THE TRIPLE PACKAGE: WHAT REALLY DETERMINES SUCCESS
Author: By Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld
Publisher: Bloomsbury India
Price: Rs 499
The Church of Latter Day Saints in the US this week was forced to issue a statement that its members do not actually believe that they will inherit planets in the after-life. This community, more commonly known as Mormons, is accustomed to being occasionally lampooned for its beliefs and sending earnest young men in white shirts and ties door to door to proselytise. So the opening paragraphs of The Triple Package will likely make its way into the churches of the Mormons across America. The book begins by revealing that the past and present CEOs and CFOs of American Express, Black & Decker, Dell, Marriott International as well as senior executives on Wall Street are Mormons. So too is former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Mormons, Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld explain, must typically go on a two-year proselytising mission as youngsters. While on this godly assignment, they are expected to give up dating and popular music and are permitted email only once a week. Unintentionally, the Mormon elders have set up these youngsters to succeed. Their two-year mission contributes to building a three-pronged plank of success. Impulse control or deferred gratification, which the young Mormons must learn early, is one of the three attributes of success. The other two are paradoxically a superiority complex and insecurity. The authors say other communities that share these attributes are Indian Americans and Chinese Americans, whose migrants habitually scrimp and save while their children swot for exams and spelling bees. Insecurity about their position in class in school and their place in a new society contributes to their success. Meanwhile, the superiority complex stems from their parents' reminding their children they come from societies with 5,000 years of history.
This pattern, the authors say, holds true for communities like the Cuban Americans, the Lebanese Americans all referred to along with the Indians and Chinese as the "new Jews." This brilliantly researched book points to an open letter in the Los Angeles Times signed by the heads of News Corp, Walt Disney, Paramount, Warner Brothers, CBS and Sony Pictures. The czars of the entertainment industry were all Jewish. Indian Americans, meanwhile, account for more start-ups in Silicon Valley than British, Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese combined.
To make the claim that certain communities have the right attributes for success amid the pervasive political correctness of 21st century America takes some courage. Chua, of course, is no stranger to controversy. Her Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother was sharply criticised for lionising a type of persistently striving parenthood that would be harmful to children (The Triple Package, written with her husband, is dedicated to their two daughters). The Triple Package is a humane and honest book. "Group superiority is the stuff of racism, colonialism, imperialism and Nazism," the authors write. "Yet every one of America's extremely successful groups fosters a belief in its own superiority."
Conversely, unlike many recent immigrants to the US, including many Indians, the authors are sympathetic to the problems that many young black Americans face in trying to make something of themselves. Having endured slavery and latterly racism, it is hard to build up a sense of self-esteem, let alone superiority. "Today, a host of factors contribute to continuing black poverty, including schools that fail to teach, banks that fail to lend, employers who won't hire or promote and the fact that a third of young black men in this country are in jail or on parole." Nigerian Americans, by contrast, do well in the US - about a quarter of them earn more than $100,000 a year.
Also sensitively etched is the inevitable underside that the triple advantage can have. There are the problems of success: "Triple Package striving is by nature insatiable; it has no built-in limit," the authors write as a preamble to examining the Rajat Gupta phenomenon and wondering why a man worth north of $80 million and invited to White House dinners would indulge in insider trading. "A simple decent existence - with no scrambling to climb any ladders, without caring whether anyone thinks you're successful or not - may be the most admirable life of all. But it is rarely available to people afflicted with the Triple Package," the authors say.
Paradoxically, it may well be in America, which was regarded as a country where people "longed to rise," that more and more people seek to achieve, if that's the word, this happy state of mediocrity. The children of Triple Package over-achieving immigrants look askance at their parents' IIT/Tsinghua/MIT degrees and perpetual striving and question if it is worth it. America itself, for a long time a Triple Package role model, certain of its special place in the world and "seized with a notorious chip on the collective shoulder vis-a vis aristocratic Europe… and a sense that every man must prove himself through material success", is much less sure this is a recipe for a happy life. "The overwhelming message taught in American schools is that no group is superior to any other…embracing yourself as you are… is supposed to be the key to a successful life."
This thoughtful book also makes the observation that the American economy continues to reward people who don't buy into these New Age propositions with money and power. I picked it up judging this book by its title and worried it was just another self-help manual. I finished it enlightened about, well, life and convinced it explained the success of immigrants and the Jewish and Mormon communities in America better than any other book on the subject.
Author: By Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld
Publisher: Bloomsbury India
Price: Rs 499
The Church of Latter Day Saints in the US this week was forced to issue a statement that its members do not actually believe that they will inherit planets in the after-life. This community, more commonly known as Mormons, is accustomed to being occasionally lampooned for its beliefs and sending earnest young men in white shirts and ties door to door to proselytise. So the opening paragraphs of The Triple Package will likely make its way into the churches of the Mormons across America. The book begins by revealing that the past and present CEOs and CFOs of American Express, Black & Decker, Dell, Marriott International as well as senior executives on Wall Street are Mormons. So too is former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
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This pattern, the authors say, holds true for communities like the Cuban Americans, the Lebanese Americans all referred to along with the Indians and Chinese as the "new Jews." This brilliantly researched book points to an open letter in the Los Angeles Times signed by the heads of News Corp, Walt Disney, Paramount, Warner Brothers, CBS and Sony Pictures. The czars of the entertainment industry were all Jewish. Indian Americans, meanwhile, account for more start-ups in Silicon Valley than British, Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese combined.
To make the claim that certain communities have the right attributes for success amid the pervasive political correctness of 21st century America takes some courage. Chua, of course, is no stranger to controversy. Her Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother was sharply criticised for lionising a type of persistently striving parenthood that would be harmful to children (The Triple Package, written with her husband, is dedicated to their two daughters). The Triple Package is a humane and honest book. "Group superiority is the stuff of racism, colonialism, imperialism and Nazism," the authors write. "Yet every one of America's extremely successful groups fosters a belief in its own superiority."
Conversely, unlike many recent immigrants to the US, including many Indians, the authors are sympathetic to the problems that many young black Americans face in trying to make something of themselves. Having endured slavery and latterly racism, it is hard to build up a sense of self-esteem, let alone superiority. "Today, a host of factors contribute to continuing black poverty, including schools that fail to teach, banks that fail to lend, employers who won't hire or promote and the fact that a third of young black men in this country are in jail or on parole." Nigerian Americans, by contrast, do well in the US - about a quarter of them earn more than $100,000 a year.
Also sensitively etched is the inevitable underside that the triple advantage can have. There are the problems of success: "Triple Package striving is by nature insatiable; it has no built-in limit," the authors write as a preamble to examining the Rajat Gupta phenomenon and wondering why a man worth north of $80 million and invited to White House dinners would indulge in insider trading. "A simple decent existence - with no scrambling to climb any ladders, without caring whether anyone thinks you're successful or not - may be the most admirable life of all. But it is rarely available to people afflicted with the Triple Package," the authors say.
Paradoxically, it may well be in America, which was regarded as a country where people "longed to rise," that more and more people seek to achieve, if that's the word, this happy state of mediocrity. The children of Triple Package over-achieving immigrants look askance at their parents' IIT/Tsinghua/MIT degrees and perpetual striving and question if it is worth it. America itself, for a long time a Triple Package role model, certain of its special place in the world and "seized with a notorious chip on the collective shoulder vis-a vis aristocratic Europe… and a sense that every man must prove himself through material success", is much less sure this is a recipe for a happy life. "The overwhelming message taught in American schools is that no group is superior to any other…embracing yourself as you are… is supposed to be the key to a successful life."
This thoughtful book also makes the observation that the American economy continues to reward people who don't buy into these New Age propositions with money and power. I picked it up judging this book by its title and worried it was just another self-help manual. I finished it enlightened about, well, life and convinced it explained the success of immigrants and the Jewish and Mormon communities in America better than any other book on the subject.