HOT STREAK

This book draws upon 16 years of the author's rigorous scientific research across diverse creative industries to unveil the hidden architecture of success.

The world is awash in new content and bold ideas - millions of startups each year, 100,000 new songs daily, 500 hours of video every minute - making breakthrough more difficult than ever and the tyranny of being a one-hit wonder a pervasive fear. The popular "fail fast, fail often" mantra is woefully incomplete; it ignores the central mystery of a creative life: Why do some creators consistently produce hit after hit, while the vast majority struggle to launch or quickly fade?

This book reveals that sustained impact isn't about sudden leaps, but about building better paths from the very beginning.

Readers will be introduced to the groundbreaking concept of the primal mark - that initial insight, like Lin-Manuel Miranda's connection between Alexander Hamilton and hip-hop or James Dyson's fascination with spinning airt - hat exerts an outsized influence on everything that follows.

From this foundation, Hot Streak presents the actionable Hitmaker's Cycle: Explore - Exploit - Repeat, explaining why early novelty and variety are crucial during exploration, and why "exploiting with relatedness" is key to scaling success.

In the age of generative AI, Hot Streak positions these tools not as threats, but as strategic partners to amplify human creativity by generating novel ideas and accelerating exploitation, while recognizing that human judgment, taste, and intuition remain paramount in navigating these endless options. Beyond specifically creative industries, this book will offer insight to anyone, in any role, seeking to make their mark.

Justin Berg is an award-winning researcher, teacher, and thought leader who received his doctorate from Wharton, taught at Stanford for a decade, and is now a professor at The Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.