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What to Make of a Life: Cliffs, Fog, Fire and the Self-Knowledge Imperative
Jim Collins, international bestselling author of Good to Great, offers transformative lessons on constructing—and reconstructing—a life through the cliff moments and transitions we all will face repeatedly in our lives.
What to make of a life?
It is a question we all wrestle with more than How do we find our way in the world? How do we make it past the cliffs, significant events that can radically change a life? How do we keep the inner fire burning bright, long and late? Inspired by relentless curiosity, Jim Collins devoted a decade to studying these questions and to minutely analyzing those moments when life flips from clarity to confusion and casts us into a befuddling fog.
His exploration follows various lives side-by-side, paired together at cliffs, and analyzes the different choices made and divergent paths taken. Two rock musicians confronting a future without the group that had brought them success. Two public figures tainted by scandal having to make decisions about how to rebuild their lives. Two suffragists achieving their epic goal and so left with the puzzle of what to do next. Two figure skaters seeking new purpose when their Olympic careers come to an end. What emerges from Collins’s extensive studies—of writers, actors, scientists, leaders and many others—is a framework for understanding how individual lives can be built, sustained and constantly renewed.
By examining the long arc of these remarkable lives, Collins tackles life’s questions. What does it take
Discover a deeply fulfilling role in life—one that you are naturally ‘encoded’ for—and then to find a second one, if the first one ends?Overcome a major cliff—a fracture point that forces choices about what’s next and calls for you to re-envision the years to come?Make your personal economics work so that you can focus on one big thing that feeds your inner fire?Navigate the fog, when you feel uncertain or even outright lost, and build confidence step by step?Build personal momentum decade upon decade, so that your most creative and energetic years are spread across an entire lifetime?Achieve the imperative to “Know Thyself” and apply self-knowledge to each phase of life? And for the first time, Collins movingly chronicles his own story to reveal how undertaking this project transformed him, changing his thinking and reshaping his emotions in fundamental ways. Surprising, story-driven, deeply researched, and uplifting, What to Make of a Life is a book like no other, convincingly showing how a richly fulfilled life is within reach of us all.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
What to make of a life?
It is a question we all wrestle with more than How do we find our way in the world? How do we make it past the cliffs, significant events that can radically change a life? How do we keep the inner fire burning bright, long and late? Inspired by relentless curiosity, Jim Collins devoted a decade to studying these questions and to minutely analyzing those moments when life flips from clarity to confusion and casts us into a befuddling fog.
His exploration follows various lives side-by-side, paired together at cliffs, and analyzes the different choices made and divergent paths taken. Two rock musicians confronting a future without the group that had brought them success. Two public figures tainted by scandal having to make decisions about how to rebuild their lives. Two suffragists achieving their epic goal and so left with the puzzle of what to do next. Two figure skaters seeking new purpose when their Olympic careers come to an end. What emerges from Collins’s extensive studies—of writers, actors, scientists, leaders and many others—is a framework for understanding how individual lives can be built, sustained and constantly renewed.
By examining the long arc of these remarkable lives, Collins tackles life’s questions. What does it take
Discover a deeply fulfilling role in life—one that you are naturally ‘encoded’ for—and then to find a second one, if the first one ends?Overcome a major cliff—a fracture point that forces choices about what’s next and calls for you to re-envision the years to come?Make your personal economics work so that you can focus on one big thing that feeds your inner fire?Navigate the fog, when you feel uncertain or even outright lost, and build confidence step by step?Build personal momentum decade upon decade, so that your most creative and energetic years are spread across an entire lifetime?Achieve the imperative to “Know Thyself” and apply self-knowledge to each phase of life? And for the first time, Collins movingly chronicles his own story to reveal how undertaking this project transformed him, changing his thinking and reshaping his emotions in fundamental ways. Surprising, story-driven, deeply researched, and uplifting, What to Make of a Life is a book like no other, convincingly showing how a richly fulfilled life is within reach of us all.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
416 pages, Hardcover
Published April 7, 2026
About the author
Jim Collins
166 books2,857 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
James C. Collins is an American researcher, author, speaker and consultant focused on the subject of business management and company sustainability and growth.
James C. Collins is an American researcher, author, speaker and consultant focused on the subject of business management and company sustainability and growth.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
May 6, 2026
*** 5/5/26 *** This book started and ended on a less engaging note for me, but I got a few nuggets in the in between. The first nugget is "The Curse of Competence Doom Loop" where you become reasonably (or even exceptionally) competent at something that ends up defining a large part of your life despite it not being a "hedgehog" (passion). The second nugget is from Toni Morrison: "...the point is that freedom is choosing your responsibility. It's not having no responsibilities; it's choosing the ones you want." Love this definition.
The chosen nomenclature of seeking "hedgehogs" that meet 3 tests: you're encoded for it (talent and interest), you "flip the arrow of money in doing it" (can support yourself somehow), and "it focuses the inner fire" didn't click for me. I had a hard time keeping all of that in my mind throughout the book.
I thought the book's last section should have ended before the Constitutional Convention storyline/example. Immediately before introducing this part, he writes what I thought was a book conclusion referencing many people already written about in the book.
The book begins by saying it is not a self help book, but a vehicle to "know thyself." It opens with the author's own "cliff" and goes into other people's cliffs as a primary lens for his study. I personally found it hard to understand why he organized the study around comparing 2 people with similar trajectories. It took me a while to get into the book and what the point is except to analyze exceptional people, but there are a lot of ways to do that already. In time, I did enjoy different stories and history about certain people, as well as a few nuggets that landed more deeply for me. Overall I'd give it 3.25 stars because it didn't really speak to me as a reader and I'm not sure the investment was worth the nuggets I got out of it.
*** 5/2/26 *** Started this with a group of women all going through our own cliffs of life. I have read a lot of business and self-help books, and this book basically tracks highly successful people, and seemingly builds a hypothesis around their commonalities: Finding your true encoding (innate skills/interests), navigating cliffs (big changes) and fog (periods of uncertainty), and managing different life economic/financial models (having to support yourself). I thought about a recent conversation with my son, now graduating college, where he excelled in his studies for a minor degree, and I commented that he could have easily majored in that. He replied, yeah, but then I wouldn't have had a job (in his more employable major). It is a fine line navigating life between pragmaticism and passions.
So far, I'm finding that action, incredibly hard work, a 'worker's mindset,' and 'baby steps' are the recipe to learning and accomplishing good things, and many of those are simply hard coded into people for one reason or another. The best you can do then is develop an awareness of what you are intrinsically good at or interested in - helping children identify these things as they grow up is one of the most powerful gifts a parent can give their child in my opinion. Full review shortly.
The chosen nomenclature of seeking "hedgehogs" that meet 3 tests: you're encoded for it (talent and interest), you "flip the arrow of money in doing it" (can support yourself somehow), and "it focuses the inner fire" didn't click for me. I had a hard time keeping all of that in my mind throughout the book.
I thought the book's last section should have ended before the Constitutional Convention storyline/example. Immediately before introducing this part, he writes what I thought was a book conclusion referencing many people already written about in the book.
The book begins by saying it is not a self help book, but a vehicle to "know thyself." It opens with the author's own "cliff" and goes into other people's cliffs as a primary lens for his study. I personally found it hard to understand why he organized the study around comparing 2 people with similar trajectories. It took me a while to get into the book and what the point is except to analyze exceptional people, but there are a lot of ways to do that already. In time, I did enjoy different stories and history about certain people, as well as a few nuggets that landed more deeply for me. Overall I'd give it 3.25 stars because it didn't really speak to me as a reader and I'm not sure the investment was worth the nuggets I got out of it.
*** 5/2/26 *** Started this with a group of women all going through our own cliffs of life. I have read a lot of business and self-help books, and this book basically tracks highly successful people, and seemingly builds a hypothesis around their commonalities: Finding your true encoding (innate skills/interests), navigating cliffs (big changes) and fog (periods of uncertainty), and managing different life economic/financial models (having to support yourself). I thought about a recent conversation with my son, now graduating college, where he excelled in his studies for a minor degree, and I commented that he could have easily majored in that. He replied, yeah, but then I wouldn't have had a job (in his more employable major). It is a fine line navigating life between pragmaticism and passions.
So far, I'm finding that action, incredibly hard work, a 'worker's mindset,' and 'baby steps' are the recipe to learning and accomplishing good things, and many of those are simply hard coded into people for one reason or another. The best you can do then is develop an awareness of what you are intrinsically good at or interested in - helping children identify these things as they grow up is one of the most powerful gifts a parent can give their child in my opinion. Full review shortly.
April 10, 2026
Live in your values. Don’t rely on external validation. Your life doesn’t have to be big and outwardly impressive to have meaning. Everyone’s life has challenges and phase changes, that’s part of being human. Take the next best step when you find yourself searching and wandering. That’s it.
I found all the life story comparisons incredibly tedious, but some people might find them interesting.
I found all the life story comparisons incredibly tedious, but some people might find them interesting.
April 9, 2026
I’ve been reading Jim Collins for a long time. This one is different.
It’s not about companies. It’s about what you do when your previous path no longer works.
The idea is simple: life is not linear. You hit breaks, lose clarity, and have to decide again what matters. The value of the book is that it gives structure to that moment.
As the author of Management in Times of War, where I described how Ukrainians faced real cliffs and deep uncertainty they had never experienced before, I find Collins’s conclusions accurate and universal.
It’s not about companies. It’s about what you do when your previous path no longer works.
The idea is simple: life is not linear. You hit breaks, lose clarity, and have to decide again what matters. The value of the book is that it gives structure to that moment.
As the author of Management in Times of War, where I described how Ukrainians faced real cliffs and deep uncertainty they had never experienced before, I find Collins’s conclusions accurate and universal.
May 2, 2026
Occasionally good. Not great.
May 11, 2026
In the past several years, every time I’ve picked up a Jim Collins book, I’ve walked away feeling sharpened, challenged, and energized. His work has influenced the way I think about business and organizational leadership, mission, long-term vision, and even my own life. This newest book, though, has been a stranger experience for me. Not without value, but more conflicted, more frustrating, and honestly a bit of a chore to get through at times. I found myself taking breaks from it repeatedly, not because it lacked interesting ideas, but because I often felt resistance to the way Collins framed those ideas - or too often force-framed them.
Part of that is simply where I am in life. I’m 48 years old and spending a lot of time these days thinking about what the second half of life is supposed to look like. So while reading this book, I also found myself in conversation with other books and voices that kept pressing against Collins’ framework in interesting ways. The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley was one of them. Cleopatra by Sarah A. El Arifi was another. And somewhere in the background of my thinking the whole time was still Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler and the Earthseed philosophy that runs through Butler’s work: adaptation, hybridity, survival, responsibility, and the idea that human lives are shaped as much by change as by fixed identity.
To be fair, Collins does eventually become more interesting than the first section of the book initially suggests. The concepts of “cliffs,” “fog,” “simplex stepping,” “return on luck,” and “extend out, circle back” are genuinely useful reflections on personal leadership and the second half of life. The simplex stepping chapter alone may be worth the cost of the book. Collins is strongest when he simply reflects as an older leader and thinker who has spent decades studying successful organizations and now wants to cautiously apply some of those insights to individual lives. There is real wisdom here, especially for those of us "approaching" middle age and wondering (practice ?) whether our most meaningful years may still lie ahead. His reflections on Benjamin Franklin, Meryl Streep, Georgia Frontiere, and others genuinely encouraged me at a moment in life where it is easy to become overly conscious of diminishing energy while forgetting the possibility of accumulated wisdom.
But the book repeatedly undermines itself by insisting on presenting these reflections as though they are clean “findings” emerging objectively from a rigorous research process. That's unconvincing here. Collins openly admits he conducted no interviews for this project and instead synthesized existing biographies, recordings, memoirs, and historical materials. That is still legitimate research — I’ve done similar work myself in anthropology and missiology — but it is not the same thing as a classic qualitative research design where theories emerge primarily from firsthand participant observation and interview data. What this book actually feels like is Jim Collins wrestling personally and intellectually with aging, meaning, responsibility, purpose, and legacy while using the conceptual vocabulary of his earlier works to make sense of it all. Ironically, the more autobiographical and self-aware Collins becomes near the end of the book, the stronger the book becomes.
I also increasingly felt that the book was unaware of just how much privilege its framework assumes. Even when Collins discusses adversity, most of his examples still involve people who possessed enough freedom, mobility, support, or opportunity to pursue some deeper “encoding” or calling. But many people in the world experience life less through the lens of Maslow-style "self-actualization" and more through the lens of responsibility, survival, obligation, and constraint. That tension became especially visible to me while thinking about The Making of a Leader by J. Robert Clinton, the story of Book of Esther, and Butler’s Earthseed philosophy. Collins often assumes fulfillment comes from discovering and aligning with one’s essential core. Earthseed, by contrast, assumes survival and meaning emerge through adaptation, permeability, and continual becoming.
The book also struggles to account for people whose lives are defined less by singular specialization and more by breadth, adaptation, and responsiveness. Collins’ framework continually assumes that the most fulfilled and impactful lives emerge from alignment around one core “hedgehog.” But some people are naturally generalists. Some lives are built through learning many things, carrying many responsibilities, adapting across different contexts, and discovering new capacities over time. Throughout the book, I kept feeling the absence of any real category for the jack-of-all-trades life except as a kind of unresolved fog before one eventually settles into a proper hedgehog. I’m not convinced that’s true. And as one of those Jacks myself, we tend to be sort of insecure when people seem to be accusing us of not being focused. It's not usually a focus problem though, it's about constraint and responsibility.
Still, despite all my criticism, I’m still glad I read the book. Collins remains one of the most influential leadership thinkers of my life, and even here, in a book that often feels like it is fighting against its own limitations, there are moments of real wisdom and humanity. In the end, this is probably a 3-star book for me, though sentimentality keeps tempting me toward a fourth star simply because I respect the man so much and because there are passages here that genuinely stayed with me. This is not a clean triumph of a book. But it could have been if Collins had just admitted to himself and his readers up front that he wanted to bring the insights of his career to bear creating a book about personal life leadership and renewal.
Part of that is simply where I am in life. I’m 48 years old and spending a lot of time these days thinking about what the second half of life is supposed to look like. So while reading this book, I also found myself in conversation with other books and voices that kept pressing against Collins’ framework in interesting ways. The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley was one of them. Cleopatra by Sarah A. El Arifi was another. And somewhere in the background of my thinking the whole time was still Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler and the Earthseed philosophy that runs through Butler’s work: adaptation, hybridity, survival, responsibility, and the idea that human lives are shaped as much by change as by fixed identity.
To be fair, Collins does eventually become more interesting than the first section of the book initially suggests. The concepts of “cliffs,” “fog,” “simplex stepping,” “return on luck,” and “extend out, circle back” are genuinely useful reflections on personal leadership and the second half of life. The simplex stepping chapter alone may be worth the cost of the book. Collins is strongest when he simply reflects as an older leader and thinker who has spent decades studying successful organizations and now wants to cautiously apply some of those insights to individual lives. There is real wisdom here, especially for those of us "approaching" middle age and wondering (practice ?) whether our most meaningful years may still lie ahead. His reflections on Benjamin Franklin, Meryl Streep, Georgia Frontiere, and others genuinely encouraged me at a moment in life where it is easy to become overly conscious of diminishing energy while forgetting the possibility of accumulated wisdom.
But the book repeatedly undermines itself by insisting on presenting these reflections as though they are clean “findings” emerging objectively from a rigorous research process. That's unconvincing here. Collins openly admits he conducted no interviews for this project and instead synthesized existing biographies, recordings, memoirs, and historical materials. That is still legitimate research — I’ve done similar work myself in anthropology and missiology — but it is not the same thing as a classic qualitative research design where theories emerge primarily from firsthand participant observation and interview data. What this book actually feels like is Jim Collins wrestling personally and intellectually with aging, meaning, responsibility, purpose, and legacy while using the conceptual vocabulary of his earlier works to make sense of it all. Ironically, the more autobiographical and self-aware Collins becomes near the end of the book, the stronger the book becomes.
I also increasingly felt that the book was unaware of just how much privilege its framework assumes. Even when Collins discusses adversity, most of his examples still involve people who possessed enough freedom, mobility, support, or opportunity to pursue some deeper “encoding” or calling. But many people in the world experience life less through the lens of Maslow-style "self-actualization" and more through the lens of responsibility, survival, obligation, and constraint. That tension became especially visible to me while thinking about The Making of a Leader by J. Robert Clinton, the story of Book of Esther, and Butler’s Earthseed philosophy. Collins often assumes fulfillment comes from discovering and aligning with one’s essential core. Earthseed, by contrast, assumes survival and meaning emerge through adaptation, permeability, and continual becoming.
The book also struggles to account for people whose lives are defined less by singular specialization and more by breadth, adaptation, and responsiveness. Collins’ framework continually assumes that the most fulfilled and impactful lives emerge from alignment around one core “hedgehog.” But some people are naturally generalists. Some lives are built through learning many things, carrying many responsibilities, adapting across different contexts, and discovering new capacities over time. Throughout the book, I kept feeling the absence of any real category for the jack-of-all-trades life except as a kind of unresolved fog before one eventually settles into a proper hedgehog. I’m not convinced that’s true. And as one of those Jacks myself, we tend to be sort of insecure when people seem to be accusing us of not being focused. It's not usually a focus problem though, it's about constraint and responsibility.
Still, despite all my criticism, I’m still glad I read the book. Collins remains one of the most influential leadership thinkers of my life, and even here, in a book that often feels like it is fighting against its own limitations, there are moments of real wisdom and humanity. In the end, this is probably a 3-star book for me, though sentimentality keeps tempting me toward a fourth star simply because I respect the man so much and because there are passages here that genuinely stayed with me. This is not a clean triumph of a book. But it could have been if Collins had just admitted to himself and his readers up front that he wanted to bring the insights of his career to bear creating a book about personal life leadership and renewal.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 23, 2026
I had an interesting ride with this book. I was excited to read it, but ultimately found it difficult to finish. I first heard about this book from Jim, on his most recent interview on the Tim Ferriss podcast. I thoroughly enjoyed the episode, especially cliffs, fog, and encodings. Recently going through a divorce, cliffs and fog felt relevant to me and encodings just make intuitive sense. Of course, everyone has things they are encoded for, and when someone finds them, they should double-down on it.
I then heard Collins speak in SF recently, and I loved it. I left the event ready to rip through the book. As I read, I found it harder and harder to continue. So much of what he talked about on the podcast and during his talk was in the book. It felt like all the newness was gone. I could also tell that I personally see the world in a very different way, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but from what I gleaned, Collins learns about human nature through observation via text, while I enjoy learning about human nature via experience. Sure, throughout the book, he maps out his learnings onto real-world experiences. I guess the difference is that yes, one can glean insights about life from books, but it needs to be tested in reality, and through that test, it will alter that insight for the better, which are the pieces of gold I'm looking for.
That being said, there are a lot of great things about this book. Life may be more thoroughly enjoyed if you follow your encodings rather than what culture tells us. Don't look back and perseverate, but rather move forward, as one can't go back in the past and change it. When you're in the fog of life, take one simple step at a time. Trusting your gut will help you find that simple step. Life is what you make of it. Why can't you have a vibrant life in 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, and even 90's. Collins challenges this by presenting individuals who continued to contribute to society in their latter years. All those nuggets I will take with me, but it was still hard to get through. I chalk it up to probably burning out on the material (podcast + event) before actually reading it.
I did enjoy reading about Toni Morrison. Being a mother, and having kids spit up on her as she's writing and not letting it deter her was impressive. I wonder if Collins would say she was encoded to write, therefore there was no way she was going to stop.
I then heard Collins speak in SF recently, and I loved it. I left the event ready to rip through the book. As I read, I found it harder and harder to continue. So much of what he talked about on the podcast and during his talk was in the book. It felt like all the newness was gone. I could also tell that I personally see the world in a very different way, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but from what I gleaned, Collins learns about human nature through observation via text, while I enjoy learning about human nature via experience. Sure, throughout the book, he maps out his learnings onto real-world experiences. I guess the difference is that yes, one can glean insights about life from books, but it needs to be tested in reality, and through that test, it will alter that insight for the better, which are the pieces of gold I'm looking for.
That being said, there are a lot of great things about this book. Life may be more thoroughly enjoyed if you follow your encodings rather than what culture tells us. Don't look back and perseverate, but rather move forward, as one can't go back in the past and change it. When you're in the fog of life, take one simple step at a time. Trusting your gut will help you find that simple step. Life is what you make of it. Why can't you have a vibrant life in 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, and even 90's. Collins challenges this by presenting individuals who continued to contribute to society in their latter years. All those nuggets I will take with me, but it was still hard to get through. I chalk it up to probably burning out on the material (podcast + event) before actually reading it.
I did enjoy reading about Toni Morrison. Being a mother, and having kids spit up on her as she's writing and not letting it deter her was impressive. I wonder if Collins would say she was encoded to write, therefore there was no way she was going to stop.
May 18, 2026
I enjoyed this book for the most part, but it was almost despite the author. His premise--that conclusions could be drawn by studying and contrasting people who had had similar journeys and faced similar "cliffs" in life--was largely discarded or ignored, with much more emphasis being put on how the two people were similar than on how they handled their cliffs differently and precisely why. Some people seemed to be completely dismissed once he described their cliff point, which was disorienting to say the least. Many of the stories were interesting to a point, but when he finished describing them I couldn't help but wonder what message I was supposed to be taking away from it. The whole book sort of stumbled over itself, belaboring certain points and announcing conclusions before staggering away without backing them up. I also have to confess that his use of the term "hedgehogs" to describe the way people settled into a cause or purpose to be... well horrifyingly distracting. We Americans might be ignorant of the terminology, but there are words in multiple other cultures to describe this phenomena (dharma is the one with which I'm most familiar), and sentences like "some subjects had two or even three hedgehogs" are just... bad. It's so bad.
I also felt like honestly he was so excited to share these matched pairs of people that he kind of forgot at times that he was trying to present a thesis. "Encodings" are briefly explained and frequently referred to, but if you want examples of encodings you're largely going to have to guess them yourself, and if you want help finding your own... that's not really what we're doing here, but let me tell you all about Jimmy Carter for a minute...
This was a kind of cool research project but it's horribly described and the conclusions are just thrown into a pot, shaken up, and dumped onto a ream of paper with only the vaguest attempts to organize or explain any of it. The author is enthusiastic but almost incoherent. I found it worth wading through to pick out a few tidbits, personally, but not everyone will want to bother.
I also felt like honestly he was so excited to share these matched pairs of people that he kind of forgot at times that he was trying to present a thesis. "Encodings" are briefly explained and frequently referred to, but if you want examples of encodings you're largely going to have to guess them yourself, and if you want help finding your own... that's not really what we're doing here, but let me tell you all about Jimmy Carter for a minute...
This was a kind of cool research project but it's horribly described and the conclusions are just thrown into a pot, shaken up, and dumped onto a ream of paper with only the vaguest attempts to organize or explain any of it. The author is enthusiastic but almost incoherent. I found it worth wading through to pick out a few tidbits, personally, but not everyone will want to bother.
April 28, 2026
**This may contain slight spoilers. Nothing huge, the book is worth reading regardless but just to give a heads up I do expand on some thoughts below**
Hmmmm .... this was closer to a 3.5 but I went 4 stars.
I've been a Collins fan for a while. His business books, and particularly his research and ability to extract key points from that research, is pretty amazing. Specific to business.
This book was just hard for me to relate to. And to be honest, there wasn't a lot of groundbreaking revelations in it.
Find your passions, work hard on them. You're going to encounter challenge or turmoil. Work your way through that. Passions can change. Life is better in the windshield versus the rear view. It's all "good stuff" but isn't exactly a revelation.
To be fair, I normally read "that one book" that just rocks my world and three months in that book has yet to find me (or me it). I was hoping this would be the one.
It is worth the read. I did find it fascinating how so many people found such strong "second winds" past their 50's. As a person in his 50's wondering what I'm gonna do with the rest of my life this was a refreshing take.
The author who "wrote the book she wanted to read" really resonated with me. That's a project I'm working on now, writing a book that I want to read (because I can't find someone who's written it). That resonated.
And the notion that you're hedgehog may be something you have to realize from your past also resonated. For my 50th birthday my mother put together an album of all these things I had done in my 50 years (she did it for my brother and sister as well). It was really amazing and thoughtful. Anyhow, apparently I'd written several articles for my high school paper. I had completely forgotten about this. To be honest, even seeing it I don't remember doing it. But it resonated that maybe writing is something I've pined to do my entire life. So that was interesting.
This is a book worth reading. No doubt. I doubt I'll revisit it, but it is worth reading. It just wasn't the Jim Collins type book I'm used to.
Hmmmm .... this was closer to a 3.5 but I went 4 stars.
I've been a Collins fan for a while. His business books, and particularly his research and ability to extract key points from that research, is pretty amazing. Specific to business.
This book was just hard for me to relate to. And to be honest, there wasn't a lot of groundbreaking revelations in it.
Find your passions, work hard on them. You're going to encounter challenge or turmoil. Work your way through that. Passions can change. Life is better in the windshield versus the rear view. It's all "good stuff" but isn't exactly a revelation.
To be fair, I normally read "that one book" that just rocks my world and three months in that book has yet to find me (or me it). I was hoping this would be the one.
It is worth the read. I did find it fascinating how so many people found such strong "second winds" past their 50's. As a person in his 50's wondering what I'm gonna do with the rest of my life this was a refreshing take.
The author who "wrote the book she wanted to read" really resonated with me. That's a project I'm working on now, writing a book that I want to read (because I can't find someone who's written it). That resonated.
And the notion that you're hedgehog may be something you have to realize from your past also resonated. For my 50th birthday my mother put together an album of all these things I had done in my 50 years (she did it for my brother and sister as well). It was really amazing and thoughtful. Anyhow, apparently I'd written several articles for my high school paper. I had completely forgotten about this. To be honest, even seeing it I don't remember doing it. But it resonated that maybe writing is something I've pined to do my entire life. So that was interesting.
This is a book worth reading. No doubt. I doubt I'll revisit it, but it is worth reading. It just wasn't the Jim Collins type book I'm used to.
April 23, 2026
This book found me exactly when I needed it. Jim Collins has done something remarkable here—he spent a decade studying the lives of extraordinary people not to give us a recipe to copy, but to reveal the common patterns that underpin a deeply fulfilling life.
And the most liberating finding? There is no single path.
No one else’s recipe will work for you, because you are encoded differently than every other person on this planet.
The concept of “encodings” is genuinely transformative.
I finished the book feeling less pressure to find some elusive purpose and more excitement to discover the unique capacities already inside me.
The chapters on “cliffs” and “fog” were like a balm—Collins shows that even the most accomplished people in history got lost and disoriented for years. It’s not a defect. It’s part of being human.
I was also deeply moved by the idea that freedom is not the absence of responsibilities but the ability to choose them.
The stories of people like Katharine Graham simplex stepping through grief and Charles Colson finding renewal through service made me rethink what it actually means to build a meaningful life.
Most hopeful of all: the evidence that our best, most creative years can happen well past midlife. Benjamin Franklin still had more than half his life’s most significant pages to write after age 60. That single fact alone shifted something in me.
This is not a quick-fix self-help book. It’s a rigorously researched, beautifully written, and profoundly human work of self-knowledge.
I suspect I will return to it many times as my own life unfolds. If you are at a crossroads, in the fog, or simply want to ensure the fire inside you never goes out, read this. It might just change everything.
If you want more: https://www.probinism.com/what-to-mak...
And the most liberating finding? There is no single path.
No one else’s recipe will work for you, because you are encoded differently than every other person on this planet.
The concept of “encodings” is genuinely transformative.
I finished the book feeling less pressure to find some elusive purpose and more excitement to discover the unique capacities already inside me.
The chapters on “cliffs” and “fog” were like a balm—Collins shows that even the most accomplished people in history got lost and disoriented for years. It’s not a defect. It’s part of being human.
I was also deeply moved by the idea that freedom is not the absence of responsibilities but the ability to choose them.
The stories of people like Katharine Graham simplex stepping through grief and Charles Colson finding renewal through service made me rethink what it actually means to build a meaningful life.
Most hopeful of all: the evidence that our best, most creative years can happen well past midlife. Benjamin Franklin still had more than half his life’s most significant pages to write after age 60. That single fact alone shifted something in me.
This is not a quick-fix self-help book. It’s a rigorously researched, beautifully written, and profoundly human work of self-knowledge.
I suspect I will return to it many times as my own life unfolds. If you are at a crossroads, in the fog, or simply want to ensure the fire inside you never goes out, read this. It might just change everything.
If you want more: https://www.probinism.com/what-to-mak...
May 9, 2026
All of us face what the author would call "cliffs" in life - losing a job, losing a spouse/partner, retiring, diagnosis of an illness, etc. "Cliffs" are major life altering events that can change the trajectory of your life. How people deal with these cliffs is the subject of the research the author did when writing this book.
For the book, the author took two famous people whose lives had a similar "cliff", and analyzed where their life went afterwards. As just one example, he looked at two NFL players who played on "The Purple People Eater" line for the Minnesota Vikings, and looked at their lives after they retired.
The premise and message of the book is that people often find a completely new purpose after these cliffs and in many cases, are more successful and feel more fulfilled after these cliffs.
For me personally as I am approaching retirement - and retiring at an early age - this book was very relevant and I really got some inspiration from reading it. Because of that, I've rated it a four. However, I can see where this book wouldn't be as applicable for other people and while it might be interesting and inspiring, not completely helpful.
If you are familiar with Jim Collins, you are probably familiar with him for his business books. This is definitely not a business book and not even a self-help book. It's written very well and clearly thoroughly researched, but more inspirational than anything else.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
For the book, the author took two famous people whose lives had a similar "cliff", and analyzed where their life went afterwards. As just one example, he looked at two NFL players who played on "The Purple People Eater" line for the Minnesota Vikings, and looked at their lives after they retired.
The premise and message of the book is that people often find a completely new purpose after these cliffs and in many cases, are more successful and feel more fulfilled after these cliffs.
For me personally as I am approaching retirement - and retiring at an early age - this book was very relevant and I really got some inspiration from reading it. Because of that, I've rated it a four. However, I can see where this book wouldn't be as applicable for other people and while it might be interesting and inspiring, not completely helpful.
If you are familiar with Jim Collins, you are probably familiar with him for his business books. This is definitely not a business book and not even a self-help book. It's written very well and clearly thoroughly researched, but more inspirational than anything else.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
April 21, 2026
Won this in a Goodreads Giveaway (thanks, Goodreads!), and though I found the parallel life studies interesting, there wasn't a lot of meat. The thousands of hours of research involved were mostly about finding people to pair with similar "cliffs" in life and digging into their biographies. The gist: we all have "cliffs", they vary in intensity and cause, we all go through periods of fog where we're uncertain what to do next, it's best to take steps forward and just try things, and pay attention to what lights you up, the things you love to do even if you get no payment or recognition. Of course, you have to make a living, and the book glosses over that, even though it has a short section on various economic streams people have tapped (again, not everyone is lucky enough to have many of these, if any besides a drudge job that means your life is driven by necessity, not love of what you do). It's never too late to start again, your best creative years aren't necessarily your younger ones, you can learn and create right up until the end, and reinvent yourself the same way. So... didn't need a whole book for these points. Your mileage may vary.
April 28, 2026
Jim Collins is one of the most frustrating yet interesting writers I’ve read. I can get frustrated with his methods of research; it feels as though he takes any situation and massages it to fit his framework. When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
At the same time, Jim did look at subjects in this book who were incredibly high achievers, yet also appeared to be happy in their lives. It was inspiring to read about these people, and I took several lessons away from just their stories alone.
While frustrated at time with how he framed his arguments, I did resonate with what Collins was saying throughout this book. His encodings, cliffs, fog, and fueling your fire framework is incredibly useful, and has prompted me to do a lot of thinking recently. I’m particularly intrigued by the questions this book has prompted me to ask myself because I’m in this fog period in my life. Indeed, I know life is not black and white, but this book provided a useful framework for me and I now am more excited about my future because of it. I no longer think “What is my passion?”, or say “I just want to have a positive impact on the world.” No, I am more directly looking at the activities and specific work that brings me joy and am going to continue pulling on those threads. Who knows what this beautiful life has in store for me? Only one way to find out.
At the same time, Jim did look at subjects in this book who were incredibly high achievers, yet also appeared to be happy in their lives. It was inspiring to read about these people, and I took several lessons away from just their stories alone.
While frustrated at time with how he framed his arguments, I did resonate with what Collins was saying throughout this book. His encodings, cliffs, fog, and fueling your fire framework is incredibly useful, and has prompted me to do a lot of thinking recently. I’m particularly intrigued by the questions this book has prompted me to ask myself because I’m in this fog period in my life. Indeed, I know life is not black and white, but this book provided a useful framework for me and I now am more excited about my future because of it. I no longer think “What is my passion?”, or say “I just want to have a positive impact on the world.” No, I am more directly looking at the activities and specific work that brings me joy and am going to continue pulling on those threads. Who knows what this beautiful life has in store for me? Only one way to find out.
May 8, 2026
This review is from a Christian perspective. One issue every human will face in life is what to make of it. What will be the driving passion that propels them forward? How do they figure out what to devote themselves to? This kind of question is forced upon us when we reach what Jim Collins calls the cliffs of life. It is when the ground seems to drop out beneath us and we enter the fog. Jim has done extensive research on several compelling lives, and I have found my own life sharpened in light of his research. Because Jim writes from the perspective of someone who is not necessarily a Christian, a significant weakness in the book is that there is no objective standard for what makes a successful life from his perspective. Therefore, he excludes things that would be a critical component of a successful life from my perspective, for example, being faithful to your family and wife without compromising them for the sake of your work, and maintaining a thriving spiritual life. Still, the book is worth reading, but there are some gaps.
May 16, 2026
After a dozen years of researching and writing, the organizational scholar Jim Collins has finally released his newest book, What to Make of a Life. After a career spent studying what makes organizations great, Collins now asks, “What makes for a great life?” By synthesizing the journeys of such diverse legends as John Glenn, Benjamin Franklin, and Meryl Streep, Collins shows how successful people navigate the fog and cliffs of life to find work that fuels their inner fire and draws on their natural encodings. No matter where you are in your life journey, it’s a thought-provoking read.
My most valuable takeaways were:
1. Life is not about finding your one big thing but about staying in frame with whatever that thing is at the time. You might have multiple one big things.
2. Chasing your passions, as all the graduation advice says, is more important than chasing the market. Excellence follows passion.
3. There are many different kinds of luck that you can encounter in your life. Careers are not just made by hard work.
4. Your best work could be waiting until your 60s.
My most valuable takeaways were:
1. Life is not about finding your one big thing but about staying in frame with whatever that thing is at the time. You might have multiple one big things.
2. Chasing your passions, as all the graduation advice says, is more important than chasing the market. Excellence follows passion.
3. There are many different kinds of luck that you can encounter in your life. Careers are not just made by hard work.
4. Your best work could be waiting until your 60s.
May 17, 2026
Wherever you’re at in life, Collins provides a guide—not formulas or solutions—to help you take the next step, and the next, and the next. Applying his method of matched-pairs to studying the lives of politicians, scientists, musicians, artists, etc., Collins distills lessons about how to find your hedgehog, fuel it, and move forward through uncertainty. This work dispels the myth that great work doesn’t happen after 30. If you’re young and trying to figure out what you want to do, mid-career feeling a bit lost (because of success or failure), or later in life and aspiring to make the most of the time you have left, this book is for you. Through the lives reviewed in this book, Collins shows the reader that life is not over until it’s over, that uncertainty is the only constant in life, and that the way to deal with whatever comes your way is to take responsibility for the outcomes you want to see in the world. You won’t find many answers within, but you’ll have better questions and inspiring examples that may just help you find what are you need to take next.
April 26, 2026
"A great life is the result of a series of disciplined choices, made consistently over time, regardless of how much 'luck' or 'fog' comes your way"
The book is all focused about people and how people react to life's changes and why it's so important to find your true superpowers. The book specifically focus on Hedgehog mode, encodings and fog.
The Personal Hedgehog: Find your life’s focus at the intersection of what you are passionate about, what you are genetically encoded to be best at, and what drives your economic engine.
Decoding Your DNA: Identify your "encodings", those innate, natural talents that make certain hard tasks feel like play. Build your life around them rather than forcing a fit elsewhere.
Navigating the Fog: Accept that the future is unpredictable. Survive the "fog" of life by using empirical creativity, taking small, calculated risks (bullets) before making major commitments (cannonballs).
Great read!
The book is all focused about people and how people react to life's changes and why it's so important to find your true superpowers. The book specifically focus on Hedgehog mode, encodings and fog.
The Personal Hedgehog: Find your life’s focus at the intersection of what you are passionate about, what you are genetically encoded to be best at, and what drives your economic engine.
Decoding Your DNA: Identify your "encodings", those innate, natural talents that make certain hard tasks feel like play. Build your life around them rather than forcing a fit elsewhere.
Navigating the Fog: Accept that the future is unpredictable. Survive the "fog" of life by using empirical creativity, taking small, calculated risks (bullets) before making major commitments (cannonballs).
Great read!
Review of advance copy received from Author
I was fortunate enough to receive an advance copy of this amazing book. Having never read a book by Jim Collins, I wasn't sure if it would be the kind of book I would enjoy, but boy did I! The biographical parts were interesting and inspiring. Jim's insights were well-developed and rang true with me. As a woman nearing retirement, there were many pieces of this story that spoke right to me and made me even more excited for the next phase of life than I was before. And believe it or not, the ending made me cry. I was touched and will remember this book for a long time (in addition to going back to it when I need to be re-inspired!). I HIGHLY recommend this book for readers in all phases of life looking for some lift under your wings.
May 8, 2026
I love Jim Collins!! Listened to his podcast with Tim Ferriss and I was hooked. This is not your typical “self help”… it leaves you with more questions than answers (in a good way), with a sense of well-founded hope for the future, and in awe of so many of the study subjects’ lives.
It feels like Malcolm Gladwell meets Adam Grant? It had all the best bits of Epstein’s “Range”.
Is it occasionally a little bit buzzword-heavy and determined to fit lives into buckets for sake of the framework? Maybe. But the dedication to a scientific methodology and the genuine excitement of the author as he shared his findings was well worth it.
Also I have a soft spot for the man because of how beautifully he speaks about his marriage.
It feels like Malcolm Gladwell meets Adam Grant? It had all the best bits of Epstein’s “Range”.
Is it occasionally a little bit buzzword-heavy and determined to fit lives into buckets for sake of the framework? Maybe. But the dedication to a scientific methodology and the genuine excitement of the author as he shared his findings was well worth it.
Also I have a soft spot for the man because of how beautifully he speaks about his marriage.
May 17, 2026
Jim Collins continues to be a master story teller and happy that he's taken his skills outside the business and leadership space into something more meaningful.
He artfully weaves in stories and mini-biographies for paired sets of people throughout history to present day and unpacked their encodings, their cliffs and their fogs.
In the book he shares how we all can move beyond the mundane and find what lights our inner fire and to focus on it, taking simplex steps (small steps).
The best message of the whole book is his absolute evidence that when you are over 50, you've got most of your encodings and impact to come.
He artfully weaves in stories and mini-biographies for paired sets of people throughout history to present day and unpacked their encodings, their cliffs and their fogs.
In the book he shares how we all can move beyond the mundane and find what lights our inner fire and to focus on it, taking simplex steps (small steps).
The best message of the whole book is his absolute evidence that when you are over 50, you've got most of your encodings and impact to come.
April 24, 2026
This book feels thoughtful, practical, and surprisingly personal. Jim Collins takes big life questions and makes them feel easier to sit with by using real stories, major turning points, and his own reflections. I liked the way he frames life around cliffs, fog, fire, and self-knowledge because it gives language to moments most of us experience but struggle to explain. It is not just about success or leadership, but about rebuilding, adapting, and understanding yourself through different seasons of life. A meaningful read for anyone thinking about purpose, change, or what comes next.
April 27, 2026
Let me preface by saying I am a huge fan of Jim Collins. Love reading his books and listening to him. This book is different, he steps away from business frameworks and instead reflects on meaning, purpose, and how to live well—without being preachy. It’s short but dense, the kind of book you’ll probably want to revisit at different stages of life. I appreciated how personal it felt, almost like reading someone’s private notes rather than a polished manifesto. Not a how-to guide, but more of a compass.
April 17, 2026
I'm admittedly only through chapter 3 as I write this and so will update my review later if I feel differently. But my consistent takeaway thus far is that the author's examples of people who leaned into their to "encodings" and achieved their "hedgehogs" is essentially an ode to autistic and ADHD brains. And while that's marvelous, these persona examples that Collins starts his book off with - as memorably exceptional as they are - don't feel relatable to a broader readership.
April 18, 2026
There are some thoughtful ideas here about meaning, purpose, and how to approach life, and I appreciated the reminder that no matter your age, you can still excel at what you do when you truly love it. However, the book felt far too American in its perspective. Nearly all of the examples and reference points were American, which made the worldview feel narrow and limited rather than broadly human or universal. Interesting in parts, but I wanted a much wider lens.
April 20, 2026
⭐️⭐️⭐️
April Read
📖
Non-Fiction
READ IT -- Centered around navigating "cliff" moments in life when "a significant event alters the trajectory of a life and forces choices about what's next." I enjoyed the message of this book and it aligns with where I find myself in my own journey. I'd recommend if you find yourself in uncharted waters and eager to understand how to align your actions/choices/next steps with the life you want in a world where we need to be prepared for the unexpected.
April Read
📖
Non-Fiction
READ IT -- Centered around navigating "cliff" moments in life when "a significant event alters the trajectory of a life and forces choices about what's next." I enjoyed the message of this book and it aligns with where I find myself in my own journey. I'd recommend if you find yourself in uncharted waters and eager to understand how to align your actions/choices/next steps with the life you want in a world where we need to be prepared for the unexpected.
May 1, 2026
An incredibly helpful book to shift thinking from what we’re good at to what our encodings are. As someone preparing to close a long professional chapter, the ideas and examples in this book were invaluable, helping me to get more comfortable with not knowing what’s next. It’s still scary, but it feels more manageable with the reference point of so many others’ stories of navigating their own transitions. Thank you Jim Collins for the 12 years you invested in bringing this book to fruition.
May 7, 2026
4.5 stars. I loved this book and the way it revealed that when it comes to life the best is yet to come. The only section I had trouble with was the section on luck, which to me sounded more like Devine intervention, but I can see how that would be hard for a scientist to measure that. I also appreciated that it was not prescriptive. It told stories of amazing people and allowed you to decide how to apply their lessons to your life. I will be thinking about this book for a long time.
May 5, 2026
I appreciate the lessons in this book regarding transitions. That whatever cliff you have faced it is possible to land that hedgehog, that 'thing' for which you are uniquely encoded and which drives purpose and fire within you to keep you going. My other key lesson is that freedom is the power to choose responsibility.
May 14, 2026
Great listen. The author is the narrator. Interesting research based book that highlights how people with similar encodings manage their lives and how they navigate cliffs or huge shifts in life. Not a self help book but one that offers insights into how people handle things. If tou read his book Good to Great you should enjoy this one. Lots of food for thought. Meticulously researched.
May 16, 2026
This book is a departure from Jim Collin's prior takes on business. The same methodology he used to create Good to Great is used here to create a nuanced and researched look into the personal lives of some well known subjects. In the end, it is a well thought out book that I found impactful on my personal life the way his business books impacted my professional life.
May 3, 2026
Great mid-life pep talk. Hedgehog is an odd metaphor for flow, but it’s original. Would have like to hear more everyday people stories because it’s borderline hero worship. He reserves two paragraphs for doctors, nurses and everyone else.
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