Book: Success Built to Last: Creating a Life that Matters 

Author: Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery, Mark Thompson 

Summary: Satyendra Dwivedi 

Ch. 7: The Tripping Point – Always Make New Mistakes 

“Experience is a hard teacher. She gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.” 

-       Dick Enberg 

“Gain is the edge of loss; loss is the heart of gain. Having many difficulties perfects the being; having no difficulties ruins the being.”   

-       Lao Tzu 

Builders achieve enduring success when they pour themselves into constructive habits – limiting their “addictions” to the passions that serve them. 

They just tolerate the risks, feel the fear, take the brick-bats, learn from failure, and do what matters to them anyway.                                                                                 

Ch. 8: Wounds to Wisdom – Trusting Your Weaknesses and Using Your Core Competencies 

“I knew from my own difficulties I needed to have other people who could complement me in different parts of the business that I was developing. I have been able, I think, to recognize my strengths and my deficits and build up around me a team of great people in the areas of deficit.” 

-       Charles Schwab 

Enduringly successful people have found that the answer to their life’s purpose is buried not in passionate love or pain alone, but in the struggle over both together, working in strange harmony. 

Ch. 9: Earning Your Luck – Preparing for Serendipity by Using Big Hairy Audacious Goals 

“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” 

-       Thomas Jefferson 

The overwhelming majority of Builders claim that their success has been a serendipitous journey, and the luck they enjoyed was usually earned, often at great cost. They have done that by focusing on doing work that is meaningful to them and going deep to discover relevant clues along the way. They set big goals and engaged completely in the work in hand.  

“Our beliefs are our assets and our liabilities. Our choices make the difference about whether they hurt or help our cause.” 

-       Rabbi Israel Singer 

Ch. 10: Naked Conversations – Harvesting Contention 

“Disagreement is refreshing when two men lovingly desire to compare their views to find out truth. Controversy is wretched when it is only an attempt to prove another wrong.” 

-       Frederick William Robertson 

What builders ignite is actually a sort of controlled burn where you set the fire with a match in one hand and hold a hose in the other. The purpose is to encourage contention in a very precise way to draw out the best, most passionate and creative ideas from their teams. 

Ch. 11: Creating Alignment – The Environment Always Wins 

Builders use language to create a shared sense of reality and to manage meaning for their partners and team members. Action is managed through language. 

Disclaimer: This is summary of the book. However the copyright of the book is with publisher and author.  

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