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The Formula

The Five Laws Behind Why People Succeed

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The Formula

By: Albert-László Barabási
Narrated by: Ryan Vincent Anderson
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About this listen

This is not just an important but an imperative project' – Nassim Nicholas Taleb, bestselling author of The Black Swan

Master the science of success with The Formula, the ground-breaking international bestseller that reveals the indisputable scientific laws that can turn your achievements into success and how to use them to your own advantage.

Ever wondered about the silent laws at play behind every successful venture? In The Formula, Albert-László Barabási, a preeminent voice in the science of networks, shares the profound scientific rules that determine who truly excels and why.

Drawing on Big Data research that covers everyone from the ace fighter pilot The Red Baron to graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat; Miles Davis and his recording of Kind of Blue to Marcel Duchamp and Tiger Woods, Barabasi, shows why success can come at any time, as long as we are persistent, why in successful teams one person gets the lion share of the credit and why the last interviewee almost always gets the job.

Discover the five intrinsic laws that govern success and learn to wield them to your advantage. The Formula offers unique, scientifically grounded perspectives on success in today's ever-evolving landscape.

©Albert-László Barabási 2018 (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio Business Development & Entrepreneurship Career Success Entrepreneurship Personal Development Personal Success Science

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Critic reviews

Writing in a lively fashion, he illuminates broad principles that explain how people in all fields – from entrepreneurs to scientists to athletes to artists – achieve success. (Nicholas Christakis, co-author of Connected and the Sol Goldman Family Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University)
In his new book, Laszlo Barabási delights us with the stories and mechanisms that explain success in our achievement-obsessed society (Cesar A. Hidalgo, author of Why Information Grows and Director of the Macro Connections group at the MIT Media Lab)
Barabási will indelibly transform the way we all think about success (Alex Pentland, author of Social Physics and Toshiba Professor at MIT)
All stars
Most relevant
This book answered so many questions I've had about success, popularity and the herd-like mentality I've observed in society.
I always attributed these to luck or timing but the book does a great job at explaining different aspects of what makes something successful.

Definitely a book everyone should listen to.

An exceptional book on Success

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just finished the read now planning the second re-read after posting this comment. The reader has an easy to follow tone

brilliant book, read it twice.

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It is an interesting work of Professor Barabasi. However, the whole story is made longer as it supposed to be. It could be a two-hours long one, and still it would have everything in it. Furthermore, a conclusion of the 5 laws together would be nice. I don't feel I gained further knowledge or extra information about success from this book. It is a nice perspective on having a formula for it though. 😃 Getting back to work now and waiting for the brilliant light bulb to go out... 😂

Thank you for the story anyway. Keep up the good work and hopefully one day we can read/listen a more successful story of Professor Barabasi. 😃

It could have been a much shorter book...

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An interesting take on barriers to success in the worldly sense and how to make the best in a wildly competitive market

I agree with most of the 5 principles albeit need to experiment and follow up on the suggested themes

Thought provoking

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Lively informative read exploring the factors involved in success; good to learn that creativity doesn’t have a shelf life and success can come at anytime even post retirement do long as one remains productive. Interesting to hear some of the reasons why individuals are credited with team efforts and why networks are so important. If you want to increase the impact of your work, this is essential reading

Excellent analysis of success

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