The Formula: The Science Behind Why People Succeed or Fail

Description

In this pioneering examination of the scientific principles behind success, a leading researcher reveals the surprising ways in which we can turn achievement into success. Too often, accomplishment does not equate to success. We did the work but didn't get the promotion; we played hard but weren't recognized; we had the idea but didn't get the credit. We've always been told that talent and a strong work ethic are the key to getting ahead, but in today's world these efforts rarely translate into tangible results. Recognizing this disconnect, Laszlo Barabasi, one of the world's leading experts on the science of networks, uncovers what success really is: a collective phenomenon based on the thoughts and praise of those around you. In The Formula, Barabasi highlights the vital importance of community respect and appreciation when connecting performance to recognition - the elusive link between performance and success. By leveraging the power of big data and historic case studies, Barabasi reveals the unspoken rules behind who truly gets ahead and why, and outlines the twelve laws that govern this phenomenon and how we can use them to our own advantage. Unveiling the scientific principles that drive success, this trailblazing book offers a new understanding of the very foundation of how people excel in today's society.

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi is the Robert Gray Dodge Professor of Network Science and a Distinguished University Professor at Northeastern University, where he directs the Center for Complex Network Research and holds appointments in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Central European University in Budapest. A native of Transylvania, Romania, he received his Masters in Theoretical Physics at the Eoetvoes University in Budapest, Hungary and Ph.D. at Boston University.

This is not just an important but an imperative project: to approach the problem of randomness and success using the state-of-the-art scientific arsenal we have. Barabasi is the person -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, bestselling author of Skin in the Game It's rare that a book about success turns out to be such a page-turner, but there you go. File [The Formula] away with Freakonomics or Outliers * Geekwire * A fascinating new book * Bloomberg Businessweek * A fun, fast, first-hand account of efforts to use big data to pull back the curtain on our collective dynamics. The Formula offers a rich tour of research on how relatively simple feedback forces channel our lives in surprising and counter-intuitive ways * Nature * If you are currently at the top of your field, but you want to knock everyone else off the mountain, Barabasi will tell you how. And if you're not quite there yet, these laws might give you something to think about on the way up * Lifehacker * Writing in a lively fashion, he illuminates broad principles that explain how people in all fields - from entrepreneurs to scientists to athletes to artists - achieve success. -- Nicholas Christakis, co-author of Connected and the Sol Goldman Family Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University In his new book, Laszlo Barabasi delights us with the stories and mechanisms that explain success in our achievement-obsessed society -- Cesar A. Hidalgo, author of Why Information Grows and Director of the Macro Connections group at the MIT Media Lab Barabasi will indelibly transform the way we all think about success -- Alex Pentland, author of Social Physics and Toshiba Professor at MIT The Formula is an important book for us all to read. It weaves together meticulously researched historical context with more than a decade of Barabasi's and other scholars' "eureka moments" and research findings to extract scientific principles and actionable insights for achieving success * Science *