Success Secrets of Sherlock Holmes

The answer has a lot to do with Sherlock Holmes’s creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), a man who was, by any objective measure, a genius. Born into a large Irish family of respected artists, not only did he invent one of the most famous literary characters in history but he also single-handedly revolutionized the mystery genre itself by introducing fiendishly complex plots that baffled even the most educated readers. In Conan Doyle’s hands, the typical whodunit was transformed from a stuffy, predictable piece of fluff into a highly scientific mechanism that unfolded with clockwork-like precision. He was also prolific. In addition to the fifty-six Sherlock Holmes stories and four novels, Conan Doyle wrote more than thirty-five novels and fiction collections in virtually every genre imaginable, from science fiction to the supernatural, as well as a dozen works of nonfiction, including a history of the Boer War in South Africa.

But Conan Doyle was much more than a writer. He was an energetic, idiosyncratic intellectual whose curiosity knew no bounds. A medical doctor by training, he later became one of the first eye doctors in England when the field of ophthalmology emerged in the late nineteenth century. He sought out adventure as well, spending six months on an Arctic whaling ship as a young man and nearly meeting his death in the cold waters near the North Pole. In 1894, he taught himself to ski and was part of the first ski tour across the Alps. Later in life he became obsessed with spiritualism and the unseen world and became one of the world’s earliest official ghost hunters, using scientific techniques to study paranormal phenomena (albeit with mixed results). He also tried his hand at real-life detective work, personally investigating two cases of wrongful conviction and saving two men from execution. His efforts exposed the shortcomings of Britain’s criminal law system and were partially responsible for the creation of the Court of Criminal Appeal in the early 1900s.

So what does all of this have to do with Sherlock Holmes—and, more importantly, your success? The answer is that Conan Doyle funneled a great deal of his real-life genius—and the brilliance of others around him—into Holmes, creating a fictional protagonist greater than the sum of his parts. Likewise, the Holmes stories are much more than mere detective stories. The best Holmes tales operate on two levels simultaneously. For instance, you can choose to read A Study in Scarlet as an entertaining adventure tale to pass the time, or you can read it not as a story at all but as a study in genius—as a kind of Victorian-era self-help manual that explains in step-by-step detail how to master your chosen field of study and accomplish the seemingly impossible. Conan Doyle didn’t just write superb mysteries, he encoded them with a series of hidden (and sometimes not-so-hidden) clues that can teach us the philosophy and mind-set we need to succeed beyond our wildest dreams—just as he did.

Whether Conan Doyle deliberately added these elements to his stories or if they flowed undetected from his subconscious onto the printed page is an open question (actually, I think it was a little of both, depending on the particular story). But there’s no arguing that the clues are there just waiting to be uncovered. This book is about helping you identify those clues and convincing you that Conan Doyle’s success principles, although more than a century old, are still vital and relevant today.

For just a moment, set aside the conventional image of Sherlock Holmes. Yes, he’s witty, intelligent, self-assured, and adventurous—all the qualities any great hero must possess. But think of him in a different way, as a kind of high-quality patchwork quilt—or, better yet, as an avatar, the literary embodiment of the best qualities of the author and his circle of accomplished friends and acquaintances. Conan Doyle moved at the highest levels of British society, and as an educated man, he came into contact with some of the greatest minds of his era. When it came time for him to create a character to star in his mysteries, he couldn’t help but borrow a few positive traits from people he knew and incorporate elements of his own personality, too. After all, if you ask a genius to write a story, chances are the final product will contain a little bit of that genius in some way. Julia Child couldn’t intentionally cook a bad meal to save her life, and as talented as Michael Jordan was, he didn’t have it in him to purposely play a bad game of basketball. The best can’t help but be the best. This is why it makes sense to embark on a close study of Sherlock Holmes: He’s a composite fictional character built out of real material. What he did, you can do, too. Really.

If you want to understand how something works, you have to take it apart. So in Success Secrets of Sherlock Holmes, we’re going to break down the Holmes canon the way a master mechanic takes apart a classic hot rod: carefully and with a great deal of respect, mindful of the incredible amount of talent and hard work it took to put it together in the first place. Along the way, we’ll make a number of discoveries that not only will completely change the way you look at Sherlock Holmes but will also give you a brand-new set of tools to tackle the challenges and difficulties in your own life. Prepare to give up your preconceived notions about the master detective—and success—for good. Here’s a sneak peek:

• Sherlock Holmes was real. Some of Holmes’s most amazing superpowers—for instance, his ability to size up a person and figure out their entire life history based on a few tiny details—weren’t made up at all. As a medical student, Conan Doyle had a professor who used to amaze his students by performing shocking feats of analysis and deductive reasoning. A patient—a total stranger—would walk into the examining room and within seconds, the professor, who had no prior knowledge of the person, began reeling off facts: where the man was from, what he did for a living, his past medical history, and so on (more on this in Secret 4). Conan Doyle never forgot these performances, and when it came time to create Holmes, he essentially created a clone of the professor. This is great news for you and me, because it proves that Holmes’s talents aren’t unrealistic and out-of-bounds, like Superman’s ability to fly or Spider-Man’s wall-crawling prowess. If we put in the hard work up front, we too can be just as successful as Holmes.

• The principles of detection outlined in the Holmes stories are easily adaptable to almost any field of endeavor. Conan Doyle received a great deal of credit for influencing the development of modern criminology and forensic science. Law enforcement officials were so impressed by the techniques in the Sherlock Holmes stories that they implemented many of them in their own police forces around the world. However, Conan Doyle had no formal law enforcement training. He simply applied the scientific method and diagnostic principles he had learned in medical school to criminal behavior. In the same way, we can take a close look at Holmes’s techniques and methods for solving crimes and use them to solve our own real-world challenges, whether it’s making an important career choice, grappling with a difficult business or personal decision, or simply trying to make a living doing what you love. The principles are timeless and their real-world applications are endless, regardless of whether you’re a student or a stay-at-home mom, a business executive or an orthopedic surgeon . . . or just someone who loves to read mysteries.

• Many of the principles can be put into practice immediately. Changing your outlook and becoming more Holmesian in your approach to success doesn’t require filling out complicated personality assessments or reading a stack of self-development tomes. In fact, as you’ll see shortly, many of Holmes’s most famous characteristics—attention to detail, unswerving confidence, laser-like focus—can be learned and applied by just about anyone, regardless of your age or level of education. Each chapter recommends a small, simple way you can tweak a particular attitude or habit for the better.

• The principles are timeless. The success principles outlined in this book may have been used by Conan Doyle in his stories, but he by no means invented them. They have been applied over and over again by countless people with their own real-life success stories to tell—and many of them probably never cracked a detective book in their lives. Conan Doyle’s great contribution was to gather all of these principles into one bucket—the Sherlock Holmes stories—and let his characters show off their potential within a fictional world.

How to Use This Book