A Few Wise Words

by Peter Mukherjee (Editor)

22 high-profile contributors, from a wide range of backgrounds, describe how they have all achieved extraordinary success in their lives. Each then share, through their brilliantly inspirational advice, precisely what we should do, to find success in ours...

“What a wonderful book. What a great treasury of wisdom. A must read for every young person.” - The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown

“Wisdom does not only belong to the ages... and runs likes a thread through this book” - The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

"A wonderful book and very timely. It will help people of all ages" - Clare Balding OBE

A Few Wise Words is the perfect guide for young people, young adults (and older adults too) on how to prepare for our personal journey towards success, purpose, and fulfilment in life.

This book is for parents too – helping with the vital role that we must play, to inspire our children to get completely ready for the challenges and opportunities ahead...

Compelling, down-to-earth, and beautifully presented, A Few Wise Words can help anyone to discover the best version of themselves, while learning how to navigate their journey ahead, with confidence and direction.

Contributors to the book include:

Sir Ben Ainslie CBE
Frank Arnesen
Zak Brown
Ursula Burns
Sir Roger Carr
Sherry Coutu CBE
Pablo Ettinger
Mikhail Fridman
Stephen Fry
Dame Katherine Grainger DBE
Tanni Baroness Grey-Thompson DBE
Anya Hindmarch CBE
Declan Kelly
Martha Baroness Lane-Fox CBE
Joanna Lumley OBE
Dame Carolyn McCall DBE
Sir Keith Mills GBE DL
Vin Murria OBE
Danielle de Niese
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
Shriti Vadera
Sir Clive Woodward OBE

Genres: Personal Development

390 pages, Hardcover

Published November 10, 2020

About the author

I am of course credited as author for A Few Wise Words but I prefer to refer to myself as editor - the real stars of our three-part book series are our extraordinary contributors:

Sir Ben Ainslie CBE
Frank Arnesen
Zak Brown
Ursula Burns
Sir Roger Carr
Sherry Coutu CBE
Pablo Ettinger
Mikhail Fridman
Stephen Fry
Dame Katherine Grainger DBE
Tanni, Baroness Grey-Thompson, DBE
Anya Hindmarch CBE
Declan Kelly
Martha, Baroness Lane-Fox, CBE
Joanna Lumley OBE
Dame Carolyn McCall DBE
Sir Keith Mills, GBE DL
Vin Murria OBE
Danielle de Niese
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
Shriti Vadera
Sir Clive Woodward OBE

Reviews

[Stephanie (Bookfever) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would say with pleasure that A Few Wise Words isn't just for young people and young adults or parents, although this would be a very good book for them as well. But I found it to be a very inspirational and thought-provoking read for myself too at 29 years old. I loved how this book had a very diverse cast of contributors talking about how they found success in their lives and how they define success, which was very different for each person in it. It really gave me a sense of belief and optimism.

Now that I have finished the book I really wish I had annotated it because there are so many quotes and passages that were simply amazing and definitely something I want to remember. I know that reading those quote every now and then would be good for me personally and other people too. So maybe a reread will happen in the future where I will absolutely do this.

Some of the contributers stood out more than others and I just want to highlight them here too:

Sir Ben Ainslie, British competitive sailor
Frank Arnesen, Danish (former) soccer player
Dame Katherine Grainger, British (former) rower
Tanni, Baroness Grey-Thompson, Welsh (former) wheelchair racer
Vinodka "Vin" Murria, British businesswoman
Danielle de Niese, Australian-American lyric soprano
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, British Orthodox rabbi

Overall, A Few Wise Words by Peter Mukherjee was a superb and very inspirational read that I would recommend to young and old. I'm looking forward to volume two.

[Brenna S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book with the expectation of, "Maybe I'll learn a thing or two," and came away with more insights and ideas than I could do justice to in one book review.

What makes this book remarkable is the fact that the author, Mukherjee, sat down personally with 24 world-class achievers (many of them famous outside their field) for an in-depth interview. Like a curator, he carefully chooses a wide range of remarkable people and lets each of them tell their own story and perspective on what it means to be happy and successful, and what advice they would give to someone hoping in follow in their footsteps. As a result, the book has a very intimate and sometimes even confessional quality that encourages you to sit and think — which I find to be a refreshing break from the journalistic style of most books these days where the author narrates everything for you and tries to give you a unified take-home message.

This book's approach would make for interesting reading even if it was just "regular" people being interviewed, but the subjects of this book are in the top of their field, from athletes to intellectuals to even an opera singer. I was delighted, for example, to see that both Stephen Fry and Jonathan Sacks were among the participants. As you can imagine there is a lot of overlap among what these individuals all have to say about finding your passion, making goals, etc., but there is also plenty of disagreement. Fry and fellow actor Joanna Lumley, for example, aren't advocates of goal-making while Ben Ainslie and other athletes insist it's essential. Context clearly matters, and that's part of what makes "A Few Wise Words" so wise.

One other major thing I appreciated about this book is that it includes opinions about parenting. To anyone with a kid of their own, or a niece, nephew, godchild, or even a friend to someone with kids, "A Few Wise Words" is a solid roadmap to helping the young people in your life nurture their own interests without controlling them or getting in their way. The interviewees in this book understand that the world is an uncertain place that's changing fast, and they offer plenty of wisdom on how to deal with that, too.

I'm excited that Mukherjee is doing a volume II and will be sure to read it when it releases!

[Jeane Grimbeek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose this title alongside another in order to gain information on how to become a better version of myself:

One title to improve myself as an creative introvert titled Revealing Your Secret Identity : A Guide for the Creative Introvert and this one to use as inspiration from other people’s stories and the advice they offer in order for me to use as a guide for what I want to achieve for my future.

This title is an anthology compiled of chapters authored by notable personalities from different fields that achieved great success in terms of material and non-material wealth.

As stated previously, this is a great book for anybody who is looking for guidance in attaining their goals and dreams in their future endeavours whatever they may be, and with different fields - you can narrow down on the information you want depending on your goals.

For me this book is an excellent example of how information can be passed on to new persons who strive to accomplish something that somebody already has and for reader to gain information without paying the price for it that a predecessor has to.

Highly recommended!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Nawon Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have preferred if each interview included more personal history. I found “my definition of success” heading that started each chapter very cliché, especially when it emphasised “passion” and “happiness” without providing much context. I wouldn’t have read it if it wasn’t my secret santa gift from work, but I give two stars for Ursula Burns, the first former black female CEO of XEROX, whose interview still inspired me so much.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A POWERFUL BOOK! A few wise words bring you advice from 22 extraordinary individuals, from the most successful sailor in Olympic history to successful entrepreneurs. This book provides advice on life, parenting, money, success, and many more other important areas. Each chapter brings you the details of these 22 amazing individuals, taking you behind the scenes of their success.

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very motivating, easy to read and inspiring! Each person discusses their backgrounds and their views on success in life and it shows that there is not one way to become successful and that every version of success is different

[STEPHEN PAUL · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book from beginning to end, very informative, will be passing to my son to help him on his way in life, waiting for volume 2 now.

[Vinay Sutaria · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked up this book thinking that it would be advise from well-established individuals. Didn't recognise one name, and also found most the advise given in the book to be common sense.

[Dian Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book for my sixteen year old daughter for Christmas, since she is still struggling to know what to do for her career. I thought I would read some of it just out of curiosity and have not been able to put it down since. There is so much inside this book to help not only young people but parents as well. I wish I could have read something like this years ago. I would recommend this book for any parent, especially with younger children because it can really help us to know how to encourage them and to open up their eyes to possibilities later on. The book is beautifully balanced between each contributor telling us about their successes and the advice they would give. There are some great stories in this book and a huge amount of wise words. Utterly brilliant.