LEADERS
DIGEST
Michelle Obama Says One Decision Separates People Who Achieve Success from The Rest BY JEFF HADEN
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According to Michelle Obama, that decision is simple — yet it makes all the difference. Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming was released last November and sold over 700,000 copies in one day. If that’s not impressive enough, almost 10 million copies have been sold to date. And if that’s not impressive enough, Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Rabe said, “We believe this could become the most successful memoir ever.” (Bertelsmann owns Penguin Random House, Michelle’s publisher.) None of which is surprising. She’s extremely smart, extremely accomplished, and extremely successful.
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Issue 39 I May 2020
This is what Michelle Obama believes sets successful people apart: I’ve been lucky enough now in my life to meet all sorts of extraordinary and accomplished people — world leaders, inventors, musicians, astronauts, athletes, professors, entrepreneurs, artists and writers, pioneering doctors and researchers. Some (though not enough) of them are women. Some (though not enough) are black or of colour. Some were born poor or have lives that to many of us would appear to have been unfairly heaped with adversity, and yet still they seem to operate as if they’ve had every advantage in the world.
