Originals

How Non-Conformists Move the World

By: Adam Grant, Sheryl Sandberg - foreword

Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Susan Denaker

Length: 10 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

The number one New York Times best seller that examines how people can champion new ideas in their careers and everyday life - and how leaders can fight groupthink, from the author of Think Again and co-author of Option B.

With Give and Take, Adam Grant not only introduced a landmark new paradigm for success but also established himself as one of his generation’s most compelling and provocative thought leaders. In Originals he again addresses the challenge of improving the world, but now from the perspective of becoming original: choosing to champion novel ideas and values that go against the grain, battle conformity, and buck outdated traditions. How can we originate new ideas, policies, and practices without risking it all?

Using surprising studies and stories spanning business, politics, sports, and entertainment, Grant explores how to recognize a good idea, speak up without getting silenced, build a coalition of allies, choose the right time to act, and manage fear and doubt; how parents and teachers can nurture originality in children; and how leaders can build cultures that welcome dissent. Learn from an entrepreneur who pitches his start-ups by highlighting the reasons not to invest, a woman at Apple who challenged Steve Jobs from three levels below, an analyst who overturned the rule of secrecy at the CIA, a billionaire financial wizard who fires employees for failing to criticize him, and a TV executive who didn’t even work in comedy but saved Seinfeld from the cutting-room floor. The payoff is a set of groundbreaking insights about rejecting conformity and improving the status quo.

©2016 Adam Grant (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Reading Originals made me feel like I was seated across from Adam Grant at a dinner party, as one of my favorite thinkers thrilled me with his insights and his wonderfully new take on the world." (Malcolm Gladwell, number-one New York Times best-selling author of Outliers and The Tipping Point)

"Originals is one of the most important and captivating books I have ever read, full of surprising and powerful ideas. It will not only change the way you see the world; it might just change the way you live your life. And it could very well inspire you to change your world.” )Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and author of Lean In)

“Filled with fresh insights on a broad array of topics that are important to our personal and professional lives.” (The New York Times DealBook)

A good listen

Good insights for developing self belief while improving appetite for original thinking, does get repetitive at times.

Insights for all

Not just for leaders, originals gets into key aspects of life that impact everyone. I can look back to stresses at work and find advice that would have helped me a great deal during that time.

A must hear transformational-leadership book.

highly motivational, eye opening, relevant to everyone in any field or industry, at any level.

good

I enjoyed....saw myself, saw my boss, saw my co-workers. sometimes tough to follow but really good last chapter review.

Good book

I read this book because it was recommended by many. As expected it did not disappoint. Not sure if I can add anything more to the many positive reviews.

Thank you great procrastinators

I sure am grateful that creative procrastinators like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Leonardo da Vinci and so many others used their delays to turn and churn their priceless works until they reached the point of perfection just in time. Adam Grant sheds new light on how "Originals" create masterpieces. "Originals", this book, is a masterpiece.

Brilliant

Adam Grant delivers with a beautiful and inspiring thesis for the truest component of the human condition: the happiness of pursuit

very informative and influential

Originals had me tuned in from beginning till the end. A must read for everyone who desires towards a better life and understanding of perfection.

Important book

I read 60 books a year. I rarely write reviews but this book is one of the most important studies of change I’ve read. It is a must read.

Engaging, educational, and immediately applicable!

I truly enjoyed this book, and found it full of well researched content that is immediately useful to me in both my personal and professional environments. I appreciate individuals like Grant that are professionals in their field with obvious real world experience, who give concrete evidence, references, and are able to constantly provide real world examples of the concepts they are discussing. He manages to be inspiring and educational, without being a hollow hype man or a banal stodgy pedantic. This book has earned a place as one of my favorites in in its genre, and I am optimistically looking forward to reading more of his excellent work!

While I am embarrassingly blanking on his name right now and unable to locate it on this particular page of the Audible app (note to developers: maybe leave the book info and voice info in an easily accessible spot on the review page for easier and more consistently accurate referencability [apparently I made the word “referencability” up, but I am leaving it because I think we can agree that it SHOULD exist, mostly just to be able to use it in Scrabble when I have too many vowels) the Vocal Artist is, in my subjective opinion, one of the best ones on Audible, so two thumbs up for him as well, because that plays no small part in the satisfaction that comes from an all around excellent book experience!