TL;DR: Five years after the print release of Measures of Success, the core lesson still holds: reacting less to data and understanding variation leads to better leadership decisions–yet many organizations still struggle to apply this thinking consistently.
Today is the 5th anniversary of the release of my book Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More!! The book was originally released as a Kindle eBook in August, 2018 as a “small test of change” before I moved forward with the print edition. And this was after I originally released it on LeanPub.
The book has sold just under 6,000 copies across print editions and eBooks through Amazon, with 1,000 of those buyers being outside of the U.S. After the first year of the paperback being released, sales decreased but have held pretty steady since. The chart below shows both editions combined. And if you've read the book, you know it bugs me that this is a column chart and not a line chart below.
Thanks to everybody who kindly endorsed the book, including Eric Ries, Daniel Pink, Quint Studer, Zeynep Ton, Matthew May, and Karen Martin.
As Craig Deao said,
“I've long thought the world would be a better place if everyone took a statistics class; but this book is much better (and shorter)!”
The average Amazon review is 4.6 out of 5.0, with 75% of them being 5-star ratings and reviews.
It also has a 4.3 rating on Goodreads (a site that generally has a lower average review)
Then there were these odd 1-star reviews that were posted on Amazon within days of each other in 2019… you can't please everybody… or what was going on here?
Review 1) “If you want a very rudimentary introduction to this subject the book might be ok for you. I threw the book out because there was nothing for me to learn in it.”
Review 2) “This book sucks. Helping leaders to improve their business instead of helping employees to improve them selves..without giving any solutions. Money wasted.”
If you've read the book, I hope it's helped you and your organization. I hope it didn't feel like money wasted or something worth throwing away instead of returning for a refund.
I'd love to hear your stories about putting the book to use and any questions you might have…
If you haven't read Measures of Success, you can download a free preview here.
If you’re working to build a culture where people feel safe to speak up, solve problems, and improve every day, I’d be glad to help. Let’s talk about how to strengthen Psychological Safety and Continuous Improvement in your organization.
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