For the last twenty years, I have been an advisor to over a hundred businesses. I’ve worked with many well-known brands in the midst of transformational change. I've supported over fifty mergers and acquisitions, seen entire divisions shut down or sold off, and witnessed the collapse of many business models. The inertia of managers who were unable to see the writing on the wall and adjust to changing business models even when they were evident, surprised me the most. Others who made pivotal changes and adjusted to new realities also surprised me, albeit pleasantly.

My love for understanding and dissecting business models comes from my genes. I grew up in a Marwari business family in India. For generations, we have established and evolved businesses. My grandfather and his three sons established four businesses: sugar manufacturing, edible oils, jewelry, and trading. In the early 1960s, when my father was in his twenties, he started the family’s edible oil factory. As a child, I remember spending vacations and weekends in the factory yard, where truckloads of peanuts were unloaded. Those piles of peanuts seemed like mountains to us. We played hide-and-seek amongst them.

My father loved business and was a learner at heart. When we went on vacations, we visited monuments and shrines and also explored wholesale commodity markets to meet local businessmen. He demonstrated a genuine interest in understanding the local economies of each city we visited in the pre-internet (even pre-phone) era. He probed why certain businesses clustered around certain cities and asked discerning questions on raw material supply, labor skills, pricing, etc. I’d tag along and listen to all the conversations - learning through osmosis.

In 1994, at the age of forty-nine, my father died quite suddenly due to a brain tumor. By this time, our edible oil business was way past its prime. Market forces had changed. We should have evolved or shut down the factory at least five years earlier but several factors prevented that. My father was not alone in the slowness to abandon an old model and embrace a new path. I have felt the anxiety and insecurity of being part of a business whose model became outdated. My father’s business went through ‘creative destruction.'

Despite significant business upheaval, we survived as a business family. My cousins still live in the same town in India. All the old businesses have been abandoned, and they have moved to newer businesses quite successfully, but not without trials and tribulations.

Humans develop ideas that lead to prosperity for all. Societies stagnate, or even regress, when the exchange of ideas stops. Our best ideas are sustained by manifesting them as products and services and exchanging them in business amidst healthy competition to obtain personal profit. The speed of change, even in business, is ever-accelerating. How does an individual or business achieve sustained success in such rapid change?

We can use Netflix as a starting point. Since its inception, the company has undergone three significant transformations. It initially emerged as an e-commerce company offering DVD rentals without late fees. As broadband internet became widespread in US households, Netflix took the lead in the streaming revolution. Eventually, the company became one of the world’s most prominent content creators by transitioning from a US-centric focus to producing locally relevant content on a global scale.

Such remarkable reinventions of their business model required the company to develop organizational competencies. Netflix has had sustained success over a long period in a dynamic and disruptive environment, shifting from a supply chain-driven business to a technology-focused streaming platform and, ultimately, to an international content creator.

In August 2009, Netflix founder Reed Hastings and Chief Talent Officer Paddy McCord published a 125-slide deck called the ‘Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture.’ This document is colloquially called the Netflix Culture deck. The most important slide in the deck says:

The directness of this sentiment resonated with me. So, I took inspiration from this metaphor for the title of this book. I have advised many organizations where the sentiment ‘we are a family’ is expressed. But organizations don’t behave like families. They shouldn’t.

We are born into our families and are bound together - we have no choice. Family members tend to tolerate and live with each other's dysfunctions. People self-select to be part of teams - it is a matter of choice. Teams are bound together by purpose and goals, and they function based on rules, incentives and structures. In a paradoxical way, while individuals may join a team for some self-interest, they can still align with common goals. Successful organizations behave like pro-sports teams.

The directness of this sentiment resonated with me. So, I took inspiration from this metaphor for the title of this book. I have advised many organizations where the sentiment ‘we are a family’ is expressed. But organizations don’t behave like families. They shouldn’tThe metaphor of a professional sports team resonated with me, so I set out to systematically gain insights from coaches and managers across various sports who have led their teams to sustained success over long periods. I have identified common themes and summed them up as:

In professional sports, fans often oversimplify a team’s success by attributing it to their best players. They believe that having players like Jordan, LeBron, Ronaldo, or Messi on your team guarantees victory. But teams can possess star players and yet fail. While having a solid roster is crucial at the highest level, you need to create a mission-oriented squad.

The best sports teams and coaches have managed to maintain a high level of performance at high levels of competition. Teams thrive even when key players depart due to graduation, injuries or trades. Great professional sports teams were led by coaches and managers who established systems that fostered high performance over extended periods. These systems attract, develop, motivate and orchestrate talented players to perform at their collective best especially when competing against other exceptional teams.

We need to go beyond the plain desire and motivation to win to stay at the top of the game for long periods. Players like Tiger Woods, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Michael Jordan may possess intrinsic motivation yet their approach relies on more than just that. Stamina is needed at both the individual and organizational levels—endurance to sustain physical and mental efforts over prolonged durations. It entails staying focused during periods of triumph, resisting the allure of complacency at the top, and remaining consistently committed when external criticism and self-doubt can be draining.

Most importantly, winning once is not enough. Most leaders who have achieved sustained success do not have a narrow definition of it. Not satisfied with defeating one or even many competitors, they widen their view. When asked about competition, Reed Hastings said, “You get a show or a movie you're really dying to watch, and you end up staying up late at night, so we actually compete with sleep. And we're winning!”

This book consists of forty ideas in four sections—system, squad, stamina, and success. You can read them sequentially or randomly. Some ideas overlap. Some may contradict. But that is the nature of life and business. These concepts can be applied to simple day-to-day things and important business problems. This may seem mundane, but the underlying fundamentals of life and business are the same, so use your life situations as a laboratory for trial and error and prototyping.

This is not a typical business book that helps solve a specific problem or gives you an easy answer—do this, and everything will work out—neither life nor business is that simple.

Consider this as a handbook for sustained success that provides stories, anecdotes, conceptual tools, scientific principles, and philosophical ideas. I have approached this endeavor humbly, as I have learned from many others. You will have encountered some ideas and examples before; others may be new to you. “Nothing can be said that has not been said before.” - Publius Terence (195 - 159 BC)

Throughout this book, we’ll explore the science and philosophy behind pursuing goals over long periods—physically, intellectually, and emotionally. These ideas are intended to be practical. Use them to embark on your journey of sustained success.