Customer Reviews

The Adversity Paradox: An Unconventional Guide to Achieving Uncommon Business Success

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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Authors J. Barry Griswell and Bob Jennings set out in "The Adversity Paradox" to uncover the source of business savvy, an underlying and critical attribute of extraordinary success. They found that success and fortune were not an accident of luck. Rather, it was about adversity - embracing it then overcoming it - that played a crucial role in establishing a success trajectory that was extraordinary. Adversity can be your teacher and your friend. When approached with this attitude, you will emerge stronger, smarter, and savvier.

"Paradox" is filled with stories of business leaders -including the personal stories of Griswell and Jennings - who have overcome all manner of adversity and applied their experiences to create the business savvy to attain unmatched levels of success. They turned failure on its head and built successful careers and personal lives upon the very experiences most people work to avoid.

Griswell and Jennings include sections on how adversity transformed leading people 1) to be more introspective, 2) to become values-based, 3) to work with "and then some" attitude, 4) to identify their purpose and seek it with passion, and 5) and to develop an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. These are foundational attributes which lead to extraordinary success.

Adversity, large and small, is always lurking and it happens. Last year, 2008, millions came face-to-face with adversity due to the catastrophic global, economic meltdown. Those caught up in this mess will find "The Adversity Paradox" a hopeful book...but only if they can make adversity a friend. Severe setbacks have a way of "making us take stock of our careers and our lives - our progress towards dreams and goals, our strengths and weaknesses, our motivation, and our daily work habits which can often reveal inner resources and abilities we wouldn't have otherwise known we possessed."

We have a choice when faced with adversity and with the right choice, we will find ourselves in one of the most powerful and transformative situations life has to offer. This is a very good book for the times.

A great book which gives hints on how to overcome unpromising situations and succeed in business, using the life stories of the authors as real life examples. Griswell and Jennings' rules include being more introspective, consider values,the "and then some" approach to doing more, identifying what they want and seeking it with passion and developing a desire for knowledge

Clearly laid out and accessibly written, this book is full of good advice .

The author believes that overcoming adversities in life makes people stronger. Therefore he is advocating to face adversities face on with having in mind to learn from them. Learning from adversities and therefore benefiting from them is The Adversity Paradox".

The author continues to mention five components, on which business leaders, who have benefited from the adversity paradox, build their success upon:

1. Values (Be with integrity.)
2. Introspection (Know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses. Have different advisors/mentors who help you in this matter.)
3. Work Ethic (Work hard; give always the little extra instead of working just enough to get by. If you work only sometimes hard, it does not make a big difference, but if you do it always, if you make it your habit, it will make a huge difference in your life. Only then you will reach your full potential.)
4. Purpose & Passion (To be motivated for working hard you have to find your purpose so that you can work with passion.)
5. Thirst for Knowledge (Continue to learn everyday.)

Those points are not really new, but it is refreshing to read a book, which does not tell you that success is about believing in it or in yourself, but that success is about hard work.

It surely does make sense: 1. Integrity is a must for everybody who wants to lead people. 2. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is a must for utilizing and improving your skills effectively. 3. Working hard is a must for most of us if we want to be better than our peers. 4. Without Passion we would not be able to encourage us and our team to excel continuously. 5. In the fast moving business life of today, we would out of date quickly if we stopped learning.

I like the book because it gives reasonable guidelines about how to approach our career and adversities. I subtract one star because there is no light-bulb-moment.

If you like reading stories about successful business people, you'll love this book. Written in easy conversational style, it's a good choice for a long plane ride or rainy afternoon.

The authors have an excellent premise. Many business leaders have overcome adversity to arrive where they are today. But the authors define adversity quite broadly. After all, just about everyone experiences some negativity. The takeaways and lessons are very broad and not really new. Working hard, visualizing and find your purpose and passion.

Therefore, I gave the book four stars primarily because the content doesn't fill the promise implied by the title. The book doesn't get into what constitutes adversity and why adversity seems to spur some business leaders to success, yet drive others into more adversity. Being born in difficult circumstances seems to create a different set of challenges than business reversals or career derailment. The chapter on values doesn't even talk about adversity, although it's got some interesting insights.

I'm a little puzzled by the Appendix, a "database of business-savvy leaders." Not all these leaders overcame adversity; Bill Gates grew up in a very supportive family and in many ways was in the right place at the right time. Martha Stewart grew an empire from humble beginnings, yet her name is missing.

I met Barry on an airport shuttle bus in April 2009. My wife and I where headed to a company sponsored getaway at the time. Meeting people is almost second nature to me. The basic ideas of the book ring true like Christchurch bells in Dublin. I have taken to heart the ideas of leadership and self improvement. The real life examples are fantastic and really drive home the ideas presented in the book. I look forward to the life successes that come from the tools and examples presented in this book. Thank you Barry.


M Fuller

As I read this book, I was reminded of several points that Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas make in their book, Geeks & Geezers, when discussing what they characterize as a "crucible" from which some emerge as leaders but most others do not. As they explain, they developed a theory that describes, they believe for the first time, how leaders come to be. "We believe that we have identified the process that allows an individual to undergo testing and to emerge, not just stronger, but better equipped with the tools he or she needs both to lead and to learn. It is a model that explains how individuals make meaning out of difficult events -- we call them crucibles [in italics] -- and how that process of 'meaning making' both galvanizes individuals and gives them their distinctive voice." This is precisely what Barry Griswold and Bob Jennings concluded after conducting extensive research, validating what had previously been only a suspicion. Specifically, that overcoming "humble beginnings, lack of knowledge, major unexpected setbacks, or any manner of misfortune that life throws your way may be the greatest tool for building business savvy you'll ever possess." All of the exemplary business leaders they discuss "found a way to befriend adversity and put it to work for them. They've turned failure on its head and have built successful careers and personal lives upon the very experiences most people work assiduously to avoid." They include Norman Borlaug, Doris Christopher, Pete Dawkins, Bill Doré, Clay Jones, Lee Liu, Tony Melendez, John Pappajohn, and Walter Scott, Jr.

Therein is the paradox to which the title of Griswold and Jennings' book refers. It remains for those who read this book to decide how to view adversity, either as a friend and opportunity or as an enemy and a peril. "Befriending adversity means not shying away from it, but learning from it. It means not letting it defeat you, but laboring to overcome it, and even better, using what you learn from the experience to improve yourself." When Thomas Edison established a research center in New Jersey that later became GE, he made certain that his colleagues recognized that each "failure" was a precious learning opportunity. When Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel was asked if he had any regrets, he replied that, yes, he did. "I did not make enough mistakes."

Griswold and Jennings identify seven core competencies of business savvy demonstrated by John Pappajohn and others who have encountered and then overcome adverse circumstances, achieving growth and development of their human capital, and are thus more likely to "make a major leap forward on [their] journey toward success and personal fulfillment." Here they are:

"1. Systems thinking: seeing and understanding the big picture

2. Linear thinking: seeing and understanding each discrete part of the big picture, and being able to close in on specific tasks and execute them

3. Continuous thinking: having `visionary' skills, the ability to anticipate problems and opportunities, be prepared for them, and react quickly

4. Synthesizing: the practice of sorting and prioritizing salient information from data

5. Awareness of information gaps and voids: being constantly aware of where your information voids lie and responding appropriately by learning more, turning to others for help, or both

6. Communication: the ability to communicate with either dialogue or discussion

7. Empathy: the ability to discern and identify with what others are thinking and feeling"

These core competencies are remarkably similar to the mindsets discussed by Howard Gardner in his most recent book, Five Minds for the Future, based on decades of research conducted by Gardner and his Harvard associates in the field of multiple intelligences. It should also be noted that #7 is one of the most important components of what Daniel Goleman characterizes as "emotional intelligence." The business savvy that Griswold and Jennings describe is essentially "street smarts" in combination with the courage that Jack Dempsey once had in mind when suggesting that "champions get up when they can't." Those situations include but are by no means limited to the business world. All of us have encountered - or at some point will encounter - adversity that could involve the death of a loved one, betrayal of trust by a once-cherished friend, a permanent disability of some kind, or the loss of irreplaceable personal possessions in a fire.

Barry Griswold and Bob Jennings urge their reader to "accept the wisdom the adversity paradox offers...[to find] opportunity in obstacles [and regard] setbacks as a chance to start anew with more focused intensions." Some readers will, others won't, but the choice is theirs and, in my opinion, will be determined by what they think is and is not possible. In this context, I agree with Henry Ford: "Whether you think you or think you can't, you're right."

Most business/career/life books are written by consultants and academics -- long on theory but exceedingly short on practical application. Not this book. It is loaded with real life stories wrapped in a practical framework that can be used by anyone who aspires to enhance the trajectory of their business, career and life. Most importantly, the authors have walked the talk.

Chock full of wisdom and inspiration. Focused, compelling, and fascinating for readers in any field. The lessons to be learned apply to any "trajectory", big or small, and are articulated in deceptively simple style.

A splendid professional and personal achievement presented with substance by the authors in, remarkably, their first book.

In a prescient move, the authors really hit upon a topic that's urgently needed for our time -- who isn't experiencing some sort of adversity these days? The book is written by businesspeople for businesspeople, but lessons in how to "befriend adversity" and use the experiential learning you gain in overcoming difficult circumstances apply universally. The authors do a great job of demonstrating how those lessons apply to the entire process of self-improvement, which they break down into "individual human capital components." The HC components are such things as work character, an ongoing thirst for knowledge, and purpose/passion, and this reader was especially gratified to see business leaders write about moral development. They make the point that success gained by unethical behavior is never more than temporary.

Another point I appreciated is that there are no gimmicks here and no shortcuts to success offered -- the authors place a high premium on the value of good old-fashioned hard work. They're quick to point out, though, that they're not talking about a burdensome daily grind; if you've found a purpose you're passionate about, work is no longer work.

One of the best things about the book is the firsthand accounts of business leaders who've overcome serious adversity and gone on to great success. The authors interview people like Doris Christopher, Peter Dawkins, and John Pappajohn, and they offer their own stories, too.

A great read and an excellent book to give to employees. I'd recommend it to businesspeople and non-businesspeople alike.

Great read and very timely given today's demise in integrity and leadership. Very interesting concept on the common thread in sustainable leaders is adversity and the concern for tomorrow generation given their lack of adversity. Again, great read!