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The Fifteen Percent: Overcoming Hardships and Achieving Lasting Success
Foreword by Dr. Ben Carson!
Learn what sets high achievers apart in this riveting tale of triumph over tragedy, from one of today’s most successful entrepreneurs.
On the surface, Terry Giles has a classic American success story. By 30, he built one of the largest criminal defense firms in Southern California and generated tens of millions in revenue working with high profile clients. By 34, he left the legal profession and achieved even greater success as an entrepreneur, seemingly overnight.
But as Giles observes in The Fifteen Percent, no one goes through life without facing serious obstacles. Speaking from his own hard-won experience from a difficult upbringing to America’s loftiest boardrooms, Giles answers the question that took him years to answer: Why do some people overcome hardships better than others?
Giles attributes his own success to being part of “the fifteen percent” of people who are able to rise above despair and succeed against all odds. Using examples from his career and life—defending child sex abuse victims, his involvement in Monica Lewinsky’s trial, and even managing Dr. Ben Carson’s 2016 presidential campaign—he illustrates these ideas in action. In each chapter, you’ll learn valuable skills including fearlessness; embracing underdog status; visualizing the future; and positive thinking; proving that you do not have to be a victim of bad circumstances to adopt the superpowers of “the fifteen percent.”
Entertaining, inspiring, and full of useful insights you’ll turn to again and again, The Fifteen Percent will help you overcome whatever’s holding you back, so you can achieve lasting success.
Learn what sets high achievers apart in this riveting tale of triumph over tragedy, from one of today’s most successful entrepreneurs.
On the surface, Terry Giles has a classic American success story. By 30, he built one of the largest criminal defense firms in Southern California and generated tens of millions in revenue working with high profile clients. By 34, he left the legal profession and achieved even greater success as an entrepreneur, seemingly overnight.
But as Giles observes in The Fifteen Percent, no one goes through life without facing serious obstacles. Speaking from his own hard-won experience from a difficult upbringing to America’s loftiest boardrooms, Giles answers the question that took him years to answer: Why do some people overcome hardships better than others?
Giles attributes his own success to being part of “the fifteen percent” of people who are able to rise above despair and succeed against all odds. Using examples from his career and life—defending child sex abuse victims, his involvement in Monica Lewinsky’s trial, and even managing Dr. Ben Carson’s 2016 presidential campaign—he illustrates these ideas in action. In each chapter, you’ll learn valuable skills including fearlessness; embracing underdog status; visualizing the future; and positive thinking; proving that you do not have to be a victim of bad circumstances to adopt the superpowers of “the fifteen percent.”
Entertaining, inspiring, and full of useful insights you’ll turn to again and again, The Fifteen Percent will help you overcome whatever’s holding you back, so you can achieve lasting success.
- GenresNonfiction
320 pages, Hardcover
First published March 10, 2020
70 people are currently reading
127 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 26, 2020
The book starts off very promising and begins to give great insight into what Mr. Giles describes as the characteristics of the talented persons who find themselves in the 15% club. Unfortunately, most of the book details his past experiences as a lawyer (with details of specific cases and clientele), his Toyota dealership purchase along with a medieval castle in Europe and a carpet rubber company. Oh and lest we forget his time as Ben Carson's presidential campaign manager, his failed first marriage, and how much better his current wife fits his lifestyle. While these stories were colorful, I expected to read more about how he and others truly rose to their levels of success and I anticipated more substance given the book's title. Still, this book is a short read and there are nuggets of useful wisdom sprinkled about.
March 7, 2021
DNF
I had high hopes for this book, but I got to about page 40 when I realized that this book was going to be nothing more than a narcissistic humblebrag of a memoir. I had to stop reading by page 80 because the amount of self-admiration was simply unbearable.
This is not a book about the traits of people who have overcome adversity, and how you can build those traits in your own life. This does not “cite research” about how and why 15% of people who face adversity are able to overcome it. In fact, no research was cited to support this idea at all. The author states that around 15% of his clients in the Catholic Church sex abuse case were able to overcome their trauma, then states “psychiatrists told us that this percentage is more or less applied to other abuse cases across the board.” What psychiatrists told you this? What studies are they citing? And how does this apply to your overall 15% rule in general?
So at this point the author has thrown out a percentage, claimed that unnamed psychiatrists have backed it up, and then he makes a list of 13 traits, rules, and mindsets that the 15% have. However, he doesn’t spend any time talking about ways to develop these habits, he spends each chapter writing about how he is the living embodiment of that trait. Not very inspirational or informative. If you stay tuned to the book long enough, you also get to see a few pages of the author in pictures with famous people and in foreign counties. Each picture is labeled “Me, and [famous person]”
Lastly, about 70 pages in he starts talking about how one can “get into the 15%” and “stay there.” But, he’s not talking about this in terms of overcoming adversity or keeping a resilient mindset. In the particular situation I am referring to, he is talking about his newfound fame in his community, making the front page of the local newspapers. He says, “I pretty much forgot what it meant to have to wait for a table at a restaurant. Think that might have been ego boost? Nothing wrong with that. Quite the contrary, in fact. No one is going to make it to the 15% and stay there, without a firm belief in their own abilities...” here, as in many other places, he conflates being “in the 15%” with fame financial excess. Throughout the book, the definition of “the 15%” changes. In the beginning, it is about overcoming adversity and something you are innately born with. However, it morphs into something that is quantifiable by terms of tangible gains rather than by a mind at peace and not suffocated by the fate of the pass. It is marketed as an exclusive club one can get into if they only act just like the author did.
Even in explaining his first example of “the 15% rule” of the sex abuse case, he spends a majority of the time focusing on the clients impressive financial and career success, as if that was the zenith part of him that proved the resiliency, not in that he was able to move past it, maintain a stable family, and *also* succeed in his career. It makes me wonder, would the author still count this person in “the 15%” if they had overcome their trauma, maintained a stable family, but worked at a gas station instead of owning 10 businesses?
TL;DR: Book is a narcissistic humblebrag about how the author was poor then was rich. Definitely a scam of a book.
I had high hopes for this book, but I got to about page 40 when I realized that this book was going to be nothing more than a narcissistic humblebrag of a memoir. I had to stop reading by page 80 because the amount of self-admiration was simply unbearable.
This is not a book about the traits of people who have overcome adversity, and how you can build those traits in your own life. This does not “cite research” about how and why 15% of people who face adversity are able to overcome it. In fact, no research was cited to support this idea at all. The author states that around 15% of his clients in the Catholic Church sex abuse case were able to overcome their trauma, then states “psychiatrists told us that this percentage is more or less applied to other abuse cases across the board.” What psychiatrists told you this? What studies are they citing? And how does this apply to your overall 15% rule in general?
So at this point the author has thrown out a percentage, claimed that unnamed psychiatrists have backed it up, and then he makes a list of 13 traits, rules, and mindsets that the 15% have. However, he doesn’t spend any time talking about ways to develop these habits, he spends each chapter writing about how he is the living embodiment of that trait. Not very inspirational or informative. If you stay tuned to the book long enough, you also get to see a few pages of the author in pictures with famous people and in foreign counties. Each picture is labeled “Me, and [famous person]”
Lastly, about 70 pages in he starts talking about how one can “get into the 15%” and “stay there.” But, he’s not talking about this in terms of overcoming adversity or keeping a resilient mindset. In the particular situation I am referring to, he is talking about his newfound fame in his community, making the front page of the local newspapers. He says, “I pretty much forgot what it meant to have to wait for a table at a restaurant. Think that might have been ego boost? Nothing wrong with that. Quite the contrary, in fact. No one is going to make it to the 15% and stay there, without a firm belief in their own abilities...” here, as in many other places, he conflates being “in the 15%” with fame financial excess. Throughout the book, the definition of “the 15%” changes. In the beginning, it is about overcoming adversity and something you are innately born with. However, it morphs into something that is quantifiable by terms of tangible gains rather than by a mind at peace and not suffocated by the fate of the pass. It is marketed as an exclusive club one can get into if they only act just like the author did.
Even in explaining his first example of “the 15% rule” of the sex abuse case, he spends a majority of the time focusing on the clients impressive financial and career success, as if that was the zenith part of him that proved the resiliency, not in that he was able to move past it, maintain a stable family, and *also* succeed in his career. It makes me wonder, would the author still count this person in “the 15%” if they had overcome their trauma, maintained a stable family, but worked at a gas station instead of owning 10 businesses?
TL;DR: Book is a narcissistic humblebrag about how the author was poor then was rich. Definitely a scam of a book.
March 12, 2021
THE FIFTEEN PERCENT tackles defining the traits that promote resistance and success in the face of the kind of trauma that causes self-destruction in the other 85% of the population. Giles uses himself as as an example touting his own accomplishments as proof on the principles in action.
Unfortunately, the focus is so heavily weighted on the examples as opposed to the words of wisdom, the book, at times feels like a thinly disguised autobiography. There, Giles frequently name drops his famous (and infamous clients) as well as details like receiving a million dollar bonus that comes across as unabashed bragging to the point that parts felt like a catalogue of accumulations as though Giles was describing a game of Monopoly.
I did, however, enjoy the author’s anecdotes about his game show appearances, particular on Let’s Make a Deal, and his job on the Disneyland Jungle Cruise ride. In fact, Giles frequently cited using principles he learned working for Disney as being one of the keys to his success.
The most important quality of the 15% involves perseverance while feeling fearful or after failure. This is linked loss avoidance and the attempt to minimize regret. My biggest takeaway was the need to focus on the “now” rather than the past or the future and to take strategic risks. The last chapter does a nice job of summarizing the philosophy laid out in the earlier chapters.
I found it humorous that despite the substantial wealth Giles accumulated, he made a point to state that spending five dollars on a coffee at Starbucks made no sense to him. It’s clear that luxury means something different to a high profile lawyer turned entrepreneur than the average person who likes to unwind with a fancy espresso drink from time to time.
Unfortunately, the focus is so heavily weighted on the examples as opposed to the words of wisdom, the book, at times feels like a thinly disguised autobiography. There, Giles frequently name drops his famous (and infamous clients) as well as details like receiving a million dollar bonus that comes across as unabashed bragging to the point that parts felt like a catalogue of accumulations as though Giles was describing a game of Monopoly.
I did, however, enjoy the author’s anecdotes about his game show appearances, particular on Let’s Make a Deal, and his job on the Disneyland Jungle Cruise ride. In fact, Giles frequently cited using principles he learned working for Disney as being one of the keys to his success.
The most important quality of the 15% involves perseverance while feeling fearful or after failure. This is linked loss avoidance and the attempt to minimize regret. My biggest takeaway was the need to focus on the “now” rather than the past or the future and to take strategic risks. The last chapter does a nice job of summarizing the philosophy laid out in the earlier chapters.
I found it humorous that despite the substantial wealth Giles accumulated, he made a point to state that spending five dollars on a coffee at Starbucks made no sense to him. It’s clear that luxury means something different to a high profile lawyer turned entrepreneur than the average person who likes to unwind with a fancy espresso drink from time to time.
March 15, 2021
⭐️⭐️/5
I don't know, I think I just expected more from this book. I assumed I could take something from this book. And don't get me wrong, I did take something from this book. However, I did not really learn to much from this book and that is what I expected I guess. I did really enjoy listening to this book, and if you are interested in these kind of topics then I would recommend.
I don't know, I think I just expected more from this book. I assumed I could take something from this book. And don't get me wrong, I did take something from this book. However, I did not really learn to much from this book and that is what I expected I guess. I did really enjoy listening to this book, and if you are interested in these kind of topics then I would recommend.
October 30, 2020
This book is short and flows easily. What starts as a self-help business book, quickly changes into a documentary of the court trials and business transactions of a partially self obsessed attorney and businessman.
May 18, 2020
A very interesting and heartfelt story. If everyone thought and acted like Mr. Giles the world would be a better place
November 1, 2020
Not my favorite read
I did not expect this book will focused more on crime stories. The strategies of success stated in this book may be good for lawyers but not for general public
I did not expect this book will focused more on crime stories. The strategies of success stated in this book may be good for lawyers but not for general public
March 31, 2020
An empowering re-visioning of yourself and life
Excellent book. Inspiring for anyone who wonders if there’s still time to be your “best you.” Terry Giles writes as he makes a legal case—he questions, woos, then draws you into a world of possibilities with fact and story. I couldn’t put the book down.
Excellent book. Inspiring for anyone who wonders if there’s still time to be your “best you.” Terry Giles writes as he makes a legal case—he questions, woos, then draws you into a world of possibilities with fact and story. I couldn’t put the book down.
February 17, 2020
Very good book for self motivation that we lack from time to time. The book leads you through stories that show what it means to go outside your comfort zone, make steps towards your dreams, work at full to achieve what you strive for. Nice advice on the author and his personal stories motivate to do more.
March 20, 2020
Great book by Terry Giles, don't be deceived by the low number of reviews. Read this book in around 6-8 hours.
Initially I didn't know or never heard of Terry Giles, but after reading the book I was surprised on how he is very influential in America for a long time. Terry Giles also didn't hold back on the information he reveals and you'll be surprised on the some of the information on politics especially if you leave in America.
If you are a lawyer or an aspiring lawyer. You will also like this book and gives light on how is it still possible to be a successful lawyer with integrity.
If you enjoyed the book: Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?: How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion-Dollar Business Empire, you will also enjoy this book and vice versa.
Initially I didn't know or never heard of Terry Giles, but after reading the book I was surprised on how he is very influential in America for a long time. Terry Giles also didn't hold back on the information he reveals and you'll be surprised on the some of the information on politics especially if you leave in America.
If you are a lawyer or an aspiring lawyer. You will also like this book and gives light on how is it still possible to be a successful lawyer with integrity.
If you enjoyed the book: Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?: How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion-Dollar Business Empire, you will also enjoy this book and vice versa.
July 14, 2025
Written a bit like a car salesman, which makes sense. A few good nuggets.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews