Talk to Year of Yes like its author wrote you back.
Get the ideas that fit your life — not generic summaries.
- Chat with the book
- Audiobook-style main ideas
- Adapts to your life and goals
- Helps you take action
What it argues
Year of Yes began with a Thanksgiving observation. Shonda Rhimes's sister told her she never says yes to anything — to speeches, to interviews, to parties, to the kinds of opportunities that come with running three primetime network dramas simultaneously. Rhimes decided to spend a year saying yes to every terrifying thing, and this book is the account of what happened. It is equal parts memoir, motivational argument, and self-examination by a woman who had built enormous professional success partly by constructing an elaborate infrastructure of avoidance.
The book is direct about the paradox at its center: Rhimes had by her early forties created some of the most-watched television on American network television — Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder — and she was also deeply anxious, socially avoidant, and significantly overweight in a way she was unwilling to examine. Saying yes forced her to give the commencement speech at Dartmouth, to appear on television as herself, to be in her own body, and to be present with her children rather than retreating into work as an excuse for not living. The year changed her in most of the ways she intended.
What it gets right
- 1.
Saying yes to terrifying things is not about recklessness. It's about refusing to let fear permanently dictate the shape of your life.
- 2.
Professional success can be a sophisticated form of avoidance. The bigger the career, the more elaborate the excuses for not showing up in other areas of life.
- 3.
Being present — not just physically but emotionally — in your own life requires practice. Most people, including the highly successful, are less present than they think.
What it covers
Who wrote it
Shonda Rhimes is an American television producer, writer, and author. She is the creator of Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, and Bridgerton, and is the founder of ShondaLand Productions. Her Thursday night lineup on ABC once accounted for three hours of primetime programming. She graduated from Dartmouth College and the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Year of Yes was published in 2015 and became a New York Times bestseller.
