579: How to Go After What You Want (And Get It) with Jenny Wood

24 snips

Mar 26, 2025

Jenny Wood, a former Google executive and author of Wild Courage, dives into the unconventional traits that can fuel your success. She challenges the stigma around qualities like selfishness and ruthlessness, explaining how embracing these can boost your ambition. Jenny shares personal stories of leaving corporate life to pursue authenticity and discusses overcoming common fears that hinder progress. With practical strategies for breaking free from self-doubt, she inspires listeners to reclaim their wild courage and achieve their goals.

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ANECDOTE

Leaving Google

Jenny Wood left a high-paying Google executive role to pursue writing.
This bold move, despite financial risk, aligned with her book's message of embracing wild courage.

ANECDOTE

Subway Story

Jenny Wood overcame her fears and chased a man on the subway in 2011.
This act of wild courage led to their marriage and a New York Times article.

ADVICE

Reframing Traits

Reframe "negative" traits like selfish and shameless to achieve goals.
Selfishness can be about advocating for your needs, while shamelessness promotes confidence.

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Imagine if the key to achieving your biggest goals was learning to embrace common traits that aren’t typically associated with great leaders? As you’ll hear from today’s guest, it’s okay to be selfish, shameless, bossy, or even reckless because it can help you break free from limiting beliefs and supercharge your success.

I’m excited to be talking to Jenny Wood. Jenny is a former Google executive and author of Wild Courage: Go After What You Want and Get It. For almost 20 years, Jenny enjoyed tremendous success at Google, starting from an entry-level position to building one of the company’s largest career development programs. But in a courageous move, she walked away from corporate life to bet on herself by practicing the very principles she teaches in her book.

In our conversation, we discussed nine surprising traits that can be powerful tools when applied the right way to help you break free from fear and self-doubt by rethinking what you’ve been told about success. If fear of failure, uncertainty, or judgment has ever held you back, this episode will help you unlock your version of wild courage and take bold steps toward positive outcomes.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The three fears holding you back from success—and how to overcome them
How to reclaim "negative" traits and turn them into strengths
Why being selfish can actually help others and lead to greater impact
You can create positive outcomes by stepping out of your comfort zone
How to stop believing the tales and false stories we create in our mind

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To get full access to today's show notes, including audio, transcript, and links to all the resources mentioned, visit MiracleMorning.com/579

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