Next! The Power of Reinvention in Life & Work

The ultimate guide to mastering change and successfully reinventing how you live, work, and lead

“Filled with useful ideas for rethinking your next steps.” —Adam Grant

The profound disruptions of recent years have sparked a collective reckoning. We reprioritized our lives, and reordered how we envisioned the future. Businesses were forced to pivot, while leaders scrambled to rethink their roles. There has been an unprecedented global reset. But in truth, almost everyone goes through this kind of reappraisal at least once in their life—and probably more often than that. Whatever the catalyst, it prompts in us the urgent need to pivot, to ask the question:

What’s next—and how do I get there?

In Next!, bestselling author and journalist Joanne Lipman distills hundreds of personal interviews along with the latest scientific research to answer just this question. Through irresistible storytelling, she takes us inside successful career reinventions (ad executive to bestselling novelist; stay-at-home mom to CEO) and astonishing business transformations (wait until you hear what Play-Doh and Viagra have in common). From the laboratories of neuroscientists to the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies, to the frontlines of the social justice movement, Lipman explores how and why these transformations succeed.

At its heart, Next! offers a thrilling argument: by harnessing the science and understanding the process, we can better understand how to reinvent that new career, change the direction of our lives, or inspire innovation in our organizations. This book provides a toolkit that shows how to make meaningful transitions—large or small—and to figure out for ourselves what’s Next!

About the Author

Joanne Lipman has authored a pioneering journalism career. She was the first female Deputy Managing Editor at the Wall Street Journal, where she created the Weekend Journal and Personal Journal sections and oversaw the creation of the paper’s Saturday edition. She was founding editor-in-chief of Conde Nast Portfolio magazine. And she served as Editor-in-Chief at USA Today and Chief Content Officer at Gannet. Under her editorship, she led these organizations to numerous awards, including six Pulitzer Prizes. Dubbed “star editor” by CNN, she is author of the No. 1 national bestseller That’s What She Said, about closing the gender gap, and coauthor of the music memoir Strings Attached. She is a lecturer at Yale University’s Department of Political Science and was the Peretsman Scully Distinguished Journalism Fellow at Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Study. Lipman is a contributor to CNBC.

Praise For…

“NEXT! is brilliant. It’s an invaluable handbook to help you climb out of that lifestyle or job rut, or make the jump to a second or third career, or take a big breath and reach for the stars. I’m glad I read it cover to cover last night. I’m already thinking about what I should do NEXT!” — JAMES PATTERSON

"Whether you're looking to transform your career, your business or your life, Joanne Lipman is here to prove you can get there from here. Packed with real-life stories and the latest research, NEXT! is the book everyone needs right now--inspiration to embrace change and a push to take control of your future."
— KATIE COURIC

"What’s next, and how do you get there? Next! takes readers inside successful reinventions and transformations to offer an actionable toolkit for change in work and life when a pivot is needed to survive and thrive." — USA Today, "20 Spring Books We Can't Wait to Read"

“Changing one’s life is never easy, but NEXT! provides a map to help chart the course. Lipman was the editor in chief of USA Today, the deputy managing editor at the Wall Street Journal, and founding editor-in-chief of Condé Nast Portfolio, so she is well situated to offer career advice. The book comprises a wealth of stories about people who have made successful, and often radical, transformations in their professional lives. … Lipman’s advice is practical and approachable, and the cases she cites are instructive.”
— Kirkus Reviews

"This enthusiastic program will be a comfort to those who feel stuck in their jobs.” — Publishers Weekly

“Success and well-being depend on learning to anticipate and ride waves of change instead of being knocked over by them. As a journalist and leader, Joanne Lipman has spent much of her career honing that skill, and her engaging book is filled with useful ideas for rethinking your next steps.” — ADAM GRANT

The profound changes of the last few years have sparked many to reprioritize and re-envision the future. In Next!, Wall Street Journal reporter Joanne Lipman breaks down the art of the pivot, synthesizing hundreds of interviews and the latest scientific research to reveal how and why successful businesses and leaders are able to make meaningful transformations. From the laboratories of neuroscientists to the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies, to the frontlines of the social justice movement, Lipman dives deep into understanding how to reinvent companies, teams and careers so we can determine “what’s next” and how to get there. — J.P. Morgan NextList