You’ve been taught success comes from careful planning, learning the ropes, and earning one promotion at a time. But what about the people who seem to skip all that?

We all know a few rare individuals who never stop moving, taking wild risks, and collecting public failures, yet somehow always seem to land on top. Cate Hall is one of those maddening, inspiring people. She left an elite legal career just before making partner to gamble for a living — and became the world’s top-ranked female poker player. A drug addiction left her broke and brain-damaged, but a year after emerging from it, she co-founded a biotech startup that set a clinical trial speed record. Not long after, she took the helm of one of the world’s largest philanthropic foundations.

Why don’t the rules apply to her? What if they don’t apply to you either?

In You Can Just Do Things, Cate Hall argues that the so-called “rules” of success aren’t rules at all — they’re productivity guidelines for low-agency people. Hall shows readers how to live with agency and take control of your future:

Increase your surface area for luck
Take every shortcut available
Build “forcing functions” that ensure commitment
Use your deepest insecurities as fuel for growth

Are you ready to cross the cringe minefield? To show up where you don’t belong, apply for jobs you’re not qualified for, call people who aren’t expecting it, and risk looking foolish in front of others? Every time you think, “Somebody should do this,” that somebody can be you.

An uncomfortable psychological journey and a toolkit for bold living, You Can Just Do Things reveals how to stop waiting and start building the life you want.

Sasha Chapin