How to Matter — Clark Aldrich Buy the book
Cover of How to Matter: 45 Rules for a Hero-Driven Life by Clark Aldrich

How to Matter

45 Rules for a Hero-Driven Life — Clark Aldrich

Is it possible to be Heroic in a world that seems the opposite?

Buy the book

How to Matter is a revolutionary book about building the communities that feed the Heroes. It presents the mental models that the most accomplished people have mastered, and which most institutions—from schools to corporations—have evolved to ignore.

Based on his work with many of the world's leading organizations, and using the same format as his popular book Unschooling Rules, Aldrich has distilled a list of 45 simple rules for the Hero-driven communities that make a difference.

Rules include:

Take the Journey

  • In life, your achievements have followed a Hero's Journey.
  • When you use your deepest talents, you are a genius.
  • Heroes are at least 10 times more valuable to an organization than non-Heroes. Maybe a gagillion times.
  • You only grow when there are real, personal stakes. (Sorry about that.)

Build Tribes

  • You learn more from your peers than from anyone in charge.
  • Your teams can be creative and productive, or highly managed. But not both.
  • Good leaders have good answers. Great leaders have great questions.
  • There are five types of people on most teams. Each should be treated differently.

Everyone Grows

  • To work with other Heroes, you have to treat them like Heroes.
  • If you help someone else out on their Journey, you will make progress on your own.
  • We all grow or no one grows.
  • If you don’t feed the Heroes, you lose the Heroes.

The 45 rules in this book establish a new baseline for creating meaning in the age of AI. Drawing on the frameworks of John Wooden (as popularized by Ted Lasso), Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, and Charlie Munger's mental models—and the transformative work of Jeff and Laura Sandefer, founders of Acton Academy, How to Matter is for anyone—or any organization—that wants to live on their own terms.

Or change the world.

Portrait of author Clark Aldrich

About the author

Clark Aldrich helps teams and organizations build Hero-driven communities, through his award winning books, tools, Socratic Cards, analysis, programs, and consulting.

Aldrich and his work have appeared in hundreds of news stories, including by The New York Times, NPR, CBS, ABC, and ESPN. And have earned numerous "Best of the Year" honors, spots on multiple "top of the profession" lists, and industry cover stories.

His clients span sectors from United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Gates Foundation, ETS, the U.S. Department of State, the Center for Army Leadership, to Sony, McKinsey, KPMG, and Moody's.

Author, consultant, experiential learning designer, advisor, Aldrich keynotes conferences and has guest lectured at Harvard, the Army War College, the Naval War College, and the FBI Academy at Quantico. His books are taught in courses ranging from the undergraduate level through Ph.D. and Ed.D. programs. He holds a degree in Cognitive Science from Brown University.