Holiday enjoyed professional success at a very young age, dropping out of university to pursue opportunities at a talent management agency and later becoming the director of marketing for American Apparel. At age 25, Holiday wrote a best-selling book, and he later established his own company. The author argues that successful people tend to create a certain narrative about their lives, framing their journey to success as a “Herculean struggle” that values their accomplishments above all else (xx). Holiday claims that this tendency to “mythologize” one’s own story is not “honest or helpful” (xx). He recounts the many failures and embarrassments that he experienced early in his career and confesses that it took a toll on his mental and physical health, as well as his relationships.

When the company he worked for went bankrupt, Holiday was distressed to see his mentors experience their own catastrophic failures, which made him feel more unstable. These experiences prompted Holiday to evaluate how his workaholism had contributed to his early success but also to his burnout and overidentification with work and professional success. The purpose of the present book is to provide real-life examples that will inspire the reader to care less about their own “specialness” and success and focus instead on doing their best work (xxv).