Stop Trying to Be Successful

Feeling like a failure can be pretty exhausting. But chasing after an ever-elusive “success” in money, power, influence, and accolades? That’s even more so. Thankfully, there is a better way.

In Stop Trying to Be Successful, Pete Portal invites you to recognize the beauty and complexity of the world we live in and to redefine success, choosing love over efficiency, depth over volume, and real friendship over cold transactions. It is time for us to remember that true success is not about what we have but about how we live.

Stop Trying to Be Successful encourages us to slow down and evaluate how Jesus’ life and teachings help us discover a different kind of success. Accompanying this book are features designed to help you dig deeper, including questions for reflection at the end of each chapter, a link to a free small group video series, and discussion guides to accompany each small group session.

It’s time to stop falling into the comparison trap and getting bogged down by the world’s many definitions of achievement. You’ll find that Jesus’ life and teaching are the perfect antidote for a world growing sick with the wrong sort of success.

Experience a life of Kingdom significance rather than meaningless influence. Be inspired by a renewed sense of purpose. This upside-down success is the kind that will truly satisfy your soul.

Stop Trying to Be Successful was previously released in the UK as How to Be (Un)Successful.

1. Opening Credits
2. Dedication
3. Quote
4. Foreword by Tyler Station
5. Introduction
6. Chapter 1: Following God’s Calling over Good Ideas | How God Wants to Waste Your Life
7. Chapter 2: Pursuing Relationship over Relevance | On Friendship with God and People
8. Chapter 3: Growing in Depth over Volume | Why Influence Looks Different from What We’ve Been Told
9. Chapter 4: Transforming over Transferring | What Will You Do with Your Pain?
10. Chapter 5: Being a Faithful Presence in the Culture Wars | Why the Kingdom Is Inherently Political
11. Chapter 6: Living in Power and Participation | On Suffering and the Supernatural
12. Closing Credits