You spent years researching the world’s most successful people—including medical superstars like Dr. Anthony Fauci, astronaut Nicole Stott, NBA Champion Steve Kerr and several Nobel Prize winners. How did you come to define a ‘high achiever’?
Success means different things to different people, but a definition I like is, ‘Someone who moves the needle in their field.’ These are people who have created a paradigm shift and a new way of thinking about things. But as they advance, they also give back in some way. They might do one-on-one mentoring or lead community programs, but as they ascend in their field, they bring other people up with them. That is the true hallmark of someone who is extremely successful.
You believe that high achievers actually gain more control over their time, not less. Please explain.
People think if you’re a high achiever, you must be a lot busier than other people. But there are things high achievers do to alleviate that. For instance, they can decide which opportunities to accept and which to turn down. One of the high achievers I feature in the book, , won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2012. In addition to teaching at the Duke University School of Medicine, he also runs a lab there. Over the years he’s been offered many prestigious roles,
