Hey everybody!
Hopefully, you’ve kicked off this month’s book Upstream by Dan Heath, but if not yet, there is still plenty of time left in the month to get into it.
The first few chapters have been powerful so far. We’ve looked at how upstream thinking has helped tackle some incredible and persistent societal challenges, including sexual harassment in the workplace and insanely low high school graduations rates.
Considering how powerful these early pages have been, we’re super excited to see what more there is to come with the rest of the book!
For those of you who are not yet members of our paid tier, the Bad Ass Bookworms, now is an excellent time to upgrade and take advantage of the lively conversations, insights and sharing taking place right now on our private Discord channel.
You’ll also be able to join our end of month book club calls where you can meet our other amazing members and discuss in great detail what these books have meant for you. You’ll hear from others about how these books have changed their thinking and helped them level up to become total badasses in life and business.
If you’d like to check it out and even upgrade, visit here.
Register for this months book club call
At the end of each month, we host our book club call open to all members who have upgraded to our paid tier: Bad Ass Bookworm
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﹅ Key highlights from Upstream so far…
1. We’re all too busy fixing fires
Dan Heath kicks off with the simple but powerful idea that most of us spend our days reacting to problems instead of preventing them. Whether it’s in work, leadership or life, it’s easy to get stuck firefighting. The book challenges us to step back, spot patterns, and ask “why does this keep happening?” before jumping into action.
2. Thinking upstream takes guts
It’s one thing to fix a problem you can see, but it’s another to go hunting for the hidden causes behind it. Heath reminds us that upstream work is slow, messy, and often thankless at first. But it’s also where the real transformation happens. The stories so far show how the people who make lasting change aren’t the loudest ones… they’re the ones quietly changing the system.
3. Real change is a team sport
Heath’s examples keep hammering home that solving problems early isn’t about individual heroes, it’s about collective effort. From schools to healthcare, progress only sticks when everyone is aligned around the same upstream goal. It’s a good reminder that prevention works best when we collaborate, not compete.
Poll
Upstream is all about solving problems before they happen, but we all have those areas where we keep putting out the same fires again and again. So let’s have a little fun with this week’s poll…
What’s your biggest “downstream” habit right now? What do you keep fixing instead of preventing?
● Additional resources
Here are some great resources that Heath has put out it to the world if you’re thirsty for more!
► Join the conversation
What Bad Ass Bookshelf members are saying
We’re building an incredible community over on our Bad Ass Bookshelf Discord channel where over 110 of you have joined in the fun (it’s free BTW).
Here are some of the chats we’ve been having:
Some excellent book recommendations - for both fiction and non-fiction
How we’re getting on with reading this month’s book
Introductions from a diverse set of non-fiction book-fans like ourselves!
Upgrade to join the conversation
These comments come straight from our private Discord community, where our Bad Ass Bookworms chat all month long.
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♦︎ Next book club call
We're so excited to host our next Bad Ass Bookshelf bookclub call to discuss Upstream at the end of November! Call details below:
Date: Tuesday 25th November
Time: 17:00 GMT (12:00 EST / 09:00 PST)
Participation in our monthly bookclub calls is exclusive to our Bad Ass Bookworm members. Join today!
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