Just Enough : Tools for Creating Success in Your Work and Life

From Publishers Weekly
Defining success, learning how to achieve it and feeling satisfied with the results—all in a world where nothing ever seems to be enough—are the challenges addressed by the authors of this volume. Nash and Stevens, both of the Harvard Business School, believe that "everyone seems to be struggling with the Tantalus effect. This mythological character was punished with an eternal, raging thirst." As they point out, such constant striving means perpetual stress and no contentment. Per their definition, success isn’t measured by money alone; it involves four pillars of professional and personal life: happiness, achievement, significance and legacy. Illustrating their ideas with real examples (of both celebrities and non-celebrities), as well as with the ponderings of a few ancient philosophers, the authors explain what these pillars mean, how to define them for oneself, why "going for the max" is dangerous and how to calibrate one’s own version of "just enough." Though the prose seems excessively wordy for a book teaching readers how to eliminate excess, the topic is interesting and well researched—and likely to strike a chord with people juggling many demands in a fast-paced, success-hungry society. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Review
"the best of this crop of books." (The New York Times, April 11, 2004)


Review
"the best of this crop of books." (The New York Times, April 11, 2004)


Book Description
In Just Enough, top Harvard professors offer a revealing, research-based look at the true nature of professional success, helping people everywhere live more rewarding and satisfying lives. True professional and personal satisfaction seems more elusive every day, despite a proliferation of gurus and special methods that promise to make it easy. They conclude that many of the problems of success today can be traced back to unrealistic expectations and misconceptions about what success is and what constitutes it. The authors show where the happiest and most well-balanced among us are focusing their energy, and why, to help readers find more balance and satisfaction in their lives.


Download Description
Top Harvard professors offer a revealing, research-based look at the true nature of professional success

Just Enough introduces a revolutionary new definition of success. Written by two veteran authors from Harvard Business School, and based on extensive research that includes interviews with hundreds of professionals, Just Enough explores why true satisfaction seems more elusive all the time. The authors show where exceptionally successful people focus their energy and why-helping readers to not only understand success, but to achieve it.

Laura Nash (Cambridge, MA) is Senior Research Fellow at Harvard University Business School. She is the author of Good Intentions Aside and Church on Sunday, Work on Monday.
Howard Stevenson (Cambridge, MA) is Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate for External Relations at Harvard University Business School.


From the Inside Flap
Success is clearly about more than making money, but it’s also not just about happiness. You can have wealth and pleasure and still feel dissatisfied on many fronts. What, then, is real success and what does it take to achieve it in lasting terms that benefit you and others? How do you prepare your children and your business to succeed on the goals they most deeply value and have a reasonable chance of obtaining? Just Enough argues that these questions have a new urgency today. People are caught up in success approaches that seem to never quite keep up with all the moving targets around them. Dissatisfied and confused, they want something more from success, but don’t know how to go about it. They become stressed out, indecisive, or even detached from their own values and talents. In a thought-provoking examination of high achievers in business and other professions, authors Nash and Stevenson argue that the single greatest cause of today’s success frustration can be traced to the failure to understand that real success requires skill in the art of complex decision-making about noncomparable goals. Many success advisories tell you how to go after one big thing, and many organizations mistakenly try to motivate success on these terms. Drawing on new in-depth interviews, hundreds of case studies, and a survey of top executives, the authors conclude that even for the most driven, success is really measured on four distinct, irreducible categories representing conflicting human needs: happiness, achievement, significance, and legacy. Unless you know how to "score" in each category repeatedly in every aspect of your life–family, work, and community–you aren’t really going after a success that will feel worthwhile and lasting. Just Enough presents a powerful framework for identifying and distinguishing the most important definers of success in your life and your business. It advances a step-by-step "kaleidoscope strategy" for addressing each of your goals in a way that doesn’t shortchange the others. This process is not a formula for getting you everything you wish from one goal. It’s about learning how to sort and scale and switch your energies to focus the right skills and perspectives on each of the four categories of success sequentially. With this diagnostic you can calibrate your activities to do just enough for today and for the future. You don’t continue to waste your energies focusing on one thing until you hit a wall of dissatisfaction. It’s a critical tool not only for individuals, but also for businesses seeking to achieve lasting greatness.


From the Back Cover
Praise for Just Enough "One of the things society needs most right now is a reasoned sense of what is enough. This book will advance the dialogue of this important topic for individuals and their communities." --Hon. Barbara H. Franklin, President and CEO, Barbara Franklin Enterprises former U.S. Secretary of Commerce "Rarely do we find a book for leaders that addresses all aspects of leadership success. Just Enough does just this in a powerful and inspiring way. From values and self-fulfillment, high performance and results, to legacy, the last great gift of a leader, Just Enough delivers a profound new resource for leaders everywhere." --Frances Hesselbein Chairman, Leader to Leader Institute "Just Enough will make you think about how you define success in your life in entirely new and creative ways. If you are searching for the kind of meaningful success that endures, read this well-researched and well-written book." --Ralph S. Larsen, former Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson "Just Enough provides insights and guideposts for dealing with the complex pressures for performance in today’s workplace environment. Readers of this impressive book will have a better understanding of what success should mean and how to go about achieving it. Best of all, Laura Nash and Howard Stevenson use their experience and research to provide concrete examples and helpful ‘quick points’ summaries." --Thomas W. Dunfee Joseph Kolodny Professor of Social Responsibility in Business The Wharton School "A brilliant assault on our conventional assumptions of success. Completely fresh and original, Just Enough is filled with wisdom and unfettered thinking. The book takes the reader to the core of life’s deeper meanings and offers real solutions to man’s obsession with success." --Jim Loehr, CEO, LGE Performance Systems and coauthor of the bestselling The Power of Full Engagement "I wish I could have read this book when I was thirty and then reread it periodically throughout my life. Its insights into how to define success and what is not enough, just enough, and too much are fascinating. I could have set clearer targets and periodically altered them as my life and the world changed." --Frank Batten, retired CEO, Landmark Communications, Inc. and founder of The Weather Channel "Bravo to Laura Nash and Howard Stevenson for tackling a complex subject and providing a framework for analysis that is both original and engaging. For anyone who wants to sort out ‘success’ from ‘significance’ in work and life, Just Enough is the book for you." --Janet Morrison Clarke, President, Clarke Littlefield LLC and former Executive Vice President, Young & Rubicam, Inc.


About the Author
LAURA NASH is a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Business School. She is a leading authority in the field of business ethics and has written many books on the subject, including Good Intentions Aside and Church on Sunday, Work on Monday.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Success is clearly about more than making money, but it’s also not just about happiness. You can have wealth and pleasure and still feel dissatisfied on many fronts. What, then, is real success and what does it take to achieve it in lasting terms that benefit you and others? How do you prepare your children and your business to succeed on the goals they most deeply value and have a reasonable chance of obtaining?

Just Enough argues that these questions have a new urgency today. People are caught up in success approaches that seem to never quite keep up with all the moving targets around them.

Dissatisfied and confused, they want something more from success, but don’t know how to go about it. They become stressed out, indecisive, or even detached from their own values and talents.

In a thought-provoking examination of high achievers in business and other professions, authors Nash and Stevenson argue that the single greatest cause of today’s success frustration can be traced to the failure to understand that real success requires skill in the art of complex decision-making about noncomparable goals. Many success advisories tell you how to go after one big thing, and many organizations mistakenly try to motivate success on these terms. Drawing on new in-depth interviews, hundreds of case studies, and a survey of top executives, the authors conclude that even for the most driven, success is really measured on four distinct, irreducible categories representing conflicting human needs: happiness, achievement, significance, and legacy. Unless you know how to "score" in each category repeatedly in every aspect of your life—family, work, and community—you aren’t really going after a success that will feel worthwhile and lasting.

Just Enough presents a powerful framework for identifying and distinguishing the most important definers of success in your life and your business. It advances a step-by-step "kaleidoscope strategy" for addressing each of your goals in a way that doesn’t shortchange the others. This process is not a formula for getting you everything you wish from one goal. It’s about learning how to sort and scale and switch your energies to focus the right skills and perspectives on each of the four categories of success sequentially. With this diagnostic you can calibrate your activities to do just enough for today and for the future. You don’t continue to waste your energies focusing on one thing until you hit a wall of dissatisfaction. It’s a critical tool not only for individuals, but also for businesses seeking to achieve lasting greatness.

Praise for Just Enough

"One of the things society needs most right now is a reasoned sense of what is enough. This book will advance the dialogue of this important topic for individuals and their communities." —Hon. Barbara H. Franklin, President and CEO, Barbara Franklin Enterprises former U.S. Secretary of Commerce

"Rarely do we find a book for leaders that addresses all aspects of leadership success. Just Enough does just this in a powerful and inspiring way. From values and self-fulfillment, high performance and results, to legacy, the last great gift of a leader, Just Enough delivers a profound new resource for leaders everywhere." —Frances Hesselbein Chairman, Leader to Leader Institute

"Just Enough will make you think about how you define success in your life in entirely new and creative ways. If you are searching for the kind of meaningful success that endures, read this well-researched and well-written book." —Ralph S. Larsen, former Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson

"Just Enough provides insights and guideposts for dealing with the complex pressures for performance in today’s workplace environment. Readers of this impressive book will have a better understanding of what success should mean and how to go about achieving it. Best of all, Laura Nash and Howard Stevenson use their experience and research to provide concrete examples and helpful ‘quick points’ summaries." —Thomas W. Dunfee Joseph Kolodny Professor of Social Responsibility in Business The Wharton School

"A brilliant assault on our conventional assumptions of success. Completely fresh and original, Just Enough is filled with wisdom and unfettered thinking. The book takes the reader to the core of life’s deeper meanings and offers real solutions to man’s obsession with success." —Jim Loehr, CEO, LGE Performance Systems and coauthor of the bestselling The Power of Full Engagement

"I wish I could have read this book when I was thirty and then reread it periodically throughout my life. Its insights into how to define success and what is not enough, just enough, and too much are fascinating. I could have set clearer targets and periodically altered them as my life and the world changed." —Frank Batten, retired CEO, Landmark Communications, Inc. and founder of The Weather Channel

"Bravo to Laura Nash and Howard Stevenson for tackling a complex subject and providing a framework for analysis that is both original and engaging. For anyone who wants to sort out ‘success’ from ‘significance’ in work and life, Just Enough is the book for you." —Janet Morrison Clarke, President, Clarke Littlefield LLC and former Executive Vice President, Young & Rubicam, Inc.