Book Review: “Win,” By Dr. Frank Luntz

I just finished reading Win: The Key Principles to Take Your Business from Ordinary to Extraordinary by Dr. Frank Luntz. He’s a communications expert. You know, the kind of guy you hire when you want to get your marketing words just right. He spends his life writing, conducting surveys, and conducting focus groups. So if you want an informed opinion on the pulse of what people think, feel, and want, look no further than Frank Luntz.

Win, Luntz’s third book, focuses on nine qualities of winners (and some losers) from the worlds of business, politics, sports, and the military. For anyone who has a desire to pay attention to what motivates and moves people – especially to buy into you, your ideas, or products – than this book is for you.

From Donald Trump, to Presidents Obama and Bush, from Steve Wynn to Warren Buffett, from Larry Bird to Michael Jordon, Luntz has interviewed them. So listen to what many of them say in their own words are the driving forces behind their success stories.

Here’s the Key Principles that winners have in spades:

1. People-Centeredness

Winners understand that whatever enterprise they are about, in the end it must boil down to being people centered. No people equals no business, no votes, no victories. On the other hand, knowing how people think, feel, and what they want puts winners a long way ahead of their non-people centered competition.

2. Paradigm Breaking

Winners break paradigms because they are obsessed with one idea, “How can we be better?” If the answer to that question puts them out of the box then so be it. Better at any cost – including looking out of step with everyone else- is what drives them.

3. Prioritization

Coupling People Centeredness and Paradigm Breaking gives winners an uncanny ability to prioritize. A laser-like focus to keep the main thing the main thing.

4. Perfection

Yup, you read that right. And it spells bad news for all the anti-perfectionistic, should, must, and ought to inner child coddling psychologists who have lowered standards to the level of emasculation. No one, but no one, ever accomplished anything of value or worth without some form of very high standards. High standards for both themselves and their occasionally unfortunate underlings.

5. Partnership

Winners don’t get to the top all by themselves. They know their strengths and weaknesses. They know when they need to ask for help. Many might think winners’ enormous egos – and many of them do have enormous egos – won’t allow them to ask for help. However, that’s generally not the case. Their desire to win trumps everything else including their own well honed sense of pride. Asking for help when they need it is a no-brainer.

6. Passion

Very few of the people Luntz interviewed for this book referred to what they did as “work.” They love what they do. Without passion there is not enough energy available for one person to do what is necessary to get anything great done. Read back over the previous five Key Principles and imagine if it would be possible to achieve something really big with all of those great qualities but no Umpph. I think not.

7. Persuasion

You can be People Centered but not be successful at the art of winning over skeptics and undecideds. Without the persuasive ability there will be no winning. Winners are not just adept at reading people, they also have a talent to win people over.

8. Persistence

Dogged determination in the face of INEVITABLE trials and set backs is what puts the winners on the top and what keeps them there. Winners don’t just crawl up from under the ashes. They actually anticipate having to. Luntz points out that we frequently only see the powerful successful version of his subjects. He sets the record straight that some of them came from abject poverty and ALL of them struggled (and continue to struggle) with numerous setbacks through out their lives.

9. Principled Action

Although, for the most part,  Luntz’s list is prioritized he saves the most important for last. Winners don’t necessarily possess all nine Key Principles, but if they lack this one, more so than any of the others, they can kiss success good bye. Each winner Luntz interviews was motivated by principles. The sort of principles that demanded specific actions.

Don’t hesitate to pick up this book. In fact, do what I did with it, which is read a chapter and then put it down for a while. Think about how to apply it to your would be winning situation. Then move on to another chapter and focus on that aspect for a while.

Let Win transform your situation (I’m thinking of your fitness here) from ordinary to extraordinary.

If you liked this article, you may also like...

• Nutrition Wars Fallout: Tim’s Two Cents
• Fitness Weapons: Discipline
• Fit True Smokes A Cigar.
• Work Ethic, Speech Therapy, and Fitness