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A crucible is a test. Not just a test
of grit, pain tolerance, or a “why” so deep
you never doubt or get lost.
It tests what you can break, fix, make better, or make new when it pushes you past your experience, credentials, and tools.
When it asks you to be something you haven’t been to make something that hasn’t existed yet.
Just enough complexity and misfit to force a deeper question:
What else do I have in me that can meet this?
When intensity and uncertainty strip away the traits that work eighty-percent of the time, the question isn’t how much strength you have.
It’s which strengths activate. At what intensity, in what combination, under pressure, with no clean light, no guaranteed reward.
This book rejects the flattened idea of strength and asks something more specific, more honest:
What kind of character perceives, creates and adapts when clarity disappears, when certainty is a liability, when power and expertise aren’t the assets they once were?
Which strengths hold their shape under the emotional, social, creative load?
Because if you go through a crucible—and the crucible goes through you—what’s inside you is the whole story.
And the story is gravity.
praise.
Daniel H. Pink
New York Times bestselling author of When, Drive, and To Sell is Human
“Every good book is full of smart questions. This book explodes with them. What if psychological “safety” isn’t? What if our focus on confidence is entirely the wrong way to get it? What if the first thing you get as a leader—power—is the first thing that makes you irrelevant? Why doesn’t a competitive mentality win in a competitive world? Don’t just think about what’s inside I Am Gravity (trust me, you will). Feel it.”
Dave Evans
Co-founder, Stanford Life Design Lab. co-author of New York Times bestseller Designing Your Life
“In our books and classes on life design, we talk a lot about the coherent life—a life where who you are, what you believe, and what you’re doing are aligned. Smith and Marcum’s I Am Gravity is a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of building your coherency from the inside out. It’s a powerful reframe of immortal wisdom plus the latest social science pointed right at the present moment. If you want a more grounded, coherent life, career and culture, get the gravity inside this remarkable book.”
Greg McKeown
Author of New York Times bestsellers Essentialism and Effortless
“The intensity of this book is matched only by its insight. If you can tap into the kind of passion in your life that is in every page in this book, then you will have the gravity you need to do what really matters.”
Charles Duhigg
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, author of New York Times bestsellers The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better
“Every morning we wake up with a list of to-dos. A pitch to make, deal to close, project to lead, idea to rethink. For every to-do there’s a how-to. Still, it’s easy to wonder: What am I missing? In a word, gravity. Digging beneath the surface of social and emotional habits we hardly think about, Smith and Marcum give us tools that fill in the gaps.”
Dorie Clark
Duke University Fuqua School of Business, author of Wall Street Journal bestseller The Long Game
“I Am Gravity is an original, insightful look at what helps us thrive mentally and socially in a complex, creative, chaotic world. With this humane and thoughtful book, you’ll learn day-to-day tools to make leaps ahead of where you are, not just steps.”
Amy C. Edmondson
Professor, Harvard Business School, author of The Fearless Organization
“I Am Gravity is at once provocative and entertaining, enlightening and moving. Smith and Marcum do a marvelous job integrating serious social science with compelling stories and tangible to-dos that add up to better human beings who do work that matters. Not to mention a more fulfilling life. There is something here for all of us.”
Tap the cursor to feel the pulse of gravity.
PILOT READER reviews.
“I was connected the entire time. Aspirational. (And funny.)”
Kinsey L.
“This is different than most business books. Like Gladwell, only for your career.”
Kelly-Anne L.
“Moving.”
Jeremy Z.
“Absolutely relevant and so not corporate. TALKED TO ME, NOT AT ME.”
Alex K.
“As a twenty-something, it definitely resonates. No one talks about this.”
Renee T.
“Speaks to me.”
Alison M.
“So cool. I want gravity. I want the book the minute it’s out.”
Denise G.
“I loved it. This is exactly where I am. It had my attention the entire time.”
Steinar L.
“Fresh. And slightly unsettling.”
Matthew J.
“definitely engaged me. Unlike anything I’ve read.”
Marco A.
“It really hit me. I loved that it’s inspiring but also rooted in research and reality.”
Nicole B.
“Inspiring. I want to go change the world now.”
Micah J.
Sneak peek.
Seven years ago we tested an early version of our work as a mini e-book, published it and waited to see what reviewers like Publishers Weekly and Kirkus would say.
Publishers Weekly
“In Smith and Marcum’s fascinating study of what constitutes true confidence—a ‘catalyst’ of human achievement—the authors examine research on character strengths, expose how strengths can become weaknesses or ‘counterfeits,’ and offer an exploration of how both strengths and weaknesses might play out in readers lives.
The authors make thought-provoking, well-argued points about which traits come from places of strength and which come from a places of weakness and overcompensation. Readers will certainly recognize some of the character traits discussed here in themselves.
And while the authors could have provided more tools to help readers dissect strength and weaknesses in, this is an engaging study that will be useful to most everyone.”
Kirkus
“The agents that motivate our behaviors are tricky things, suggest Smith and Marcum in this thoughtful, observant behavioral study. They require the correct measure: too much or too little can undermine the strongest positions or astute ideas.
The path of confidence is not a straight and narrow one—but the blessing of Smith and Marcum’s work is that it’s immensely practical. In daily interactions, before one gets lost in ego distractions (either one’s own or others’), there are warning signs—sometimes subtle, sometimes not—and Smith and Marcum wave great red flags to avoid such distractions.
The authors move readers away from egocentricity here and toward reciprocity there; they nurture respect as a liberating power by earning it and giving it. They explain that people are sensitive to cues that separate the diplomat from the chameleon, the candid from the tactless; sometimes we just need to recalibrate the gauge of self-awareness to correct course.
This book offers plenty of smart advice. With its intelligent and lively anecdotes, academic insights and research findings, this book’s value lies not only in the business world, but it may also help readers build more fruitful relationships at home, among friends and in life generally.”
Clarion
“Confidence doesn’t always come with strength, but Steven Smith’s and David Marcum’s slim and efficient work on the subject, offers on-the-ground suggestions for improving confidence in the face of adversity…the authors provide a thorough appendix of many other warning signs with suggestions for strengthening confidence before it flounders.
The book’s design is clean and parsimonious, a perfect conduit for the structure and style, which is straightforward. The writing is engaging…the authors set out to describe what confidence is and how it impacts our success at work and in life. They are successful by offering not only a clear definition of the terms but also useful suggestions to strengthen confidence in adversity.
The suggestions are concise, realistic, accurate and, with practice, would strengthen anyone’s confidence. It’s a rare book that tackles this universal subject and empowers readers with tactics that make building real confidence plausible.”