Research Ambition and high performance
Wonderhell
The surprising science of how high achievers and successful organizations carry the burden of their potential
You did everything right. You arrived. So why doesn’t it feel the way it was supposed to? Instead of handing you happiness, success hands you a faster pace, bigger goals, and, tucked inside them, uncertainty, self-doubt, and stress. Laura set out to understand why, and how the people who thrive get through it.
- 100+
- interviews with people who made it through their own Wonderhell
- 3M+
- views of the TEDx talk that became the book
- 3
- towns on the ride: Impostortown, Doubtsville, and Burnout City
- 15
- practices that carried the people she interviewed to the other side
Success is wonderful. But it’s also hell.
We expect success to be an easy ride. It’s really a gauntlet of challenges that never quite ends. It’s like an amusement park you waited years to visit: a thrill at first, then ride after ride, until the doubts creep in. Every new level brings a new devil: bigger doubts, louder impostor syndrome, and the question of what more you could do.
Wonderhell is the space between your past success and your next accomplishment, between who you were and who you just realized you can become. It’s a sign you’ve met the burden of your own potential.
Wonderhell isn’t a problem to fix. It’s a sign you’re on the right track.
Not three problems. Three positions on one ride.
The people Laura interviewed didn’t get through Wonderhell by avoiding it. They learned to recognize where they were on the ride, and what each stop asked of them.
Impostortown
Embrace your ambition
“You’re at the top. Everyone’s clapping. And that’s exactly when the voice gets loudest: you don’t belong here.”
Give yourself permission to play bigger, and stop letting impostor syndrome gaslight you out of the room you just earned.
Doubtsville
Renegotiate your response
“The stomach lurch. The free fall. Am I about to be found out?”
Reframe uncertainty as evidence of your ambition, not a verdict on your worth. Learn to fly without a net.
Burnout City
Do it all over again
“You made it to the next level, and the finish line moved again. Running on fumes, you start to wonder whether it’s worth it.”
Say no to hustleporn, focus on what matters, and find the joy of being a beginner again, so you can climb the next hill without burning out on this one.
Success doesn’t just change your life. It changes your story.
Wonderhell is, underneath everything, a moment of identity change. The version of you that reached the goal comes face to face with the bigger version you can suddenly imagine. That gap is exhilarating and terrifying at once, and it’s where ambition actually lives. Two bodies of research explain how people move through it.
Narrative identity
We live by the story of who we are.
Redemption
“This made me.”
Contamination
“This ruined me.”
People who thrive rewrite their setbacks as stories of redemption rather than contamination, and that single narrative move predicts higher well-being and drive.
Dan McAdams, Northwestern University
Intentional change theory
Lasting change is chosen, not forced.
The engine
Vision and hope
The brake
Fear and “shoulds”
Real change starts with a vivid picture of who you’re becoming, fueled by hope and resonant relationships, not by fear of who you’ve been. Vision is the engine; pressure just stalls it.
Richard Boyatzis, Case Western Reserve University
The burden of your potential is an invitation, not a limitation.
The book
Wonderhell
Why success doesn’t feel like it should, and what to do about it
The book behind this research. Laura follows the people who reached the top and found a new climb waiting, and the fifteen practices that carried them through Impostortown, Doubtsville, and Burnout City.
- Wall Street Journal bestseller
- Born from the TEDx talk with more than 3 million views
- Drawn from more than 100 interviews with people who made it through
Go further.
The guide
Chapter-by-Chapter Guide
A companion for book clubs and leadership teams reading Wonderhell together.
The quiz
Wonderhell Quiz
Find out where you are on the ride, and how to renegotiate the emotions that come with success.
The keynote
The Weight of Ambition
How leaders keep high performers performing, and thriving, at every level.
Yesterday’s success is the start of tomorrow’s climb. Help your people be ready for it.
Bring this research to your leaders as a keynote, a half-day working session, or with your own organization’s data, or work with Laura one-on-one through advisory. You’ll hear back the same business day. Bureaus welcome.