GPS for Success: Skills, Strategies, and Secrets of Superachievers

Next to food and clothing, achieving personal and professional success is rated at the very top of the hierarchical order of human needs. Everybody wants to be somebody! In this ultimate success book that includes timeless information for generations to come, the author has meticulously chronicled proven skills, strategies and secrets that, if regularly followed, will empower the reader to live the life that they imagine. Just like your car’s or phone’s GPS, these life navigation skills can get you from where you are to where you want to go in your career. In addition, critically important knowledge and abilities, including job interviewing, must-know people skills, writing, and public speaking, are covered. In this book, the author has scoured the world’s literature on these topics and interviewed highly successful people to provide one-stop shopping regarding the most proven and practical recommendations for future career success. He has also peppered the text with personal experiences and motivational/inspirational success stories, as well as testimonials/sage advice/quotes from the world’s most successful people --past and present.

The key objectives of this book are to:

• Highlight the foundational factors underlying future career success: love what you do; realize that your behaviors largely determine your luck in life; emphasize that highly successful people take 100% responsibility for their actions and destiny; and that the secret to success involves the selfless serving of others. The rewards return—through a boomerang effect.
• Provide specific examples and inspirational stories highlighting 10 critical behavioral skills for success. These include: look for the good in people and situations; how to activate the law of attraction; establish goals in writing ("if it’s not on paper, it’s vapor"); take action (#1 success characteristic); know that persistence pays; ask for things you want; enhance your speaking, writing, and interviewing skills; why it’s important to work with and learn from people you want to emulate; the essence of superb people skills (e.g., integrity, making others feel important); and to regularly apply the law of sow and reap.
• Detail complementary approaches, tactics, and perspectives that can help you achieve your breakthrough (major) life goals. These include: time management skills and the 80/20 rule; looking for greener pastures; showcasing your talents (visibility ? opportunities); committing to never-ending improvements in performance, service (or products); embracing discipline/focus/sacrifice; routinely exceeding people’s expectations; striving for greater rewards; and seeing an ocean of opportunities before you. In aggregate, these yield BIG rewards in life.
• Provide a potpourri of related topics, including unlooked-for opportunities; leadership and bringing out the best in those around you; avoiding overcautiousness; volunteering (raising your hand); reframing future commitments; the power (and magic) of an unexpected thank you note; and the disproportionate dividends and good karma that result from giving back and mentoring others.

Barry A. Franklin, PhD, is Director of Preventive Cardiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation at Beaumont Health, Royal Oak, Michigan and Professor of Internal Medicine, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine. His clinical research interests include the primary and secondary prevention of heart disease; cardiovascular risk reduction; obesity and metabolism; exercise testing/ prescription and lifestyle medicine.

In his early 30s, Franklin intuitively embraced business management/productivity guru Peter Drucker’s recommendation that “everyone should find at least one interest outside his/her primary area, and make that secondary pursuit into more than just a hobby.” For him, that secondary pursuit, the study of highly successful people in all walks of life became a passion. Years later, he took what he had learned and developed a college course titled “GPS for Success” which he taught at Central Michigan University (2012-2017). It became one of the most popular courses on campus. Since the mid 1990s, he’s participated in countless media (e.g., YouTube TV) and invited presentations on this topic as well as giving themed commencement addresses at major universities.

Dr. Franklin’s professional accomplishments have been recognized through a number of honors and awards. He has served as President of the American Association of Cardiovascular Pulmonary Rehabilitation and President of the American College of Sports Medicine as well as Chair, American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism. In 2010 he was appointed to the national AHA Board of Directors as well as a member of the Administrative Cabinet. Franklin is a past Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and currently holds editorial positions with 15 other scientific and clinical journals.

Dr. Franklin has written or edited more than 700 publications, including 547 papers, 101 book chapters and 26 books. He has also narrated 42 educational videos. In 2015, he was named by Thomson Reuter’s among the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds (Clinical Medicine). He has given over 1,000 invited presentations to state, national and international, medical and lay audiences.

Please visit www.drbarryfranklin.com for more on Dr. Franklin.