartz, Dorwin Cartwright Professor, Swarthmore College, author of The Paradox of Choice

“This book has print on pages, of course, but it is really a compass. The needle on that compass points directly to you, the reader…”

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William J. Byron, S.J., University Professor of Business and Society, St. Joseph’s University and author, Finding Work Without Losing Heart

“Years of experience and wisdom have been distilled into this insightful book. It will motivate readers to examine and change their lives.”

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Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology, Stanford University, and author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

“Springboard: Launching Your Personal Search for Success is a rare find – like one of those special mountaineering guidebooks about a challenging assent that captures the wisdom and experience of generations of climbers…”

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Josh Lewis, Founder and Managing Principal, Salmon River Capital

“In this insightful book, Shell offers a new way to think of success…that can transform your own life and the lives of those around you.”

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Daniel Pink, bestselling author of To Sell is Human and Drive


Springboard

Launching Your Personal Search for Success

Everyone knows that you are supposed to “follow your dream.”  But how, exactly, are you supposed to find out what your dream is?  And suppose you are a practical, down-to-earth person who simply wants some help figuring out what to do next with your life? What are some simple steps you can take to get started?

G. Richard Shell, an award-winning author and the creator of the popular Wharton School course on the meaning of success, has answers to these and a host of other questions that confront you when you consider how best to use your life.  In Springboard: Launching Your Personal Search for Success, he helps you find your future – regardless of your passions, your past experience, or your personality.

His advice: Take an honest look inside and then answer two questions.

What, for me, is success? 

How will I achieve it? 

You will begin by assessing your current beliefs about success, including the hidden influences of family, media, and culture.  Steve Jobs once famously said “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”  So Step 1 in your work on success is coming to terms of the expectations others have placed on you.  Once you gain perspective on these outside forces, you will be ready to look inside at your unique combination of passions and capabilities. The goal: to focus more on what gives meaning and excitement to your life and less on what you are “supposed” to want.

Drawing on his decades of research and mentoring, Shell offers personalized assessments to help you probe your past, imagine your future, and measure your strengths. He then combines these with the latest scientific insights on everything from self-confidence and happiness to relationships and careers. Throughout, he shares inspiring examples of people who found what they were meant to do by embracing their own true measure of success. You will meet:

  • Eric Adler: one of Shell’s former students who walked away from a conventional business career to help launch a revolutionary new concept in public education that has placed hundreds of inner-city high school students in top colleges.
  • Kurt Timken: a Harvard-educated son of a Fortune 500 CEO who found his true calling as a hard-charging police officer fighting drug lords in southern California.
  • Cynthia Stafford: a California office worker who won the lottery and, instead of getting lost in her new-found wealth, stayed grounded to became one of her community’s leading promoters of theater and the arts.

Get ready for the journey of a lifetime—one that will help you reevaluate your future and envision success on your own terms. Students and executives say that Richard Shell’s courses and executive training programs have changed their lives. Let this book change yours.

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