If you’re going to dream, dream big.
But once you know where you want to go, you need to plan your route for getting there, because unfulfilled dreams can fester and make you unhappy.
That’s the trick, though, isn’t it?
How do you get from here to that big audacious goal? If you knew, you’d already be there.
I grew up reading books on success, personal development, and goal achievement, but I’ve never found a simple, effective process that actually works. Until now.
The Shortcut: The Fastest Way to Achieve Your Goals, by luge Olympian Ruben Gonzalez, is a wonderful story that uplifts, inspires, and empowers you to achieve your biggest, baddest dreams.
About the Author
Ruben Gonzalez is a four-time Olympian, a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author and an award-winning keynote speaker.
After years of dreaming about the Olympics, Ruben took up the sport of luge when he was 21. Four years and a few broken bones later, he was competing in the Calgary Olympics.
That alone is impressive. Most Olympians start working on their sport before the age of 10. But once Gonzalez believed he could achieve his dream, he was unstoppable.
And he hasn’t stopped since.
At 47, he was racing against 20-year-olds in the Vancouver Olympics, becoming the first person to ever compete in four Winter Olympics in four different decades – 1988, 1992, 2002, 2010.
Even more impressive, he’s currently in training for the 2026 Milan / Cortina Winter Olympics. If he makes it (and he’s likely to), he’ll make history as the oldest person to ever compete in the Winter Olympics, a record held since 1924 by Carl August Kronlund, a Swedish curler who competed at age 58.
Drawing from his own journey to success, Gonzalez has spoken for hundreds of Fortune 500 companies about developing mental toughness, attitude, and the principles that lead to success in business and in life.
About the Book
The Shortcut is a quick read that you can enjoy whenever you need a burst of inspiration. It’s a parable, telling the story of a young executive, Johnny, who’s up against the wall. He’s been told by his boss to make his team profitable, or else. But Johnny is like many of us — he’s going about it in all the wrong ways.
Ruben Gonzalez and his friends and partners actually show up in the story. Together, they spell out what it takes to reach whatever goal you’ve set for yourself, no matter how impossible it may seem.
Many parables are didactic, but not The Shortcut. You’ll learn Gonzalez’ principles of success almost by osmosis, because you’re so immersed in the story.
My Takeaways
We make success more complicated than it needs to be. Gonzalez breaks it into a simple three-step process:
- Find a leader
- Follow the leader
- Be a leader
As he says, “Following the leader is the fastest and easiest way to achieve any goal.”
Interestingly, I’ve seen people do this. They go to a job interview and say, “In five years, I want to be you.” Now, seven years later, they’re partners in a successful business venture. Or they call up a stranger and say, “I want you to be my mentor.”
Gonzalez makes it clear that you aren’t burdening someone by reaching out to them in this way. And you’re certainly not showing up as weak. You owe it to them, he says, because it gives them the “Gold Medal.”
What’s the Gold Medal? Significance.
“You achieve significance by helping someone else succeed. You get it by creating a ripple effect of success.”
This is probably my biggest takeaway: find a leader to follow, so I can go further, faster. But there are countless other lessons embedded in this story, all of them designed to help you unlock your dreams.
When you’ve closed the back cover of The Shortcut, you’ll feel happy, energized, and ready to hit the ground running. You’ll know how to find your passion, and you’ll believe in your own potential.
Gonzalez is the best person to tell this story. He was never the star athlete growing up, and he got a late start on his sport. But he’s determined and believes anything is possible.
If you’ve been told you’re too old, too inexperienced, too anything, this book is for you. Whatever your dream, it’s possible.
Gonzalez is the leader you’ve been looking for. Read the book, then do what it says. It really is the fastest way to achieve your goals.
