# The Formula - Albert-László Barabási Synced: [[2023_11_30]] 6:03 AM Last Highlighted: [[2019_09_11]]  ## Highlights [[2019_08_07]] (Location 331) > Your success isn’t about you and your performance. It’s about us and how we perceive your performance. [[2019_08_07]] (Location 485) > Performance drives success, but when performance can’t be measured, networks drive success. [[2019_08_10]] (Location 622) > We’ve established that, as a group, the Boston Latin kids do perform better when compared to their counterparts at Latin Academy. Their SAT scores are higher. No one disputes that. What the data tells us, though, is that the difference—despite what parents think, teachers suggest, and principals claim—is not because the school enhances their performance. It’s because high achievers continue to excel no matter what education a school offers. The Boston Latin students have that superior collective SAT score at graduation because the entrance exam selected the top performers to begin with. And they simply carried those abilities through high school. In other words, Boston Latin doesn’t make your daughter a better student. It’s your daughter who makes Boston Latin into the elite school it is. [[2019_08_10]] (Location 628) > The school doesn’t ultimately matter; the student does. [[2019_08_10]] (Location 641) [[favorite]] > But the most unforeseen conclusion of the Princeton study came when the researchers looked at those who weren’t accepted into Ivy League colleges. After accounting for all performance measures for students, such as SAT scores and rankings in their high school class, the key factor determining income a decade after graduation was not the college they attended. The single determinant of long-term success was derived from the best college a kid merely applied to, even if she didn’t get in. Meaning that if she applied to Harvard, got rejected, and went to Northeastern, her success was on a par with that of Harvard graduates who matched her SATs and high school grades. In other words, it’s performance and ambition—where she thinks she belongs—that determine your daughter’s success. [[2019_08_10]] (Location 944) [[favorite]] > Performance is bounded, but success is unbounded. [[2019_08_12]] (Location 1434) > Superstars suppress you if you compete against them, but they may boost you if you cooperate with them. [[2019_08_14]] (Location 1504) [[model]] [[favorite]] > Previous success × fitness = future success. [[2019_08_27]] (Location 2072) > And here’s one solid application for the Third Law: encourage independent decision making at your workplace. Instead of doing a “show of hands” at the end of a meeting, have people vote privately, via e-mail, on issues of importance. Remember how the first few reviews on Amazon best reflect the true fitness of a product? Those are the reviews least shaped by social influence. Let your colleagues step out of the herd, voicing their honest opinions. [[2019_08_27]] (Location 2144) > While team success requires diversity and balance, a single individual will receive credit for the group’s achievements. [[2019_08_27]] (Location 2355) > In other words, for a team to succeed, it’s not enough to have the “best” individual team members. In fact, as we’ve seen, an all-star team can put a project on a quick path to failure. What matters is that people are offered opportunities to build rapport and contribute in equal measure. [[2019_09_10]] (Location 2508) > Charles Montague, the English novelist, who wrote: “There is no limit to what a man can do as long as he cares not a straw who gets the credit for it. [[2019_09_11]] (Location 2702) > The laws we’ve covered so far are based on the principle that success is a collective force. Knowing this, we’ve been able to examine how communities respond to products and stories, seeing how bias shapes reward, how success breeds success, how fitness matters, how credit is allocated, and how teams succeed. There are elements in each of these laws that we can harness as we seek recognition for the work we do.