A USA Today bestseller!

And an October 2026 must-read selection of the Next Big Idea Club, curated by Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink.

No one climbs alone.

Lift makes a simple argument: the self-made success story is a myth. Behind every remarkable life are three hidden forces — and they can be identified, understood, and deliberately built.

Jeff Cunningham is a former publisher of Forbes, a professor of leadership at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School, and ran Elon Musk’s first company, Zip2. He spent twenty years interviewing some of the world's highest achievers: Warren Buffett, Michael Phelps, John McCain, Nikki Haley, David Petraeus, Lloyd Blankfein, NASA chemist and ExxonMobil director Reatha Clark King, and the improbable partnership of F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela. In each of those conversations, the same three patterns appeared:

The Law of the First

The mentor, coach, parent, or teacher who recognizes your potential before you can see it yourself.

The Power of Tight Circles

The small group of people who keep believing in you after everyone else has stopped.

The Rules of the Room

The unwritten values, habits, and codes that decide who rises in a company, community, or culture.

Drawing on rare personal access and unforgettable stories, Lift shows how neighborhoods, teams, families, and communities create success that talent alone can never match. Part biography, part social science, part practical roadmap, it answers the questions most success books skip: Why do some gifted people stall? Why do others rise from nowhere? And what, specifically, can you do about it?

Who should read this book: anyone building a career, raising children, leading a team, mentoring someone younger, or trying to understand why their own path turned when it did. Readers of Outliers, Range, Think Again, and The Psychology of Money will find a familiar blend of narrative and evidence.

Cunningham believes that when you see luck, you are looking at Lift.

Discover the hidden forces that launch remarkable lives — and learn how to find them for yourself.