Wake Up and Live!

Category – Self Development

Year First Published – 1936

Length – 66 pages

Author Bio – Dorothea Brande (1893 – 1948) was a well-respected writer and editor in New York. She was born in Chicago and attended the University of Chicago, the Lewis Institute in Chicago, and the University of Michigan. Her book Becoming a Writer, published in 1934, is still in print and offers advice for beginning and sustaining any writing enterprise. She also wrote Wake Up and Live, published in 1936, which sold over two million copies.

Summary – This is a simple book that is easy to read and teaches you how to overcome the intertia that is stopping you from achieving your dreams. It contains tangible, actionable steps that you can take today to overcome the will to fail.

Main Takeaway – The book introduces a very important principle: the drive to fail. In essence, many individuals appear to be taking steps toward success but in reality are heading straight to failure. Peers lavish them with praise and this keeps the mirage going in the mind of the individual. Yet they do eventually feel a growing uneasiness inside of them. This book teaches you exactly how to break from this terrible habit and achieve your goals. Her philosophy can be summed up in one sentence: “All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is to — act as if it were impossible to fail.”