Book Review: The Exceptionals

The book and how it has been written makes you sit back and take stock of life—we are all born with strengths and weaknesses… It is truly up to us to understand what we are good at and continue to better that skill, till we have pushed all boundaries and given it every ounce of our being. Just knowing that you have given in a 100% can create a sense of deep satisfying happiness and sometimes may even lead you down a path you never thought you would explore, leave alone excel at. 

What specifically caught my attention is what the author says about being born special—he says 50% is genetics. This is true. We are all born with skills/strengths, we may not recognize it immediately or may realize it when working on achieving a completely different goal that we set for ourselves.

He further adds that the remaining 50% is divided equally between putting in hard work/intense effort and learning from your surroundings and the different people in your life. This again, I completely agree with—if we don’t push past our limits, learn everything we can in the said field and train hard, we will never level up. 

Another interesting concept is this thing that the author terms as “sustained excellence”. He says that it is not always about hard work, in fact it is a powerful combination of intense skill nurturing, using your environment to your advantage, drawing inspiration from situations, letting people/ideas in, and adopting, and learning from them that takes you to new heights. Furthermore, he enunciates how to be on top of your game it is extremely important to embrace this increasingly multi-faceted world and use it as an enabler. 

Yet another point that I took home from this book is… all the people who have mastered their skill and become exceptional in their respective fields have done so with a single focus—they have believed that they have only one path, one alternative… they have not let distractions move their focus from their one true destination. 

Being exceptional comes with sacrifices, I am not sure If I will be able to make those sacrifices, especially my time with my family. However, I guess I need to delve deeper into this subject to understand more about achieving a balance. 

Each chapter begins with an ‘exceptional’ story and ends with some really powerful teachings. There are a lot of points in the book that will resonate with you and truly motivate you to explore your strength and start working on it. 

I would say this book is for everyone! No matter the age or stage you are in life, you should read this as it can actually give you a new perspective and could even help you make some serious decisions about your future.