Overachievers

Five deeply-held cultural values that skyrocketed Indians to success in the United States and can help anyone achieve the American Dream

Indians are the fastest-growing and richest national-origin group in the United States. They run Fortune 100 companies, control much of Silicon Valley, and punch above their weight in politics. How did middle-class migrants from a poor country find so much success in the world's most powerful country? What can their experiences teach everyone about making it in America during our uncertain times?

In Overachievers, political scientists Vinay Sitapati and Dinsha Mistree reveal the secret sauce. Through extensive original research and entertaining interviews with everyone from motel owners to CEOs and politicians, they distill five foundational values that have made Indians particularly well-suited for making it in America: comfort with diversity, a talent for risk management, social assertiveness, centering family life around parenting, and a ruthlessly practical pursuit of degrees that pay the bills. They argue that these attitudes, once a core part of American culture, have fallen out of fashion. Education has become about self-fulfillment rather than upward mobility, family values have collapsed, Americans are increasingly watching what they say; and when it comes to risk, Americans veer between taking too much as well as too little.

The good news is that Indian Rules are learnable and applicable to everyone. This manifesto for the Indian mindset is credible, provocative, and thoroughly readable. Beyond presenting an airtight case for the values powering the world's most successful migrants, it provides a roadmap for how all of us can recover the American Dream.