3.5
Option B
ByPublisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From authors of Lean In and Originals: a powerful, inspiring, and practical book about building resilience and moving forward after life’s inevitable setbacks
After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. “I was in ‘the void,’” she writes, “a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe.” Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build.
Option B combines Sheryl’s personal insights with Adam’s eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. Beginning with the gut-wrenching moment when she finds her husband, Dave Goldberg, collapsed on a gym floor, Sheryl opens up her heart—and her journal—to describe the acute grief and isolation she felt in the wake of his death. But Option B goes beyond Sheryl’s loss to explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships including illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters, and the violence of war. Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere . . . and to rediscover joy.
Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. Option B illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to everyday struggles, allowing us to brave whatever lies ahead. Two weeks after losing her husband, Sheryl was preparing for a father-child activity. “I want Dave,” she cried. Her friend replied, “Option A is not available,” and then promised to help her make the most of Option B.
We all live some form of Option B. This book will help us all make the most of it.
After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. “I was in ‘the void,’” she writes, “a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe.” Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build.
Option B combines Sheryl’s personal insights with Adam’s eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. Beginning with the gut-wrenching moment when she finds her husband, Dave Goldberg, collapsed on a gym floor, Sheryl opens up her heart—and her journal—to describe the acute grief and isolation she felt in the wake of his death. But Option B goes beyond Sheryl’s loss to explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships including illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters, and the violence of war. Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere . . . and to rediscover joy.
Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. Option B illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to everyday struggles, allowing us to brave whatever lies ahead. Two weeks after losing her husband, Sheryl was preparing for a father-child activity. “I want Dave,” she cried. Her friend replied, “Option A is not available,” and then promised to help her make the most of Option B.
We all live some form of Option B. This book will help us all make the most of it.
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3.5
“When I picked up Option B, I was deep in the kind of exhaustion you only understand after life has ripped the ground out from under you. Losing my home wasn’t just losing walls and furniture — it was losing safety, memories, routines, and the version of life I thought I was supposed to have. And when you’re standing there in the middle of that chaos, everyone keeps saying “stay strong” like it’s a switch you can flip.
Option B doesn’t talk to you like that.
It doesn’t pretend the pain is pretty or that resilience is some inspirational Instagram quote. Instead, it sits with you in the mess — the fear, the stress, the frustration of having to start again — and it tells you, “Okay. This hurts. But you’re not broken. You’re adapting.”
What I loved most is how honest it is about Plan A being gone.
There’s no magical thinking, no pretending the loss didn’t happen. It acknowledges the grief of it, the unfairness of it, and the anger that bubbles under everything when you’re trying to rebuild a life you didn’t choose to rebuild.
But it also offers tools.
Real ones.
Ones that actually help when the stress is constant — when you’re juggling insurance calls, temporary living, financial setbacks, and the emotional weight of watching your life burn down and realizing you still have to get up the next day.
The book talks about resilience in a way that feels human:
not as a heroic trait, but as something we build from tiny, unglamorous steps.
Small wins.
Asking for help.
Letting yourself cry.
Finding meaning in little things when the big things feel impossible.
Learning that Option A is gone, so you make the best of Option B, even if you never wanted it.
Option B made me feel seen.
It reminded me that starting over isn’t a failure — it’s a testament to the fact that life tried to break me and I’m still here, piecing things back together, even on days when the stress feels like it’s going to swallow me whole. It helped me shift from “Why did this happen to me?” to “How do I live fully in the life I have now?”
It didn’t erase the pain of losing my home, but it helped me carry it without letting it crush me.
And sometimes, that’s the most powerful thing a book can do.”
About Sheryl Sandberg
SHERYL SANDBERG served as chief operating officer at Meta (previously called Facebook), overseeing the firm's business operations. Prior to Meta, Sheryl was vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, chief of staff for the United States Treasury Department under President Clinton, a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, and an economist with the World Bank.
Sheryl received a BA summa cum laude from Harvard University and an MBA with highest distinction from Harvard Business School.
Sheryl is the co-author of Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy with Wharton professor and bestselling author Adam Grant. She is also the author of the bestsellers Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead and Lean In for Graduates. She is the founder of the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to build a more equal and resilient world through two key initiatives, LeanIn.Org and OptionB.Org. Sheryl serves on the boards of Meta, the Walt Disney Company, Women for Women International, ONE, and SurveyMonkey.
ADAM GRANT is a psychologist and the New York Times best-selling author of Originals and Give and Take. His new book, Option B with Facebook COO and Lean In author Sheryl Sandberg, debuts April 24, 2017.
As Wharton’s top-rated professor for five straight years, Adam is a leading expert on how we can find motivation and meaning, and live more generous and creative lives. He has been recognized as one of the world’s 25 most influential management thinkers and received distinguished scholarly achievement awards from the American Psychological Association and the National Science Foundation.
Adam received his B.A. from Harvard University with Phi Beta Kappa honors and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He serves as a contributing op-ed writer for The New York Times on work and psychology. His keynote speaking and consulting clients include Facebook and Google, the NBA, Teach For America, and the U.S. Army and Navy.
Adam is a former Junior Olympic springboard diver. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, their two daughters, and their son.
Sheryl received a BA summa cum laude from Harvard University and an MBA with highest distinction from Harvard Business School.
Sheryl is the co-author of Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy with Wharton professor and bestselling author Adam Grant. She is also the author of the bestsellers Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead and Lean In for Graduates. She is the founder of the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to build a more equal and resilient world through two key initiatives, LeanIn.Org and OptionB.Org. Sheryl serves on the boards of Meta, the Walt Disney Company, Women for Women International, ONE, and SurveyMonkey.
ADAM GRANT is a psychologist and the New York Times best-selling author of Originals and Give and Take. His new book, Option B with Facebook COO and Lean In author Sheryl Sandberg, debuts April 24, 2017.
As Wharton’s top-rated professor for five straight years, Adam is a leading expert on how we can find motivation and meaning, and live more generous and creative lives. He has been recognized as one of the world’s 25 most influential management thinkers and received distinguished scholarly achievement awards from the American Psychological Association and the National Science Foundation.
Adam received his B.A. from Harvard University with Phi Beta Kappa honors and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He serves as a contributing op-ed writer for The New York Times on work and psychology. His keynote speaking and consulting clients include Facebook and Google, the NBA, Teach For America, and the U.S. Army and Navy.
Adam is a former Junior Olympic springboard diver. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, their two daughters, and their son.
Other books by Sheryl Sandberg
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