I love the premise of this book: that we can develop the ability, the capacity, to be more; to elevate. In these six short chapters Glazer lays out strategies for doing just that. This would be an excellent book for anyone, but especially for those early in their career who are ready to reach their potential.
Here are some quotes that stood out to me, but the book is literally full of useful information.
| “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” p.1 |
| High achievers across all spectrums of life and business have found continuous ways to build their capacity at faster rates than their peers and use that extra capacity to stay ahead of the pack and achieve at the highest level” p.2 |
| As the legendary management guru Peter Drucker once wrote, “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.” p.6 |
| Intellectual capacity is about how you improve your ability to think, learn, plan, and execute with discipline. p.27 |
| To grow, you need to learn. To learn, you need to know where you can improve. To improve, you need to be self-aware. It’s all a virtuous cycle that begins with believing that you can always get better and being open to being shown where and how. p. 38 |
| When given the choice, choose to take action and keep the capacity ball moving downhill—momentum usually builds upon itself. p. 41 |
| The term compete actually comes from the Latin word competere, which means “strive together” and is a foundation of excellence. Individuals and teams should embrace the challenge of healthy competition and understand that it helps us each stretch our capacity, especially when we are working together as a team. p. 74 |
| Competing is about elevating your own game, practicing, getting better, and giving a maximum effort. p. 76 |
| In this life, you will face unexpected setbacks; it’s just a matter of how you respond and if you keep going. p.78 (I particularly liked this one as it resonates with one of my personal principles of life: It doesn’t matter what happens to you but what you do about it [Resilience]) |
| When you see two people of seemingly equal intellectual and physical capacity achieving very different outcomes, it is quite likely due to an imbalance in emotional capacity. None of us exist in a vacuum. p. 86 |
| Think about a race car. If your spiritual, physical, and intellectual capacities are the tools to design, build, and improve the car, your emotional capacity is your ability to actually drive it in the presence of other drivers and unintended obstacles. p. 88 |
| “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” p. 106 |
| As Jim Rohn once said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” p. 110 I thought this was an interesting perspective and one that helps frame the question of who we are and want to be. |
| If you want to elevate, but you realize you are the smartest person in the room, it may be time to switch rooms. p. 112 |
| Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. This isn’t a quote, but the title of a book that Glazer referenced that should be worth checking out. |