The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success - Hardcover

Mcardle, Megan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 067002614X ISBN 13: 9780670026142

Publisher: Viking Pr, 2014

Synopsis

For readers of Drive, Outliers, and Daring Greatly, a counterintuitive, paradigm-shifting new take on what makes people and companies succeed

Most new products fail. So do most small businesses. And most of us, if we are honest, have experienced a major setback in our personal or professional lives. So what determines who will bounce back and follow up with a home run? If you want to succeed in business and in life, Megan McArdle argues in this hugely thought-provoking book, you have to learn how to harness the power of failure.

McArdle has been one of our most popular business bloggers for more than a decade, covering the rise and fall of some the world’s top companies and challenging us to think differently about how we live, learn, and work. Drawing on cutting-edge research in science, psychology, economics, and business, and taking insights from turnaround experts, emergency room doctors, venture capitalists, child psychologists, bankruptcy judges, and mountaineers, McArdle argues that America is unique in its willingness to let people and companies fail, but also in its determination to let them pick up after the fall. Failure is how people and businesses learn. So how do you reinvent yourself when you are down?

Dynamic and punchy, McArdle teaches us how to recognize mistakes early to channel setbacks into future success. The Up Side of Down marks the emergence of an author with her thumb on the pulse whose book just might change the way you lead your life.

About this title

Product Description:

Hardcover

Review:

Praise for The Up Side of Down

"Clever, surprising, fast-paced, and enlightening . . . It's okay to fail, and . . . acknowledging failure, McArdle writes in her engrossing book, is a necessary first step in learning from it."
--Forbes

"A vivid example of how leaning in to low confidence--and the real and imagined failures it can bring about--can turn you around. . . . McArdle weaves together corporate case studies of triumphs and flops, core findings of behavioral economics, and her own bad luck in losing a succession of jobs during the Great Recession. . . . To get where you want to go, McArdle sagely notes, you must first give yourself 'permission to suck.' Seeing how this epiphany earns her a freer, failure-embracing growth mindset is like watching a flower unfold."
--Elle

"McArdle combines a shrewd knowledge of economics and practical experience with a writing style that every so often segues into comedy monologue. . . . Americans fail a lot, she argues. . . . But good judgment comes from experience. And experience comes from bad judgment--from failures. The key question is how you respond, whether you learn from failure and rebound."
--The Washington Examiner

"With great wit and self-effacing prose, McArdle relates the rocky road that defined her professional life and the nearly impossible task of finding a stable job. . . . These so-called failures would later yield important lessons and eventually lead to bigger and better things--including this very thought-provoking book on why it's important to fail. . . . The Up Side of Down reminds us that, although it's a tough pill to swallow, failure is a necessary evil in reaping the rewards of success."
--New York Journal of Books

"The Up Side of Down reveals a forgotten secret to success: failure. This gracefully written, carefully researched book offers a timely and critical message. In a world that's obsessed with perfection, Megan McArdle shows that our accomplishments depend on whether we can make mistakes and learn from them."
--Adam Grant, Wharton professor and author of Give and Take

"This is a vibrant book on a vital subject. It's full of unexpected insights and is a pleasure to read."
--Tim Harford, author of Adapt and The Undercover Economist

"Megan McArdle has written the seminal book about renewal and American greatness: The Up Side of Down will teach you to embrace failure and use it to reinvent yourself and your organization."
--Tyler Cowen, author of Discover Your Inner Economist and The Great Stagnation, co-creator of the economics blog Marginal Revolution

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Pr
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 067002614X
• ISBN 13: 9780670026142
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 299