Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder Paperback – March 17, 2015

A good and very sincere book written by a very successful businesswoman. The main idea is both highly simple and very old: it's high time to redefine what means to be successful in life or "what is a good life?" Over time "success, money, and power have practically become synonymous in the minds of many" but this idea works – at least appear to work – only in the short term. As A. Huffington (AH) writes "over the long term, money and power by themselves are like two-legged stool – you can balance on them for a while, but eventually you are going to topple over". So, we – people - need to have a third measure of success – she calls it a Third Metric. In her eyes it consists of four constituents: well-being, wisdom, wonder and giving. In fact the book is devoted to a careful discussion around these four notions. All logic of AH is based on two assumptions. "The first is that we all have within us a centered place of wisdom, harmony and strength…The second … is that we're all going to veer away from that place again and again and again".Then in the first chapter she step by step discusses the problems of the present-day society linked closely with well-being:Burnout – as a result of a zeal to overwork that leads to high level of stress and decreases productivity;The link between the health of employees and bottom lines;Overconnectivity of modern life and the state of being drowned in plenty of data;The constant lack of time for all our tasks and our multitasking fever.Her recipes: sleep enough, meditate, do not overwork, turn off your gadgets regularly, use general well-being instead of GDP as an indicator of economic successNext chapter is about wisdom. In fact she is speaking about the same problems as in the previous chapter but at another point of view: "Wisdom is precisely what is missing when – like rats in the famous experiment by B.F. Skinner … -we press the same levers again and again even though there is no longer any real reward". Here AH mentions in passing about the notion of Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom and Big Data. Her recipe: listen to your inner wisdom, break bad habits, change yourself…A chapter named Wonder is about the purpose of life itself – and "that purpose is self-actualization…"; about silence – "ask your soul"; about coincidences which awaken wonder in our lives; about death which is inseparable side of life.At last the chapter Giving is about compassion and altruism: "helping others makes us happier"…"Onward, upward, and inward!" – these are the last words of this book.It's worth noting that the author gives a lot of examples both from scientific studies and from her life and the life of her family as well as from the lives of her close friends. Especially touching – at least for me – were the pieces where AH tells about lessons that she got from her mom and about her mom's death. All mentions on people, events or names are carefully described in Notes. There are Appendices as well where a reader can find references about tools/sites for meditation, relaxing, giving, volunteering, etc.What I don't agree with:The third metric model tacitly equals the human side of human being with money and power. I think that money are necessary only as the means for self-actualization but can't be the purpose of a wisdom man. The more the power may be a purpose only for a very limited number of people. Of course AH is right when she writes that modern society forces us to think that money and power mean success but nevertheless I consider them as lower steps of Maslow hierarchy.And my second doubt is about the assumption "… that we all have within us a centered place of wisdom, harmony and strength". I'm afraid that not all have… and I don't know what is the part of those who have… Of course potentially all people may have… but in reality …

Yes, that is the message this well recognized and publigshed literary figure expresses, not only to a graduating class she is addressing, but throughout her message on how to create a life. It might surprise some folks that she needed a wake call in her personal life for this message to come to her when she collapsed on the floor from over work, mental, physical and emotional exhaustion. But, it should not surpise you when it is stated, as she does, how a majority of us in these busy days have become overwhelmed and swamped with work, techology connecting 24/7, and a personal life that for many has disappeared from their landscape.Arianna combines recollections of her childhood and Mother, who was emotionally well founded, had our eye on enduring personal values and could relate to anyone; with well selected quotations and references to sustain her thesis that: People need to find time for their inner selves and a presence of "mindfulness" as they go about daily living.She, rightfully, contends that without a presence of the self an individual will experience poorer health, a shorter lifespan, limited connection with those closest to them, and a really insignificant life. Maybe the most significant weakness in this useful premise is the more than once reference to Steve Jobs, some of his aphorisms, and a speech he made to the Stanford graduating class. Yes, Steve is a recognizable person in recent American culture and maybe one with undo influence as information about him has been publicly disclosed after his death. It may be debated whether he was virtuous or virtuless, or somewhere in between. But, Arianna needs to reflect on the window into his soul that may have been opened when he stated, "The customer's job is not to decide what he/she needs." That paraphrased expression, used for this review, reflects an underlying dogma that Arianna actually stands up against in all the rest of this book as she argues for one to find oneself. Maybe she, too, needs to recognize that the many visible players with whom she is able to associate from her cultural and business role are not always as she trys to portray them in "The Third Metric..."Over all, this is an invaluable expression of advice that is well documented and points to the disasteous direction many have taken in recent years as they followed a path that led them afar from where they may have started and wanted to be.