Rich Karlgaard - Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement

Late Bloomers is a profoundly important book. It will immeasurably and happily improve the lives of millions of kids, parents, baby boomersjust about all of us.

Steve Forbes, chairman and editor in chief of Forbes Media

A gem. A remarkable quality of humankind is our contagion to the emotions, thoughts, and behaviors of those around us. At times, this quality can be destructive, as with the absurd overvaluing of early achievement in our culture. Karlgaard tackles this head on. He calls the emperor has no clothes on this preoccupation, while making an articulate and elegant argument that developmentally informed parenting and education should value patience, experience, and wisdom.

Dr. Bruce Perry, M.D., Ph.D., senior fellow at the ChildTrauma Academy; professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University; author of The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog

Rich Karlgaards Late Bloomers shines a much-needed light on an essential human truththat each one of us can realize our gifts and unlock our full potential, whether were an early achiever or a late bloomer. As he shows, life is not a race, its a journey.

Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global

In Late Bloomers, Rich Karlgaard makes the important case that our society and our communities suffer when we dont embrace different pathways for unique individuals.

Diane Tavenner, cofounder and CEO of Summit Public Schools

Karlgaard captures the truth about human development. We are all wonderfully gifted, and with patience and the right circumstances, we can all bloom in amazing ways.

Todd Rose, director of the Mind, Brain, and Education Program at Harvard University and author of The End of Average and Dark Horse

Late Bloomers is absolutely on target. Our capacity to succeed does not expireit is never too late to discover our potential. In the military, young officers often seek advice from the battle-scarred sergeants whom they technically outrank. Leveraging the wisdom of experience is often the difference between victory and defeat.

General Stanley McChrystal, retired commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command and author of Team of Teams

We need a national conversation about the insane levels of performance pressure and anxiety our young people carry. We need inspiration about the power of patience in lives that can flourish at their own pace. Rich Karlgaards Late Bloomers is brilliant, wonderfully readable, and urgently needed. I hope it is read and digested by millions.

John Ortberg, senior pastor of Menlo Church and author of Eternity Is Now in Session

Late Bloomers reads like a message of hope. It encourages us all to deconstruct who we were before the world imposed upon us what they thought we should be.

Erik Wahl, performance artist, motivational speaker, and author of The Spark and The Grind

Rich Karlgaard destroys myths that hold us back. If youre aspiring to greatness in any field at any age, read this book.

Robert C. Wolcott, chairman and cofounder of TWIN Global and clinical professor of innovation at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

In our hyper-competitive society that pushes every child to be a Nobel Prize winner, Olympic athlete, and concert cellist by age eighteen, this book lets readers breathe a big, relaxing sigh of relief. Late Bloomers reminds us that life is a long, wonderful journey, and that people need a healthy exploration period as they find their lane. Filled with inspiring anecdotes, hard science, cautionary tales, and the authors own meandering path to spectacular success, this is a book you wont put down.

Ted Dintersmith, venture capitalist, education change agent, author of What School Could Be, and producer of the award-winning documentary Most Likely to Succeed

While popular culture loves the remarkable success stories of youthful wunderkinds, Karlgaard makes a compelling case for the potential of those who apply their accumulated powers of resilience, insight, and wisdom to achieve greatness later in life. Karlgaard transforms the term late bloomer from mere faint praise to a badge of honor, freeing you to find a personal path to success at your own pace. He makes one proud to be a late bloomer.

Tom Kelley, coauthor of Creative Confidence

Rich Karlgaard shows that late bloomers are really not late at all, but rather individuals who are out of step with our societys fascination with, and overemphasis on, early exceptional achievement. Late Bloomers is an important booknot only for late bloomers or those who think they may be, but also for their parents and their teachers, their spouses and their employers.

Dr. Jeffrey Prater, clinical psychologist of family systems therapy

Thank you, Rich Karlgaard, for exposing the American obsession with early achievement. Thank you for defending all of us late bloomers, and for reminding everyone that we all have incredible potential, journeys, and destinations.

Daniel Struppa, president of Chapman University

Its not our fault.

Its not our fault that we failed to earn straight As, make perfect College Board scores, and get into our first choice of college. Or that we were distracted by life at age twenty-one and missed our first on ramp to an enchanted career that matched perfectly our talents and passions. Its not our fault that we failed to earn millions of dollars by twenty-two and billions by thirtythus getting ourselves on the cover of Forbesor to end malaria, solve tensions in the Middle East, advise a president, or win our third Academy Award by thirty-five.

Its not our fault, and were not a failure in any sense just because our star didnt glow white hot from the start. And yet early twenty-first-century society has conspired to make us feel shame for exactly that, for not exploding out of the starting blocks like an Olympic sprinterfor not blooming early. By using the word