Just the Good Stuff: No-BS Secrets to Success (No Matter What Life Throws at You)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A deeply personal, authentic, and clear-eyed guide to navigating today’s complex world and building a meaningful, successful career and life—no matter where you start out—from the bestselling author and cofounder of Axios and Politico.

Jim VandeHei’s high school guidance counselor laid it out clearly: VandeHei wasn’t cut out for college. In 1990, you could find him proving the counselor’s case emphatically, preferring beer to books and delivering pizzas to mapping out career plans. He attended a two-year school before smuggling himself into the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where after a year he had racked up a 1.4 GPA and was on the verge of getting the boot.

Everything changed when he discovered his passions: politics and journalism. 

VandeHei went on to cover the presidency and cofound two of the biggest modern news outlets, Politico and Axios, the media companies that upended and revolutionized journalism. He took notes every step of the way. And in Just the Good Stuff, his debut as a solo author, VandeHei writes the book he wishes someone had handed him when he was floundering—not a compendium of conventional wisdom but a real-world guide to achieving that other “good stuff,” health, wealth, happiness, all the blessings and exquisite pleasures we loosely group under that oft used but still under-appreciated rubric—success. 

Delivered in his hallmark no-word-wasted style, VandeHei offers essential, no-BS guidance on how to handle everything from finding a calling to building a team to navigating the realities of a changing workplace, showing us that no matter how inauspicious our beginnings, no matter how far down the ladder we begin, no matter what kind of challenges we face, a fulfilling life is within our reach.

Jim VandeHei is the cofounder and CEO of Axios, a media company focused on breaking news and invaluable insights across business, politics, technology, and the world. VandeHei is also coauthor of Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less. Before Axios, VandeHei cofounded and was CEO of Politico, the media company that upended and revolutionized political and policy journalism. Prior to this, VandeHei spent more than a decade as a reporter, covering the presidency and Congress for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. VandeHei is from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.