Introduction from the book

How this book came about, and why we wrote it.

The life of young people around the world has become more complicated in the past two decades. The pressure is on: expectations are increasing and the race for children to outperform and succeed in life starts earlier than ever before. Increased access to education and career opportunities has been one of the greatest benefits of the wealth creation that took place across the world in the last two decades. It also means, however, that today's young generations are growing up in an environment that is much more highly pressured than the one in which their parents or grandparents grew up.

Unfortunately, the teaching of life skills required to succeed in this new competitive landscape has, in general, not kept up with the developments. Our schools and universities focus primarily on academic disciplines and rigorous scientific analysis. Consequently, the students have to take responsibility to prepare for the other challenges of life and work themselves - a difficult task at that age. The outcome is inevitable. High expectations, both of the individuals and those around them, collide with a lack of relevant preparation and result in unhappiness.

It is universities and employers across the world that eventually face the consequences of these problems. Too often, students and recent graduates are either relaxed and happy, or successful, but rarely both. This is illustrated by numerous cases of burn-outs on the one hand and drop-outs on the other. It is unfortunate, though understandable, that only a small proportion of students and graduates succeed in finding the elusive 'work-life' balance, and outperform in a way that leads to happiness. Why? Nobody has ever taught the majority of them how to do it.

We have written this book to fill the gap. Having worked together in a mentor-mentee relationship for almost two years and having both individually outperformed in different areas in life, we believe that sharing our accumulated knowledge and experience will help others better understand the factors that drive success. We hope that the small nudges in the right direction, contained in this book, will be like the proverbial few snowflakes that unleash an avalanche.

Muzaffar Khan (40) retired from a successful career on Wall Street and became Vice-Chairman of an international environmental charity. In 2007, whilst completing his MSc degree at the London School of Economics, he gave a series of lectures on life skills. It was then that he met Jan Sramek, at the time a 2nd year undergraduate who had shown great promise in academia, financial markets and entrepreneurship. Muzaffar became one of Jan's mentors, and the relationship has since contributed to Jan's accelerating outperformance

It quickly became clear that learning life skills makes a significant difference to young people's success and happiness, if introduced sufficiently early. Realising this, we set out to write this book together and combine theory with practical skills and implementation, as well as combining the perspectives of a teacher and a student.

What is this book about and what will it do for me?

This book explains how and when outperformance happens, how it creates a virtuous cycle with happiness and how to achieve both in practice. Remarkably, outperforming in different disciplines requires surprisingly similar skills and ways of thinking. The framework we present is therefore applicable to any field or activity, including academia, business, entrepreneurship, finance, sports, arts and so on.

Book One, Theory, lays the foundations of outperformance and the value system that makes it one and the same with happiness. Chapter 1, Four Accounts, introduces the principle of a balanced approach to life. The next few chapters are designed to show how to progress from the original inspiration to a place of self-respect and self-confidence. Chapter 2, Inspiration, describes what motivates and inspires us, and rigorously examines enthusiasm, the fuel of success for the outperformer. Chapter 3, Vision, talks about differences between objectives and vision, and explains the difference between the life strategies of under- and out-performers. Chapter 4, Love, relates outperformance to our relationships - both to ourselves and to others. Finally, Chapter 5, Responsibility, re-defines the way we think about responsibility towards ourselves and others, and helps to put things into context.

Book Two, Practice, has twelve chapters. Chapter 6, Measurability and Yardsticks, describes how outperformers monitor their progress, and why such monitoring is important. Chapter 7, Habits, talks about our habits, why they are important and how to change them. Chapter 8, Drive, describes how to create inspiration in a very practical way. Chapter 9, Doing What You Love, explains how to discover what you love and sustain your motivation. Chapter 10, Health and Fitness, looks into the importance of these issues for the outperformer and specifically outlines best practices for diet, sleep and exercise. Chapter 11, Communication, explains the most common problems in this area, and how to prevent them. Chapter 12, Relationships and Networking, offers practical guidance on what defines healthy relationships and how to create them. Chapter 13, Mentors and Buddies, explains the importance of these relationships and suggests how to find the right ones. Chapter 14, Racing Against Time, explains the importance of time as a commodity, and suggests how to become more efficient. Chapter 15, Study Skills, offers proven strategies for learning effectively and doing well in exams. Chapter 16, Thinking Outside the Box, explains this concept and offers ways of using it to sharpen your mind, as well as some of its practical applications. Chapter 17, Productive Leisure, identifies reasons why many young people waste their free time in an unproductive way, and offers suggestions for change.

By the time you finish reading this book, you should be able to answer the following questions.

1) What is outperformance, and how and when does it happen?
2) How are happiness and outperformance related, and why does the former lead to the latter?
3) How do you identify what you really enjoy, become inspired by it, and create your life vision?
4) How do you live a life focused on achieving this vision while being happy?
5) How do you develop the skills required for achieving your vision, and how do you execute all of our strategies?

The gap in the knowledge of life skills that we wish to fill exists across all schools, universities and employers to a degree. Our aim is to level the playing field, allow everyone to maximise the opportunities they have been given, and help them create new ones. This applies especially to those who have not had access to the best schools, universities and mentors. It is our belief in your ability to achieve extraordinary things if you work hard and smart that we want to convey to you throughout this book. We hope to support young people in their ability to think outside the box, leave the herd-mentality behind and start thinking for themselves.