Narrator: A student named Krishna had a persistent problem: his bed was broken, and he wasn’t sleeping well. For weeks, he told his professor that he was trying to fix it. First, he couldn't find the right wire. The next week, he lacked the proper tools. The week after, he couldn't find the small springs he needed. Exasperated, his professor finally gave him an ultimatum: solve the problem by next week, or fail the class. The following week, Krishna came to class well-rested. He had finally solved his problem—not by fixing the old bed, but by buying a new one. He realized the true problem wasn't "how do I fix my bed?" but "how do I get a good night's sleep?"

This shift in perspective is the core of Bernard Roth's transformative book, Make Achievement a Habit. Drawing from his decades of experience as a founder of Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, known as the d.school, Roth applies the principles of design thinking not to products, but to our own lives. He argues that we can design our way out of ruts, overcome self-sabotage, and build a life of purpose and accomplishment.

Narrator: The book delivers a provocative and powerful assertion: reasons are bullshit. They are often just well-dressed excuses we use to justify our inaction and avoid taking responsibility. We use them to appear rational to ourselves and others, but they mask the real issue, which is almost always a matter of priority.

Roth illustrates this with a personal story. For months, he was consistently late to the board meetings of a company an hour's drive from his home. His reason was always the same: the traffic was terrible. It was a perfectly logical and acceptable excuse. But after examining his own behavior, he realized the truth was different. On the days of the meetings, he would allow last-minute emails and conversations to delay his departure. The traffic wasn't the real reason; his lateness was a result of him not making the meeting a high enough priority to leave with time to spare. Once he acknowledged this, he stopped making excuses. He committed to leaving earlier, no matter what, and was never late again. The stress vanished, and his self-esteem improved. The problem wasn't the traffic; it was his intention.

Narrator: A core tenet of Roth's philosophy is that nothing in our lives has any meaning except for the meaning we give it. Events, people, and circumstances are neutral until we assign a story to them. This means we have the power to change our reality by changing the stories we tell ourselves.

This is powerfully demonstrated through the story of a student named Mike. For a class project, Mike planned to build a massive, fire-powered pipe organ for the Burning Man festival. His progress was slow, and his final demonstration was an embarrassing disaster. Based on this, Roth formed a negative judgment of Mike's capabilities. Three years later, at the same festival, Roth was admiring a colossal, fire-breathing metal serpent sculpture. When he asked about its creators, he was stunned to find Mike, who had become a key leader in the artistic group that built it. Roth realized his initial judgment was completely wrong. Mike was not a failure; he was capable of incredible things. The initial failure had no permanent meaning. Roth had assigned it a negative meaning, but Mike had moved on and reinvented himself. This experience taught Roth that there is no permanent record, and we have the power to redefine ourselves and our past at any moment.

Narrator: According to Roth, when we feel stuck, it’s rarely because the problem is unsolvable. It’s because we are trying to solve the wrong problem. The key to getting unstuck is to reframe the question. This is a central practice in design thinking.

This principle is exemplified by the creation of the Embrace infant warmer. A team of Stanford students went to Nepal to solve the problem of high infant mortality due to a lack of working incubators in rural clinics. Their initial problem statement was, "How can we design a better, cheaper incubator?" But after observing the situation, they realized that most mothers in remote villages could never reach a clinic in time anyway. They reframed the problem to, "How can we help parents in remote villages keep their babies warm?" This new question led to a completely different solution: a small, portable sleeping bag with a wax pouch that, once heated, could maintain a constant temperature for hours without electricity, all for a fraction of the cost of a traditional incubator. By reframing the problem, they created a solution that has saved thousands of lives.

Narrator: There is a fundamental difference between "trying" and "doing." Trying is tentative; it uses force and implies the possibility of failure. Doing is committed; it uses power and is rooted in clear intention and attention. Roth demonstrates this with a simple but profound exercise. He asks a volunteer to "try" to take a water bottle from his hand. The volunteer usually struggles, engaging in a contest of force. Then, Roth asks them to simply "take" the bottle. In that moment, the mindset shifts. The volunteer stops struggling and, with focused intention, just takes it.

This bias toward action is what separates those who achieve from those who only dream. When faced with an obstacle, the "trying" mindset sees a roadblock, while the "doing" mindset sees a challenge to overcome. Roth experienced this when he and his wife arrived at a movie theater to find the show was sold out. Instead of giving up, he immediately sprang into action. He asked the box office about cancellations, then walked down the line of people waiting, asking if anyone had an extra ticket. Within minutes, he had secured two tickets. His commitment to doing—to seeing that movie—turned an impossible situation into a successful outcome.

Narrator: Our actions are deeply intertwined with our self-image. We consistently act in ways that reinforce how we see ourselves. Therefore, if we want to change our behavior, we must first change our self-image. We can consciously design who we want to be.

Consider the story of Doug, a man who, after being diagnosed with diabetes, started biking to improve his health. On his rides, he was bothered by the amount of trash on the roads. At first, he just felt annoyed, thinking someone else should clean it up. But then he decided to take action. He started carrying a plastic bag and picking up a few items. This small action grew. Soon, he was hauling large amounts of trash on his bike, and people in his community started noticing. They began calling him "environmental Doug" or, more playfully, "Professor Poubelle," which is French for Professor Trashcan. This external reinforcement changed his self-image. He was no longer just a guy picking up trash; he was an environmentalist. This new identity fueled his actions, and he became a local celebrity, proving that by changing our actions, we can redesign our self-image, which in turn creates a powerful, positive feedback loop for achievement.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from Make Achievement a Habit is that we are the authors of our own lives. We are not passive observers subject to the whims of circumstance; we are designers with the agency to shape our reality. By recognizing that our reasons are often excuses, that meaning is something we create, and that our self-image is malleable, we can move from a state of "trying" to a state of "doing." The ultimate achievement is to become the "cause in the matter"—to take full responsibility for our lives and to act with intention and purpose.

The book challenges us to stop waiting for permission or for the perfect moment. It asks us to look at the problems in our lives not as burdens, but as the raw material for our next great project. So, what is one "problem" you've been avoiding, and how could you reframe it today not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity to design a better life?