Winners: And How They Succeed

Product Information

The book's strength comes from interviews with winners from a range of fields, from politics, sport and business, which works both ways. On the one hand, we should get a genuine insight from figures such as Jose Mourinho, Haile Gebrselassie and Sir Charles Dunstone. On the other hand, Anna Wintour and Richard Branson get to put out their brand unchallenged, with the former dismissing claims of how she got ahead in her career and the latter promoting Virgin almost as a service that just gives people what they want, rather than a business which exists to make a profit. What is meant by that is that for elite performers, doing exceptional work is the norm.They’ve made it part of their identity, not by deciding to be exceptional, but by deciding to work hard every day. I would say person who is a good leader is a person who has ideas and has a vision of the world. To have a vision of the world you have to have a philosophy of the world and values that are important for you so I must say that the first work a leader has to do is to analyze what he wants, what is important to him and the second stop is to make it real. Overall, this book didn’t live up to my expectations. I am a big believer in cross-discipline/industry learning and I was excited to see how Alistair would highlight the lessons of winners in business, politics and sport and then explore how they could be applied in other contexts. However, whilst there were glimpses, such as when the F1 team helped the toothpaste factory, overall the cross-learning opportunities were slim. Who doesn't want to win? Well, perhaps some people don't want one, but I'm a mere human who lusts to win. That's why I want to read this book.

If you still feel like you’re too comfortable, like life just feels too much like you’re winning already and that losing isn’t a threat, get yourself under pressure.I still hold a paper clip and press it into my palm. That was taught to me by a lawyer in a libel case when he said the other side's only hope was to get me to lose my temper. He said it was a simple diversion strategy moving irritation caused by someone else to pain caused by myself. Another one taught to me by McCann is just to rub both thumbs and forefingers together and smile. This works because we are taking control of something we can control, those little actions and enjoying the fact only we know we're doing it In Winners: And How They Succeed, Alastair Campbells set out to get to the heart of success by analysing the best athletes, political leaders and global business empires. However, right at the beginning, Alastair states that “ there is no such thing as a single ‘recipe for success’ and nobody is likely to win anything simply by following the formula of another winner”. This seems to be contradicting the purpose of the book, but hey ho. Simple solution arrived at from consulting a top, external’ coach who knew nothing of the sport or the context and the rest, as they say is history with world cup glory a year later. What is it, he muses that enabled a deeply conservative institution to not only survive its ‘annus horribilis’ but go still further to reinvent itself and win the hearts and minds of generations globally? O.S.T. - Objective, Strategy, Tactics - the structure used to define your plan to success. The objective is likely to be fixed and very simple to define, strategy is what approach you'll take and is generally long term but must be communicated and brought up frequently to get everyone pulling in the same direction. Tactics on the other hand are the actions required to implement the strategy at any given moment in time, they are likely to change quite often and must take changing factors into account.

Alastair Campbell is a man that divides opinion, in the political world and out of it. Seen as the man who brought “spin” in British politics to a new level, and with it helping Tony Blair win 3 successful elections for the Labour party, he is also painted as one of those involved heavily in the infamous and dreadful decision to send the British Army to Iraq. However, his views on this can be seen in this other book, while this latest release from the man strays very much away from British politics to observe various aspects and traits winning people have that make them so successful.Do you love reading about successful people and finding out how they achieved their success? If so, then Winners: And How They Succeed by Alastair Campbell might be a book for you. Keep on reading to see my review of the book. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps who has won twice as many Olympic gold medals as anyone else in history once told me that it was winning nothing in Sydney (he was just 15 at the time) that made him do everything to ensure he won four years later in Beijing.

It's about the attitude you take to a challenge and how you use and develop the qualities you have to maximum effect in meeting that challenge. Technical skills take you so far . Mindset is what comes into play through other qualities required of a winner: mental strength determination resilience the ability to handle pressure and the ability to respond in the right way to failure. Not a fan of New Labour, competitive sport, self-help books or indeed people who describe themselves as 'winners'? It really doesn't matter. In addition, although this book was only written in 2015 it already felt dated due to the people Alastair choose to highlight. It is also fair to mention that there was a lot of male ‘Winners’ chosen to be highlighted with the only women being mentioned that I recall being Anna Wintour, Angela Merkel and The Queen. Superb book with loads of interesting insights although the three that I want to remember are these:It is hard to beat a player that never quits. That was my mindset and the mindset I encourage in my players. Cyclist Michael Rogers' won his first ever stage of the Tour de France. As he dismounted and fell into the waiting arms of his support team he was weeping and later explained that the reason he found it all so emotional was because he had made a conscious decision to change his mindset: he was no longer afraid of failure he said and it was that changed outlook that had made him go all out to win. You can have the greatest strategy going, with a perfectly capable leader and team, but without the right mindset these are nothing”. This part of the book explores what mindset is needed to win, the power of visualisation and then discusses the mindset of boxer Floyd Mayweather (a boxer who never lost a match in his professional career). Each great leader is great in their own way, there is no recipe for great leadership – most great leaders embody a similar trait; Steadfastness in their beliefs and an unswerving & bold perseverance in the pursuit of their objectives. But it is in the penultimate chapter around the British monarchy as the surprising but enduring winner that the really important messages emerge.