Upgrade

Taking Your Work and Life from Ordinary to Extraordinary

McGraw-Hill, 2013

15 min read

10 take-aways

Audio & text

What's inside?

“Upgrade” now and quit making excuses for not having the life you want.

auto-generated audio

1×

auto-generated audio

Editorial Rating

Qualities

Applicable
For Beginners

Recommendation

Many people compromise their standards and settle for a life of second-best. Consultant Rana Florida shows you how to live the first-best life you want, stop living in a state of “managed dissatisfaction” and “upgrade” your life by doing what you love. She interviews a wide range of celebrities – including tennis star Andre Agassi; Richard M. Daley, former mayor of Chicago; architect Zaha Hadid; and singer Nelly Furtado. Despite their different backgrounds, each one achieved success by following seven basic principles of life management. Although Florida’s book is sometimes short on details, the strongest, most practical chapter discusses time management and offers concrete suggestions about eliminating filler, curbing your choices, and saying no to people and events that don’t add value. getAbstract recommends her insights to those seeking to make positive life choices.

Summary

“Envision Your Future”

Adults often have a hard time answering the questions, “What do you want out of life? and “What matters most to you?” Many people trudge through their days in a state of “managed dissatisfaction.” The concept of managed dissatisfaction comes from Nobel Prize-winning economist Herbert Simon, who coined the term “satisficing” – a combination of “satisfy” and “suffice.” Back in 1956, Simon reasoned that humans cannot imagine every conceivable alternative, so they make decisions based on what they know. Thus, they often settle for what they think is “good enough.”

Take stock of your life and decide what you want to do. Write down your goals. If you can’t verbalize your thoughts, draw pictures. Start with the five “W’s: Who? What? Where? When? Why?” Ask yourself what kind of person you want as your business or life partner. Do you want to be single and independent or married or partnered? Do you want children? What do you hope to gain from your career? What matters to you: creativity, flexibility, a steady paycheck, health insurance or something else? Do you want to live in a city, suburb or rural environment? What is your timeline for what...

About the Author

Rana Florida is the CEO of the Creative Class Group consultancy. She writes the Huffington Post column, “Your Startup Life” and contributes regularly to HGTV. Previously, she was a senior communications executive at HMSHost (Host Marriott Services) and at Feld Entertainment.

Comment on this summary

Sign in to share your opinion
E. G. 1 decade ago

Sounds like this book just doesn't have a lot of meat to it. That is evident when this abstract feels the need to take up space telling us the various flavors that some ice shaving entrepreneurs have in their offering.

Rana Florida