Success Theory and Practice

The genre of self-help literature, often packaged as modern philosophy, sociology, and psychology, is a vibrant and growing $10-billion industry in the United States alone. For hundreds of years, authors have been helping people understand how to succeed in various aspects of life, including academics, health, finance, and love. Analogies, scientific research, autobiographies, psychological studies, and religious parables are just a few of the common forms of literature found along the spectrum of the self-help genre. During the last 20 years, however, the technological, digital, and information revolutions have connected billions of people around the globe and disrupted almost every aspect of how people communicate, live, and work. To help individuals learn how to succeed in the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment, today's technological revolution has helped individuals produce, access, and share thousands of research findings, publications, blogs, videos, online classes, e-books, websites, books, and other resources focused on some aspect of achieving success. When the three billion connected people around the globe are coupled with this hyper-production of information, an individual's cognitive capacity to process ideas is stressed and reduces the quality of decision-making. To improve an individual's capacity to process information, the self-help genre has a tremendous need for a publication that both summarizes the latest research and provides case studies. Success: Theory and Practice meets both needs and is valuable for any person interested in achieving personal or professional success. Divided into seven chapters, this publication provides a clear, concise, and compelling account on the theory and practice of success and includes research from history, psychology, sociology, cognitive neuroscience, animal behavior, and other areas. A list of readings, questions, and other resources are located at the end of each chapter.