excellence

"In The Real Work--the term magicians use for the accumulated craft that makes for a great trick--Gopnik becomes a dedicated student of several masters of their craft: a classical painter, a boxer, a dancing instructor, a driving instructor, and others. Rejecting self-help bromides and bullet points, he nevertheless shows that the top people in any field share a set of common qualities and methods. For one, their mastery is always a process of breaking down and building up--of identifying and perfecting the small constituent parts of a skill and the combining them for an overall effect greater than the sum of those parts. For another, mastery almost always involves intentional imperfection--as in music, where vibrato, a way of not quite landing on the right note, carries maximum expressiveness"--Provided by publisher.

Discusses the science and genetics of peak potential in the human race, focusing on how and why some humans have achieved 'superhuman' feats.

Ben Carson shares the story of how he transformed himself from the dumbest student in his fifth grade class into a Yale graduate and pediatric neurosurgeon, and tells of some of the people who inspired him to achieve in his studies and in life.

A discussion of the benefits of excellence and how to achieve it.

Discusses what values are and what it means to do your best, and describes how people do their best and ways to achieve excellence.

"A thought-provoking, accessible, and essential exploration of why some leaders (called "Diminishers") drain capability and intelligence from their teams while others (called "Multipliers") amplify it to produce better results"--Provided by publisher.