Return on Ambition: A Radical Approach to Your Achievement, Growth, and Well-Being

2022 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Gold medalist in Business & Career
getAbstract International Book Award Finalist Nominee

#1 Amazon Best Seller in BUSINESS HEALTH & STRESS, and BUSINESS MENTORING & COACHING categories.

Recommended by over 20 leading personal development, business, and entrepreneurship authorities.

Return on Ambition is an insightful and practical guide for anyone who wants to reach and sustain success and fulfilment. More than 50% of ambitious people struggle with balancing their achievement, growth, and well-being. And 4 out of 10 doubt whether their efforts are worth it. However, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Best-selling authors Nielsen and Tillisch have studied high performing and successful, ambitious people for more than 5 years and found common patterns of behavior and thought. They have first-hand experience from some of the most ambitious environments in the world, having worked at McKinsey & Company and with over 30 Fortune 500 companies. Return on Ambition reveals their insights and includes tips and lessons learned from Elon Musk, Arianna Huffington, Pharrell Williams, and Axel Hedfors, among others.

The methodology outlined in this book can help you reach and sustain higher degrees of success and fulfillment, and can be applied regardless of your ambition, professional focus, or age.

If you’re ambitious, Return on Ambition is for you.

NICOLAI CHEN NIELSEN is an associate partner at McKinsey & Company,where he advises clients on leadership development, culture change, and agile transformations. He is the co-author of the book Leadership at Scale and has published several articles on personal development. Nicolai is furthermore an Advisory Board Member for the Supertrends Institute and an Alumni of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community. Nicolai is passionate about personal development and the lifelong journey towards enlightenment. He is fascinated by the universal truths found in ancient wisdom traditions and seeks to understand them in order to live a more loving and peaceful life. He is currently based in New York with his wife Samira and their two dogs Napoleon and Caesar.

NICOLAI TILLISCH works with ambitious people to help them utilize their potential and make a greater difference. He combines deep insight into human beings with a wide understanding of professional work environments. He is associated with Cultivating Leadership, a global firm specializing in adult development and complexity. Furthermore, he is a co-founder of Deliberate Development, which developed and offers the StepUpYourDay software platform. Nicolai began his professional career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and has since worked as an executive at DDB Worldwide, Hutchison, and Nokia Siemens Networks. He currently lives with his wife, Ida, and their children, Margaux and Axel, in Copenhagen, after previously residing in Dubai, London, and Stockholm.