Maintains a motivational and uplifting tone with sound if somewhat scattershot career advice.
Ekstrom blends personal experience, research, and humor to help busy professionals navigate the changing world of work.
The unlikely catalyst for Ekstrom’s first business venture was her mother’s uncle, Bernie Madoff, swindling the family out of a large sum of money. While still in college, Ekstrom created the successful endeavor Headbands of Hope, where each headband purchased meant one donated to a hospitalized child. Ekstrom then continued on the path to success, where she became a sought-after motivational speaker, started Mic Drop (an enterprise that trains women in public speaking), and parented two young children. Gradually, Ekstrom’s definition of what constituted “making it” shifted. She learned to focus inward and care less about others’ perceptions. Figuratively speaking, her goal changed to becoming a “lighthouse,” radiating a guiding light, rather than seeking a spotlight to illuminate herself. Traveling in an RV for three years with husband, Ekstrom got the chance to “flow with the process”; meanwhile, experiencing postpartum depression brought the realization that perfectionism wasn’t always attainable. A simpler discovery was that many difficulties aren’t easily solvable “pickle-jar problems,” as she terms them. Ekstrom feels that girls often learn to prioritize niceness rather than assertiveness, and so has supported hard-driving women who set high goals. Along with a briskly paced mix of anecdotes and information, Ekstrom employs infectious humor to hook readers in. Her examples are relatable; Ekstrom’s toddler “helps” carve a jack-o-lantern by throwing pumpkin pulp on the floor, illustrating the importance of actively becoming part of a process. And we learn that kindergartners ask more questions than CEOs when listening to motivational talks. The book also benefits from a well-organized layout. Shaped into manageable blocks of text, topics are clearly labeled with bold headings. Major ideas are reiterated simply, with bullet-pointed lists at the end of chapters. Though she describes herself as terrible at optimism, Ekstrom’s tone is encouraging; she believes everyone has the self-motivational skills it takes to do extraordinary things.
Maintains a motivational and uplifting tone with sound if somewhat scattershot career advice.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781774587027
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Page Two
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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