Return on Ambition is itself the result of an ambitious effort to harness insights from recent research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience, and it recommends simple, yet powerful, practices including the following--

- The 3 Truisms of Return on Ambition: aspects of an ambitious life that you must understand and accept to live with less regret.
- The 4 Premises of Ambition: dimensions that help you contemplate what your unique, personal ambition is.
- The Return on Ambition Self-Assessment: indicative measures of how well you are currently getting the return that you could.
- The Interdependencies among Achievement, Growth, and Well-Being: research and wisdom show that compromises in any of the three elements will cause declines in the others over time.
- The 7 Frenemies: descriptions of personal attributes that are your core strengths as the ambitious person you are, but that are also the biggest obstacles to your success and fulfillment in life.
- The Return on Ambition Toolbox: 4 tools that will help you articulate and pursue your ambition, expand your self-awareness, and help you learn consciously.
- 4 Self-Coaching Sessions: instructions for 30-60 minute contemplations stimulated by eye-opening questions.

Authors Nielsen and Tillisch are insiders in the world of grand ambitions, which helps them to understand and take the perspective of their readers.

Nicolai Chen Nielsen is an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he advises clients on leadership development, culture change, and agile transformations. He is the co-author of Leadership at Scale and has published several articles on personal development. He is currently based in New York with his wife Samira and their two dogs, Napoleon and Caesar.

Nicolai Tillisch is a part of Cultivating Leadership, the global coaching firm, and a co-founder of Deliberate Development, the venture behind the Daily Goals software solution. He has been a consultant with McKinsey & Company and was an executive with DDB Worldwide, Hutchison, and Nokia Siemens Networks. Nicolai lives with his wife Ida and their children, Margaux and Axel, in Dubai.