I recently finished reading What to Make of a Life by Jim Collins, and I have to say it’s one of the most impactful books I’ve read in a long time.
There are plenty of lessons and takeaways in this book, but the concept that resonated most with me was Collins’ idea of ‘cliffs.’
A cliff to Collins is a significant event that changes the trajectory of one’s life. Cliffs aren’t inherently positive or negative, they’re simply pivotal moments that force us into a new chapter.
Some cliffs are obvious and celebrated:
- Finishing school or university
- Achieving a major goal
- Getting married
- Having children
- Retiring from a lengthy career
Others provide us with more of a challenge:
- Divorce or separation
- The death of a loved one
- Failure or setback
- The end of a relationship
- Losing a job or business
None of us avoid cliffs. In fact, we encounter multiple cliffs in our lifetime.
What Collins highlights so well is that after a cliff comes a period that he calls ‘the fog’. It’s the uncertainty that follows a major transition. An instance where the old path is no longer available, but the new path hasn’t yet become clear.
No one is immune from ‘the fog’ – he talks about people like Benjamin Franklin, Robert Plant, Barbara McClintock, Alice Paul, Alan Page and bunch of other successful people all experiencing this fog at a number of different stages during their life.
The key question isn’t whether we’ll encounter cliffs or experience fog, the takeaway is how we navigate them.
For Collins, the answer lies in self-awareness. He argues that we need to understand not only what we’re exceptionally good at, but also what gives us genuine energy and joy. He describes these as our ‘encodings’ – the things we’re naturally wired for.
The goal is to build a life that increasingly aligns with the following:
- What we’re uniquely good at.
- What genuinely lights us up.
While this is often discussed in the context of work and careers, I think the principle applies far more broadly. It influences how we spend our time, who we spend it with, what we prioritise, and ultimately how we choose to live our lives.
One of my favourite examples in the book is Meryl Streep.
By the age of 40, the Hollywood actress had already achieved remarkable success, accumulating multiple Oscar nominations and gold statues. Yet she arrived at a significant cliff. She had reached a stage of life where many of the roles that had fuelled her rise were becoming less available. At the same time, she was building a family and didn’t want success to come at the expense of being present as a parent.
Many people would see that moment as an ending. Instead, Streep found a way to reinvent herself. She navigated the uncertainty and emerged on the other side with a career that was arguably even more successful and enduring than the first phase.
The lesson is around adapting to change – whether it’s good or bad.
It’s safe to say we all encounter moments where what got us to one stage of life won’t get us to the next. Success often requires reinvention, and reinvention almost always involves a period of uncertainty.
My biggest takeaway from the book is surprisingly simple … keep moving forward.
Collins concludes that the way through the fog is not to stand still waiting for perfect clarity. Instead, it’s to continue taking steps forward. Small steps create momentum. Momentum creates learning. Learning creates clarity.
I love that idea.
When viewed through the lens of self-awareness, progress doesn’t require having all the answers. It simply requires moving forward while paying attention to what you’re learning about yourself along the way.
The book also includes a series of questions and exercises that are designed to help identify what you may be encoded for. I found these to be some of the most valuable self-reflection exercises I’ve come across, and they’re worth the price of the book alone.
Ultimately, I think Collins’ answer to the question “What to make of a life?” is built around understanding yourself deeply enough to navigate life’s ‘cliffs’, endure ‘the fog’, and continually align your life with the things you are uniquely good at and genuinely energised by.
I’d highly recommend the book.
And finally, a question: If you’d be interested in me sharing more summaries and lessons from books I’ve read, let me know. I read a lot, and while not every book leaves a lasting impact, the best ones contain ideas that are worth discussing and passing on.
