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by Harriet Beveridge
Premium summary · Opens in the app · 30 min read
In 1998, the British men's rowing eight were, by their own admission, a rubbish team. They had finished seventh at the World Championships. They were inconsistent, unfocused, and nowhere near the standard required to compete with the world's best. Two years later, at the Sydney Olympics, the same core group of athletes won the gold medal in one of the most demanding events in sport.
**Author:** Harriet Beveridge with Ben Hunt-Davis **Estimated Reading Time:** 45 minutes
**What You'll Learn:** How an Olympic gold medal-winning team transformed themselves from also-rans to champions, and how their unconventional approach to goals, motivation, belief, and daily action can be applied to any ambition you hold.
**Who This Book Is For:** Anyone who has ever set a goal and struggled to reach it. Whether you are building a business, leading a team, changing careers, training for a competition, or simply wanting more from your daily life, the principles in this book offer a practical framework for extraordinary achievement.
In 1998, the British men's rowing eight were, by their own admission, a rubbish team. They had finished seventh at the World Championships. They were inconsistent, unfocused, and nowhere near the standard required to compete with the world's best. Two years later, at the Sydney Olympics, the same core group of athletes won the gold medal in one of the most demanding events in sport. How did that happen? What changed? The answer is not what most people expect. There was no miracle training program. No revolutionary new equipment. No secret nutritional breakthrough. The transformation came from something far more accessible and far more powerful: a complete rethinking of how they approached their goal, their daily work, and themselves. Ben Hunt-Davis was a member of that crew. After the gold medal, he found himself repeatedly asked the same question by business leaders, coaches, and ordinary people: how did you do it? The assumption was that Olympic success required something special, something ordinary people could never access. But Hunt-Davis discovered the opposite. The principles that took his team from seventh place to Olympic champions were simple, practical, and applicable to any pursuit. Together with coach and author Harriet Beveridge, Hunt-Davis set out to translate the lessons of that Olympic journey into a framework anyone could use. The result is a book built around a single, deceptively simple question that became the team's guiding filter for every decision they made: Will it make the boat go faster? This question, asked relentlessly, changed everything. It cut through distractions. It eliminated wasted effort. It aligned the team around what actually mattered. When faced with any choice, from what to eat for breakfast to how to spend a training session to how to respond to criticism, the crew asked themselves: will this make the boat go faster? If the answer was no, they did not do it. The problem most people face is not a lack of ambition. It is a lack of clarity. We want many things. We pursue many directions. We respond to every demand on our attention. The result is scattered effort and mediocre…
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Get the complete summary in the appAsk "Will it make the boat go faster?" about every decision, every action, every commitment.
Set layered goals: a crazy dream, concrete targets, controllable elements, and daily actions.
Action creates motivation. Start before you feel ready.
Build self-belief deliberately through success memories, role models, and affirming language.
Filter out negative input that does not serve your goal.
Focus on process, not just results. Master the how.
"Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?" is a strong fit if you want practical ideas around business, self help, leadership, especially themes like ask "will it make the boat go faster?" about every decision, every action, every commitment; set layered goals: a crazy dream, concrete targets, controllable elements, and daily actions. The MinuteRead summary distills these concepts into a focused read, whether you're deciding whether to buy the book or applying its lessons at work.
Motivated to help readers with "Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, Harriet Beveridge wrote “Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?” to package those ideas for a fast, focused read. In “Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?”, Harriet Beveridge focuses on "Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't. Through “Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?”, Harriet Beveridge distills the core ideas on business into lessons readers can absorb in a single short sitting. Readers turn to th…
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