The Impulse Factor: Why Some of Us Play It Safe and Others Risk It All

by Nick Tasler

A head of TalentSmart's global research organization explores nature-versus-environmental factors that influence how people make decisions, in a guide that invites readers to understand and adapt their decision-making styles in order to improve everyday circumstances. 75,000 first printing.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Business, Self Help, Sociology, Science, Professional Development

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 2008

About the author

Nick Tasler is an internationally acclaimed thought leader and—

Sorry for the interruption. My “official” bio continues below and, fear not, it is chock-full of the requisite self-aggrandizement and third-person references to my many, many accolades. But before I attempt to convince you that I am the Batman of business thought leaders, let me tell you who I am in real life. I’m a dad, a husband, and a total geek about the science of human nature. My dream is to spend every working moment writing and speaking about the latest and greatest insights that help us turn unpredictable changes into meaningful and exciting adventures. So, yeah, I guess I’m living my dream. Maybe my dream and your dilemma should hook up sometime and…ya know, grab a coffee and a gluten-free bagel or something?

Now back to our regularly scheduled list of things I would never ever say to someone I just met…

‍Nick Tasler is an internationally acclaimed thought leader, organizational psychologist, and the #1 best-selling author of four counter-intuitive books on the art and science of making decisions and leading change. He is also an expert writer for the Harvard Business Review and his work has been covered by The New York Times, Bloomberg Business Week, The Atlantic, Inc., U.S. News & World Report, The Financial Times, Fox Business, and Forbes; as well as NPR, the BBC, NBC, ABC, and CBS.

Nick’s original insights and dynamic style have benefited the world’s most respected organizations ranging from General Electric, Microsoft, JP Morgan, Novo Nordisk, Wells Fargo, the Royal Bank of Canada, and UnitedHealth Group to the Wharton School, Yale University, and many more.Nomadic by nature, Nick and his wife and their four kids live in…lots of places. Sometimes Minnesota. Sometimes Florida. Currently Puerto Rico.

Reviews

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking book about why some of us are risk takers and some of us are risk-averse.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

First chapter or so was educational in the sense that some biological reasons for impulsive behavior were given as well as real examples that many could relate to. Turned into a sort of book that felt more like a self-help than a social/psych book, the latter being what I was expecting. Started touting his own company and their impulse scoring tests which was lame. As well as the self help suggestions made at the end.

Fuck! I just started rereading this book 2+ years later because I apparently forgot I read this already. Sounded all too familiar. Especially once I got to the boring self-help sections. I started looking for a reason to not read this.

Either way, someone needs to invent some way to keep track of this shit so I don't reread two star books.

[Wan Shoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and tantalizing ! The whole strategy of understanding, acknowledging and adjusting own`s behavior to gain maximum benefit from decisions made has been enlightening. I rarely read through the appendix but this part is a Must for all readers to fully understand the fundamental design and study of impulse factor.

[Ala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book with antidotes and examples of people and companies that took the risk and reached extraordinary feats. Basically reminding us not to waste time being perfectionists but to embrace risk taking and accept failures along the way.

[Bina Artiste · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book goes about exploring with you what you are. Are you a risk manager or a potential seeker? There's no right or wrong answers. It is written by an employee of TalentSmart. I enjoyed some of the different sections of each chapter. I liked how Nick Tasler started each chapter differently from Zach Johnson who beat Tiger Woods to politicians to the rescuers who started an avanlanche. Usually one of the section would click with me but some of the others just left me wondering where he was going with it. I didn't like how about mid-point of the book Mr. Tasler starts focusing on TalentSmart's impulse factor test which is on the internet and what the different scores mean. I realize this is to help you figure out where you stand and also how you can give your company more using your impulse factor but I was getting more from his research than I did from him telling me about his test and his company. I didn't feel like after I found out my impulse personality that Mr. Tasler truly told me how I could make it work for me. I thought it was a lot of generalities that most people will be aware of. I wanted to love this book because of the topic. However, I found that it felt short of Mr. Tasler's stated goals in the book. I think it's interesting but definitely a bargain book not a full price buy.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Impulse Factor is both a report on Tasler's research into what drives impulsive decision-making and his plug for his company's market research and corporate consulting services. As such it does a decent job mining the recent psychological and genetic work, but feels too much like an extended commercial to rate more than three stars.

Tasler reports that research has shown that about 25% of any population are potential seekers (willing to task more risks for higher potential), while the rest of us are risk managers--making decisions for lower risk even if the payoff is lower. I include myself in the other 75% because I took the "Impulse Factor (tm)" test advertised on the cover and in the book--a key part of the TalentSmart (Tasler's company) plug.

Sure the research is interesting (there is a genetic link to impulsiveness, for example), and there are some good pointers for how to improve your decision-making based on your results on the test, but the majority of the book feels like an extended analysis of the online test results and an invitation to contact TalentSmart for paid consulting services.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating study of risk takers versus cautious deliberators

Are you likely to risk everything for a potentially huge payout? Or do you tend to look for a “safe bet”? Nick Tasler, research director for a workplace learning and training firm, examines the psychological and genetic factors that shape these human tendencies. He says that people approach decisions from either a “potential seeking” or “risk managing” perspective, and explains that how you manage the strengths and weaknesses of your particular decision-making style determines the quality of your choices. Tasler proves himself a raconteur as well as a scholar. His book is a delightful smorgasbord of case studies covering a variety of people and organizations, from Bill Gates and Neal Cassady to the National Football League’s San Diego Chargers. getAbstract recommends this fascinating book to anyone who wants to understand and improve his or her decision-making style and abilities.

[Sachin Ganpat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the things in this book I knew from before, but others were quite new to me and I found them very interesting. The genetic makeup of the broad groupings of "Risk Managers" and "Potential Seekers" for example.

The author provided good tips for working as one of those groups and working with others in the groups.

As a note, the author no longer works with TalentSmart and the website to do the test no longer is available it seems. The author has his own site, Decision Pulse, where you can do a similar test for free - http://dsi.decisionpulse.com/

It's not the same exact assessment, but it would give you some idea of what type of decision maker you are.

I think the book is a worthwhile read regardless. You can easily tell what type of person you are just by reading the first few chapters, so you don't lose out at the later chapters where you are required to do the test first.

[Camille · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just saw this on the shelf at the library and picked it up. It was... meh. The beginning, when it's talking about the research that has been done on people and about the theories behind why some people are more impulsive than other people... that stuff was somewhat interesting. The rest of the book, where he tries to tell you how to use your newfound knowledge of yourself to find a path to success.... blah. I hate that kind of self-help crap. There were so many examples of the same thing... over and over and over again... that I started skipping pages at a time trying to get to something, anything new or interesting.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was suspicious of snake oil salesmanship when I started this book, but found the first half of the book enjoyable and filled with some useful case studies, but after the introduction of the test from the author's company (along with the ridiculous practice of printing a special code on the inside of the jacket) it felt like this book is really closely aligned Tasler's company's product. Yes you can still read the book without taking the test, but the last three chapters are really talking to people who took the company's test. This reminds me of so many of the business books that came out in the late-90s before the bubble burst.

[Ben · Rating 1 out of 5]

Extremely repetitive and aimed at 10 year olds apparently. It had a couple interesting bits of information, but could have gotten the same information across in 1/10 the number of pages. Read every other page or every three pages and you can be done with it much more quickly than me and have covered just as much. I never actually review my books but this one pissed me off so much I had to warn others.

[Tumai · Rating 4 out of 5]

The link didn't work, so that sucked. Stopped reading half way through because it got quite boring. the first half was pretty interesting, but that's probably because I'm young and nieve and haven't had much experience with all that "pop-psychology" terms the rest of the reviewers are throwing around. They've all "been there done that", but for me as a new comer to non-fic in general it was fairly decent.

[Dena Burnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy read, and intersting...but the link to the interactive "Impulse Factor Test" is dead. I'm sure I would have been able to pull out more personalized information on how to make the most of my impulsiveness if I was able to quantify it while reading the book.

[Dan Gabree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book with some very interesting ideas and information, but seems to wander or repeat the same thought for too long t times. Certainly worth reading, but I suspect the newer books on Decisions and Emotional Intelligence are more current on this line of thinking.

[Peter Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book is interesting but the rest is content free waffle. The test has now vanished from the net so that's another disappointment but honestly do you need a test to tell you if you're impulsive or not?

[Janet Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Really interesting. If you like Malcolm Gladwell, you'll like this one.

[Gello · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite interesting. Looks at how our preference for taking risks or not influences our decision making.

[Logophile (Heather) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting info. Not exactly what I was expecting but still a quick and informative non-fiction read.

[Erin Holland]

This book is pretty good and actually helping me understand how ADHD and the d-4 novelty seeking gene may affect my students, and why it isn't always a bad thing.

[BLACK CAT · Rating 2 out of 5]

You better read Thinking Fast and Slow.

[Mohamed Mahmoud · Rating 5 out of 5]

it gives a better understanding of how we make decisions and how to improve them.