Review: The Structure Of Success by Patrick Esposito
I was really excited to pick up a copy of The Structure of Success: A Framework To Help Build Your Business Better by Patrick Esposito in the early fall of 2023. I had seen a few of posts from the author on LinkedIn, and I’m always keen to learn about the practices that have enabled the success of others. The book is a really quick read, and it is incredibly straightforward. Often, when books like this one are released, they tend to be a point-of-entry to buy more tools to learn best practices. Instead, in this book, the author offers readers a good look at multi-purpose tools to help build and sustain one’s business.
One part of the book that struck me was its emphasis on practice and tools. Too often, people are looking for a shortcut whether in business or in life, but what we really need is to put the time in to do the work. Patrick Esposito offers chapter after chapter of examples and analysis workflows to improve strategic decision-making for individuals or teams. He flags common challenges and at the end of each chapter he offers a series of questions to help readers begin to apply practices and workflows in their own businesses.
In a book about building a successful business, I did not expect to find a nugget articulating protection from burnout, but I did. Esposito cites an April 2012 article in Bloomberg from former Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer. I’ve witnessed a wide variety of practices and programs built to encourage resilience and protect people from burnout, from maintaining physical fitness to practicing some type of mindfulness–both of which are very helpful. I had not seen this nugget before. Quoting the author below,
“Mayer suggested that resentment is an underlying cause of burnout, ‘and you beat it by knowing what it is you’re giving up that makes you resentful…So find your rhythm, understand what makes you resentful, and protect it. You can’t have everything you want, but you can have the things that really matter to you.’ Mayer went on to suggest that if you figure out what really matters to you, you will be able to sustain an intense workload for a long time.”
I really appreciate Patrick sharing this quote as it is an often forgotten part of building resiliency. Why does someone want to be resilient? They want to not only protect themselves from burnout, they want to protect the thing or things that matter most to them, whether those things are family, personal time, physical health, or time with your children. In the same section, Esposito reminds readers that this “thing that you need to protect” may change over time, and so it is worthwhile to spend some time thinking about it.
If you are looking for tools that can help you establish solid and well tested processes for decision making, crisis management, or project planning (among other challenges) for yourself or for your business, I highly recommend Patrick Esposito’s The Structure of Success.