Happiness and success flow directly from establishing your authentic identity first inside, and then to the world. In Identity: Passport to Freedom, New York Timesbest-selling author Stedman Graham helps you do just that. Graham begins with a working definition of identity, and shares powerful insights about finding one's own identity from many of the world's most fascinating and world-changing individuals. Next, he provides a process and structure you can use on your own journey to create your own authentic identity, illustrating it with the experiences of others' personal discovery and creation. You'll learn how some truly remarkable people established clarity of meaning for themselves… chose values to live by… developed a passionate sense of purpose… and linked their values and purpose to their work in the world. Finally, Graham introduces his patented 9 Step Plan for SuccessTM,bringing this process to life through the stories of individuals who've resolved their identity questions, and built a life that matters powerfully: to themselves, their families, colleagues, friends, and the world. Guiding you along your journey, Graham and his extraordinary interviewees helps you wrestle with questions like: How will you change when you truly know yourself? How can you align your inner and outer selves? How can you keep them aligned, as the world rages around you?If you want to live a happier, more fulfilled, more purposeful life, here are the tools you need to make it happen!

Stedman Graham is Chairman and CEO of S. Graham & Associates, a management, marketing, and consulting firm based in Chicago, Illinois. Graham speaks, conducts seminars, and develops programs for businesses and educational organizations worldwide. He is the author of ten books, including two New York Times bestsellers, You Can Make It Happen--A Nine-Step Plan for Success   and Teens Can Make It Happen--Nine Steps to Success , which illustrate his proprietary Nine-Step Success Process, a life management and learning system that teaches you how to organize your personal and professional life around your identity.

 

Also featuring contributions from Stewart Emery and Russ Hall.

Foreword by John C. Maxwell     xv

Introduction     1
The connection between knowing who you are and success • How to think of your identity as your personal brand • The greatest gift somebody can get as a human being • If you don’t have a strong identity, you don’t have a choice

Chapter 1:  You Have a Choice     7
Living with a race-based consciousness • The first step to freedom • Why you need a process for becoming successful • Getting the gift of choice • Taking a deep, hard look at yourself

Chapter 2:  Knowing Yourself Should Be Easy. It Isn’t. Why Is That?     23
Are you letting everybody but you decide who you are or should be? • Who do you see when you look in the mirror? • Write a ten-word want ad for yourself • How to become more attractive to others

Chapter 3:  What Do Your Personal Values Have to Do with Your Identity?     41
The correlation between your identity and how people relate to you • Why growing up disadvantaged can give you strength • Being different can make you more interesting • How a willingness to change makes you gifted and successful

Chapter 4:  Can Your Attitude Affect Identity?     61
Why it’s your decision to be who you are • From college drop-out to #1 entrepreneur under 30 • mophie, kluster, and quirky--Profile in Success

Chapter 5:  Can People’s Identity Change?     73
To be successful in any of the roles you take on in your life, you have to fill the role with the spirit of your real self, your passion, and your values • Steve Jobs--Profile in Success • Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice

Chapter 6:  Do You Transform Your Own Identity? Or Is It Owning Your Identity That Transforms Your Life?     99
How you always have options and sometimes don’t know it • What matters to you can change over time • How your identity evolves • Why when you bring value to the world around you, you feel good about yourself--you feel successful

Chapter 7:  When Identity Must Deal with a Life Crisis     123
Whether change is planned or unplanned, there’s always opportunity for you to prepare for it • How to identify the values that bring out the best in you and live by them • Why, when you are not moving forward, you’re not even standing still; you’re really going backward

Chapter 8:  Friendship, Teamwork, and Your Identity     143
Why you will find it’s good for you to be around people who have the same values as you • If you have a dream, you need a team • How the people with whom you connect as you strive toward your success can help you, or can get in your way

Chapter 9:  Persistence and Your Identity     157
Come to think of yourself as a work of art in progress • Body by Jake--Profile in Success of a fitness guru • Why you’ve got to have mentors to hang out with who are winners • What to do when people bet against you • How it’s about being loyal to your values and your vision

Chapter 10:  Adjustments and Tune-ups for Your Identity     169
The Wizard of Oz and You • Why the successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t like to do • How it happens that as you become clear about who you are and show it to the world, opportunities for success will start to find you

Chapter 11:  Bringing It All Together--Committing to Your Vision     185
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating--in work, in play, in love • Lessons in success and transformation from a North Vietnam prisoner-of-war camp • Your Nine-Step Success Process

Afterword by Stephen R. Covey     199