From Mistakes to Meaning: Owning Your Past So It Doesn't Own You

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A powerful examination of the nature of mistakes, why we make them, the hidden ways they can haunt us, and how surfacing and reckoning with them can help us lead to fuller, more satisfying lives by two powerhouse authors with high-profile, executive experience and vast networks, who made public, life-altering mistakes.

While very few people start enormous companies or discover lifesaving medical cures, we all make mistakes. Yet there are lots of books about successful entrepreneurs, massive failures, and compelling scientific discoveries, and no book that helps us understand how our personalities drive mistakes and how mistakes shape our lives.

Longtime friends Michael Lynton and Joshua L. Steiner made mistakes that shaped their careers and lives, but it wasn’t until the isolation of the pandemic that they began to open up to each other about them. When Lynton was the CEO of Sony Entertainment, he greenlit the film that led to the infamous North Korean hack; meanwhile, a private diary Steiner had kept as Chief of Staff at the Treasury Department became a focal point in the Clinton Whitewater scandal. As their conversation deepened, they searched for a book to guide their exploration, they came up empty. So they set out to write one themselves.

Through a revealing examination of their own stories and candid interviews with influential figures such as Karol Mason, Joanna Coles, and Malcolm Gladwell along with people from all walks of life, the authors unveil the hidden dimensions of mistakes and the universal struggle to move beyond them. Working with Alison Papadakis, Director of Clinical Psychological Studies at Johns Hopkins, they ground their observations in relevant research and unpack the difference between failures and mistakes, the stages of mistakes, and how it’s possible to break the patterns that lead to misunderstandings and shame.

From Mistakes to Meaning is an essential and fascinating read, combining compelling narrative and actionable advice, showing that mistakes can be used as portals for personal growth instead of lifelong burdens.

Michael Lynton has spent his career in the media and entertainment business. He has worked in publishing, film, television, and music. He is the former CEO of Sony Entertainment, and he now serves on the boards of the RAND Corporation and The Smithsonian. Lynton grew up in The Netherlands and received a BA from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He lives in New York City, is married, and has three children. 

Joshua L. Steiner has worked in government, finance, and the non-profit sector. After serving as chief of staff at the US Department of the Treasury, he became a banker at Lazard before cofounding two investment firms and serving as an executive at Bloomberg LP. He grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and attended Yale University, where he studied history and played lacrosse, before earning an MSt in modern history from Oxford. Steiner serves on the boards of Yale University, the International Rescue Committee, and the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. He lives in New York City, is married, and has three children.