The Winner's Brain--You Can Have One Too!

Book Review

 The Winner’s Brain:  8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve Success

by Jeff Brown and Mark Fenske with Liz Neporent

When I was in the ninth grade, one of my closest friends became paralyzed. None of us knew that she was in the hospital unable to walk due to an auto-immune disorder. Later, I learned that her doctors told her she would never walk again. She was an athlete. How could someone tell a 14-year-old athlete that she would be permanently paralyzed?

My friend refused to accept their prognosis. In fact, she was angry. She would not settle for anything less than the life she’d had. She would do whatever it took to ski and play tennis again—not just to walk again!

She was resilient; she was motivated. She was focused on her goal—which she did accomplish. Ultimately, she earned a tennis scholarship to college. I think she learned much from her Dad, who rose from poverty to become a multi-millionaire. I think he learned a lot from her as well!

In The Winner’s Brain: 8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve Success, psychologist Jeff Brown and Mark Fenske, a specialist in cognitive and affective neuroscience, along with health writer Liz Neporent, detail five “Brain Power Tools” winners use. These are: Opportunity Radar, Optimal Risk Gauge, Goal Laser, Effort Accelerator, and Talent Meter. Brown and Fenske also identify eight correlating “Win Factors’ which readers can develop and hone.

Their book is peppered with real-life examples of winners, illustrating the “Brain Power Tools” and corresponding strategies or “Win Factors”: Self-Awareness, Motivation, Focus, Emotional Balance, Memory, Resilience, Adaptability, and Brain Care.

Brown and Fenske take time to explain basic neurology to the reader, as well. At times, the neuroscience information might be too much, but this is my only criticism of the book. The authors further support their ideas by citing recent research. This book is a well-written combination of science and motivational stories.

The book is instructive and inspirational—not just for self-improvement readers, but also for those with depression and anxiety. Readers might pay particular attention to the sections on meditation, exercise and sleep.

The Winner’s Brain provides a hopeful viewpoint. Winners aren’t born with all the talent, money, luck, and opportunity needed to succeed. Many have succeeded in spite of their challenging beginnings because they developed an ability to recognize an opportunity, take a chance, keep working toward the goal despite the odds, and because they knew themselves well enough to choose a goal that matched their potential.

The brain adapts and changes until death so why not take advantage of this, the authors ask. They offer exercises the reader can do to develop new strategies and improve upon one’s existing skills. Winners aren’t necessarily born with a silver spoon; each of us can make the world a better place.