The Formula

The Universal Laws of Success

By: Albert-László Barabási

Narrated by: Ryan Vincent Anderson

In the bestselling tradition of Malcom Gladwell, James Gleick, and Nate Silver, prominent professor László Barabási gives us a trailblazing book that promises to transform the very foundations of how our success-obsessed society approaches their professional careers, life pursuits and long-term goals.

Too often, accomplishment does not equal success. We did the work but didn't get the promotion; we played hard but weren't recognized; we had the idea but didn't get the credit. We convince ourselves that talent combined with a strong work ethic is the key to getting ahead, but also realize that combination often fails to yield results, without any deeper understanding as to why. Recognizing this striking disconnect, the author, along with a team of renowned researchers and some of the most advanced data-crunching systems on the planet, dedicated themselves to one goal: uncovering that ever-elusive link between performance and success.

Now, based on years of academic research, The Formula finally unveils the groundbreaking discoveries of their pioneering study, not only highlighting the scientific and mathematic principles that underpin success, but also revolutionizing our understanding of:

Why performance is necessary but not adequate Why "Experts" are often wrong How to assemble a creative team primed for success How to most effectively engage our networks

"This is not just an important but an imperative project: to approach the problem of randomness and success using the state of the art scientific arsenal we have. Barabasi is the person."-Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the New York Times bestselling The Black Swan and Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at NYU

Critic reviews

Praise for The Formula

"This is not just an important but an imperative project: to approach the problem of randomness and success using the state of the art scientific arsenal we have. Barabasi is the person."—Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the New York Times bestselling The Black Swan and Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at NYU

"Laszlo Barabasi is an extraordinary scientist who has enjoyed great success. He brings to bear all of his capacity as the former to understand the latter--to our great benefit. Writing in a lively fashion, he illuminates broad principles that explain how people in all fields--from entrepreneurs to scientists to athletes to artists--achieve success. The insights are novel and useful, and backed not just by vivid stories, but also by the sorts of detailed and inventive scientific analyses, plainly explained, for which Barabasi is rightly famous."—Nicholas Christakis, co-author of Connected and the Sol Goldman Family Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University

"In his new book, Laszlo Barabasi delights us with the stories and mechanisms that explain success in our achievement obsessed society."—Cesar A. Hidalgo, author of Why Information Grows and Director of the Macro Connections group at the MIT Media Lab

"Barabasi will indelibly transform the way we all think about success."—Alex Pentland, author of Social Physics and Toshiba Professor at MIT

"It's rare that a book about success turns out to be such a page-turner, but there you go. File [The Formula] away with Freakonomics or Outliers."—Geekwire

"A fascinating new book."—Bloomberg Businessweek

"If you are currently at the top of your field, but you want to knock everyone else off the mountain, Barabasi will tell you how. And if you're not quite there yet, these laws might give you something to think about on the way up."—Lifehacker

"A fun, fast, first-hand account of efforts to use big data to pull back the curtain on our collective dynamics.The Formula offers a rich tour of research on how relatively simple feedback forces channel our lives in surprising and counter-intuitive ways."—Nature

"The Formula is an important book for us all to read. It weaves together meticulously researched historical context with more than a decade of Barabási's and other scholars' "eureka moments" and research findings to extract scientific principles and actionable insights for achieving success."—Science

At 49, I have the insight needed for my carrer

I already realized that the ups and downs of the 1st half of my career have created my current reality. This book is not a BS self-help effort filled with plattitudes and shallow optimism. Instead it does the real work of giving the tools and examples to judge today's reality against a roadmap for what can be next, regardless of where you are starting. I am brimming with ideas for "what to do on Monday morning" now.

The only criticism is that his impressive research isn't available for a more personal analysis--its left me engaged with more of a thought experiment. Nothing to put into a spreadsheet or some other meaningful exercise.

Nice work about something that been misunderstood

Engaging, enlightening a simple explanation about something crucial in the life of people that pursue the satisfaction to change the world ... hopefully for good.

An Absolute Must!

This is a dynamic listen. Performance, Networking, Team Work, Creativity and Consistency are explained scientifically. I will listen to this audio book at least once per quarter. This book is a gem.

solid

loved the way the information was delivered. this will become a repeat read for me.

The missing piece to the puzzle

This book is enlightening for its analytical way of explaining successful phenomenons and cases of people that gained fame and popularity.

Although I have to keep in mind that everything this book has explained is not all there is to “success” there are many other factors, but this book definitely explained one layer of success that people can use strategically to their advantage in things they do, materials they learn and businesses they want to succeed in.