How Did Taylor Swift Really Become a Superstar? NASA Engineer Explains Her Success in New Book

Taylor Swift didn’t follow any pre-existing manual for success on her road to superstardom. But now — thanks to her — there is such a roadmap, with former NASA engineer Sinéad O’Sullivan’s new book Good Ideas and Power Moves exploring how anyone can learn from the way the musician has strategically built her career from the ground up.  

Arriving via Penguin Random House on Sept. 9, Good Ideas and Power Moves: Ten Lessons for Success From Taylor Swift is a critical analysis of the smartest ways Swift has navigated her way through the music business. The writer also has an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she served as the head of the HBS Institute for Strategy.  

“Taylor Swift’s genius is not limited to her singing and songcraft,” reads a description of the book. “As the founder of her own multibillion-dollar enterprise, she has higher returns than 99.9% of hedge funds and has built a stronger global corporation than nearly every other American conglomerate CEO. She is the only person that the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank track with precision. She has a larger impact on the economy than most economists that have ever lived and has done more for U.S. antitrust law than any sitting member of Congress. There is a lot to learn from Taylor Swift.” 

Among the lessons O’Sullivan writes about with respect to the 14-time Grammy winner are how to build a world, not a product — such as the way “Taylor created the fan-centered Swiftverse that fosters community, belonging and off-the-charts engagement” — as well as the importance of not just playing the game, but rewriting the rules for yourself. For the latter, the author cites how Swift re-recorded four of her first six albums in an effort to reclaim control of her masters before purchasing them back this past May. 

“Taylor’s story isn’t one of overnight success or unattainable genius,” O’Sullivan writes, according to the Washington Examiner. “It’s a story of deliberate choices, relentless hard work and an unwavering belief in the power of having agency, and of believing in herself enough to use that agency. She has shown that success, no matter how outsize, is within reach for those who are willing to take risks, learn from setbacks, and stay true to their goals.”

The book comes as Swift is taking some time away from the spotlight following a historic run of music releases and performances over the past couple of years. Last year, she released The Tortured Poets Department, which spent 17 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — the third most of any album ever — and closed out her global Eras Tour, which raked in more than $2 billion to become the highest grossing trek in history.  

With so much success on the pop star’s rap sheet, it’s no wonder why so many authors have penned books about her. O’Sullivan’s work follows countless other books on Swift’s business moves, songwriting, style choices and everything else in between.