What Got You Here Won't Get You There
by Marshall Goldsmith
Why You'll Love This
The habits that made you successful are probably the exact ones quietly sabotaging your next move.
- Great if you want: brutally honest feedback on high-achiever blind spots
- The experience: brisk and direct — reads more like a sharp conversation than a lecture
- The writing: Goldsmith uses real client stories to make abstract flaws uncomfortably recognizable
- Skip if: you want theory — this book is almost entirely behavioral and practical
About This Book
You've worked hard, earned real results, and climbed far enough to see the top—so why does something keep stalling your progress? Marshall Goldsmith, one of the world's most sought-after executive coaches, argues that the very habits and instincts that drove your success are often the same ones quietly undermining it. Not dramatic failures, but small behavioral patterns—interrupting, needing to win every argument, withholding acknowledgment—that erode the relationships and perceptions that matter most at the highest levels. The gap between good and great, it turns out, is rarely about skill.
What makes this book worth your time is Goldsmith's refusal to flatter his readers. His tone is direct, even a little blunt, and the book is structured around specific, named behaviors rather than vague philosophy—which means you'll recognize yourself on almost every page. The writing is crisp and conversational, built around real client stories that feel honest rather than sanitized. It's a short book that earns its length, moving quickly through ideas that are deceptively simple but genuinely difficult to act on. Practical without being reductive.