What Got You Here Won't Get You There
by Marshall Goldsmith
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Why I Picked Up This Book
I picked up this book because I was curious. Curious about Marshall Goldsmith’s take on why successful people, despite all their talent and hard work, often hit a wall.
Why 2 + 2 does not always add up to a positive 4 when it comes to leadership and growth.
And sure enough, this book did not just offer insight—it held up a mirror. It is not just a guide for my future use as a life coach, but an amazing opportunity to relook at my own methods, patterns, and beliefs and tweak them as necessary.
What the Book Is About
Goldsmith explores a core idea: the behaviours that got you to your current level of success are not necessarily the ones that will take you to the next. In fact, those very habits may now be standing in your way.
The ‘Trouble’ with Success
By doing a deep dive into the minds of successful leaders—and it’s not always pretty, he reveals how those at the top often live in a bubble, fueled by past wins and a rigid belief that their way is the right way. They stop listening, adapting, or acknowledging novel ideas, all because they are clinging to the behaviours, the patterns that got them “here.”
It made me pause and reflect on how often we wear our past success like an armour, afraid that any change might crack it open?
In the section on ‘The 20 Habits That Hold You Back’ it felt like a personal wake-up call. As a life coach, reading Goldsmith’s 20 Habits, made me sit up and realize that all the right ingredients that worked so far for success are now my biggest barriers to growth. The moment of truth hits you when situations reflected in the book make you say : Hey, I do that. I’ve said that. I’ve been that way.
These may not be massive character flaws, but they are clearly not enablers for growth!
His 21st habit on Goal Obsession has the author saying it isn’t a bad thing on the surface but then flips it beautifully asking, what happens when your love for the goal blinds you to the path you take to get there?
Do you steamroll people? Bend the truth? Lose yourself?
Or can you pause, reflect, and reset the gold button?
That hit home.
In The Seven-Step Path to Change, He lays out seven simple yet powerful steps but it was the the part on – Feedforward that was brilliant. Instead of digging and living in the past, he asks us to look ahead. You don’t stop by asking what went wrong—you invite ideas for what you can do better moving forward.
And the rule to asking? Receive ideas with grace, no justifying, no defending. Just a lot of gratitude!
It was so humbling and freeing to read this piece.
Final Thought -This book does not just talk about success—it strips it down. It makes you question what success really means and whether the person you are today is equipped to become the person you are meant or want to be tomorrow.
As a life coach, it gave me tools.
As a human, it gave me perspective.
And as someone still learning, it gave me a quiet nudge to pause, reflect—and begin again.
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Reviewed by Ranjana Ramakrishnan