The Success Equation

Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports, and Investing

By: Michael J. Mauboussin

Narrated by: Wes Talbot

"Much of what we experience in life results from a combination of skill and luck." (From the Introduction)

The trick, of course, is figuring out just how many of our successes (and failures) can be attributed to each - and how we can learn to tell the difference ahead of time. In most domains of life, skill and luck seem hopelessly entangled. Different levels of skill and varying degrees of good and bad luck are the realities that shape our lives - yet few of us are adept at accurately distinguishing between the two. Imagine what we could accomplish if we were able to tease out these two threads, examine them, and use the resulting knowledge to make better decisions.

In this provocative audiobook, Michael Mauboussin helps to untangle these intricate strands to offer the structure needed to analyze the relative importance of skill and luck. He offers concrete suggestions for making these insights work to your advantage. Once we understand the extent to which skill and luck contribute to our achievements, we can learn to deal with them in making decisions.

The Success Equation helps us move toward this goal by:

• Establishing a foundation so we better understand skill and luck, and can pinpoint where each is most relevant
• Helping us develop the analytical tools necessary to understand skill and luck
• Offering concrete suggestions about how to take these findings and put them to work

Showcasing Mauboussin's trademark wit, insight, and analytical genius, The Success Equation is a must for anyone seeking to make better decisions - in business and in life.

©2012 Michael J. Mauboussin (P)2013 Gildan Media LLC

Great book, maybe repetitive/redundant. Horrible narration.

I couldn't fully tell if the narrator was a human being or a text-to-speech program. Odd pauses, odd inflection, and pretty monotone.

Book was very interesting, I watched a Google talk with the author, and I found the talk better. Nonetheless, the central idea is a great one, I have more typo think about as a result, this book has delivered a valuable thinking tool I the skill vs. luck continuum.

Eleven year old book but likely will never be dated.

This is a useful framework for avoiding the trap of post-hoc rationalization of random phenomena.

My very first audible book and I will never forget it

I really like this book it was fantastic the narration was fabulous and it helped bring the content to life if I had to actually read this book it probably would’ve taken me two months to get through because it was very technical but the narration helped really make me understand the contact quicker and faster and I was able to rewind to get better understanding of the concepts that I could not grasp. The author did a fantastic job with this book and I would highly recommend it to Lake Lee people because in the email with his illustration and an adult he makes it very easy to understand.

Great insights, helpful thought frameworks

Great insights, helpful thought framework for evaluating skill and managing the randomness of luck. Narration sounds computer generated.

Excellent in written format, "ok" in Audio.

This book is Mentality "New" and Stimulating. A book best with note taking options avaliable.