Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Currency, April 2014 • Greg McKeown

Review and personal recommendation by
Beáta Barkóczi (SEED Coach) 

In his thought-provoking and inspiring book, Greg McKeown shares the exciting experiences and results of his work and research with teams of corporate executives. He focused on what makes people, leaders and teams thrive on the long term. While reading his pages you’ll get answers to questions like:

What do Ela Bhatt, Indira Gandhi Peace Prize winner; Michael Phelps, the youngest and most decorated Olympian; Jeff Weiner, Executive Chairman of LinkedIn; and Michael Kahn, 8-times nominated for the ‘Best Cut’ Oscar share in their success?

How does normative conformity impact our long term well-being? How aware are we of the trade-offs when making a decision? What filters help us through the all-encompassing noise to find what is valuable? What can we learn from the stories/decisions of Geoff Davis, former E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year, Michael Phelps, Nancy Duarte, Stephen R Covey, Peter Drucker and Rosa Parks?

About the author

Greg McKeown was recently named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He is the CEO of THIS Inc, a leadership and strategy design agency headquartered in Silicon Valley. He has taught at companies that include Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Salesforce.com, Twitter and VMware. Originally from London, he now lives in Menlo Park, California with his wife, Anna, and their four children. Greg holds an MBA from Stanford University.