Aaron Salko’s new book is The 9th Stratum: Your Guide to High Performance. As the titling suggests, Salko swears by a concise, step-by-step, and performance enhancing and maintaining technique that he provides clear, concise exampling for, and a sense of genuine empowerment and closeness to for the reader.
LINKED IN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronsalko
The latter is particularly important, as not everything covered in The 9th Stratum is necessarily palatable for the widest possible audience. However Salko is able to highlight relevant aspects of the ideas and terminology that can work for everyone. It’s a considerable skill, when you think about it. And he’s able to do so whilst keeping things concise, and matter-of-fact. “Those who embark on the journey to become elite in their field do so in order to attain specific life goals,” he writes, in a particularly pertinent exampling of this. “Their goal focused mindset is what drives their desire to learn, put forth daily effort, and persevere. Whenever they accomplish a goal, there might be a brief celebration or personal acknowledgment of what had been attained. Afterward, they quickly identify their next goal. They are then driven by ‘what’s next?’ What was just achieved soon becomes an afterthought.”
Salko also observes the following, “High performers have mastered the ability to get what they need to achieve goals or milestones. They do not stop until they have attained the information they require to pursue a goal. Nothing deters them. Whether it is knowledge from someone who has different experiences or skill sets, or solutions to the challenges high performers may encounter, they use resourcefulness and persistence to attain help, guidance, knowledge, and perspective.”
See what I mean? Salko makes *you* feel empowered with these kinds of intonations. The information itself is bolstered by the fact he’s a really great communicator, and speaker. When you think about someone like, God forbid, William Jefferson Clinton – it wasn’t just about the former president’s handling of policy and bringing the Democratic Party into a new age. It was the fact he was an expert orator, able to communicate said decision-making in a manner reasonable, comprehensible, and succinct to the American people.
Salko is able to do the same for the book’s target audience, and for those informed beyond the immediacy of the topicalities here. Everything feels attainable under his tutelage of the subject matter, and everything feels articulated in a manner not exclusionary to those uninitiated to the immediacies of the material at large. “High performers focus their work, studies, and training in areas that allow them to achieve things that are not easily attained,” he writes – regarding one of the core, sociocorporate tenets in the book. “They are active in their daily personal development, with a mindset of continuous improvement.
They don’t just try things out, they learn, train, and prepare with intent and purpose. Many reported feeling unfulfilled on days when they were not productive in their personal growth. Personal challenges and the words ‘it can’t be done’ are triggers that drive them to learn, train, apply, and defy the challenge.”
Garth Thomas