Big Potential ─ How Transforming the Pursuit of Success Raises Our Achievement, Happiness, and Well-Being

The bestselling author of The Happiness Advantage redefines success and human potential.

We have long thought about potential as being a set of individual traits: your creativity, your skills your intelligence. But thanks to exciting new research combining neuroscience and psychology with Big Data, we now know that our potential is not limited by what we alone can achieve. Instead, it is determined by how we complement, contribute to, and benefit from the abilities and achievements of people around us.

When we - as individuals, leaders, and parents - chase only individual achievement, we leave vast sources of potential untapped. But once we put "others" back into the equation, and work to make others better, we ignite a Virtuous Cycle of cascading successes that amplify our own.

The dramatic shifts in how we approach work today demand an equally dramatic shift in our approach to success. Here, Achor offers a new path. Drawing on cutting-edge original research, as well as his work with nearly half of the Fortune 100 and with places like NASA, the NFL and the NBA, he walks us through five actionable steps towards achieving our Big Potential to thrive in the modern world.

SHAWN ACHOR is one of the world's leading experts on happiness, success, and potential. His research has graced the cover of Harvard Business Review and his TED Talk is one of the most popular of all time, with over 15 million views. Shawn spent 12 years at Harvard before bringing this research out to nearly half the Fortune 100, including places like the Pentagon, impoverished schools in Africa, and the White House. His research has been published in the top psychology journals and featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Fortune. His interview with Oprah Winfrey and his PBS program have been seen by millions. He now serves on the World Happiness Council and continues his research.