Doug Hirschhorn

8 Ways to Great: Peak Performance on the Job and in Your Life (Penguin/G.P. Putnam’s Sons, January 2010, $19.95, Hardcover) is the new release by world-renowned Peak Performance coach, Dr. Doug Hirschhorn. Hirschhorn – or Dr. Doug as he is known on television– advises Wall Street’s elite deal-makers and traders, and is a regular contributor on CNBC.

“When it comes to risk tolerance, setting goals and dealing with their emotions, I frequently see incredible similarities in the mistakes my clients make,” says Dr. Doug. “So I clarified eight core Peak Performance principles, and knew the concepts were transferable to anyone, both personally and professionally. 8 Ways to Great is the result, and I aim to have it be the key to success for everyone.”

From making smarter business decisions to losing weight, 8 Ways to Great helps readers identify their “why” – meaning, the catalyzing force behind their goals. By shifting focus away from “how” (“How will I ever be great? How will I be successful? How will I ever have enough time?”)

8 Ways to Great helps readers answer a more important question: Why do I want to accomplish this? The goal set, Dr. Doug uses psychological principles and concrete, no-nonsense exercises to help readers achieve it.

A former athlete and floor trader, Dr. Doug’s path to Peak Performance coaching was a bit circuitous. As the catcher and captain of his Division I baseball team in college, he aimed to eventually return to a professional sports career. So after spending a few years post-college working on the trading floors in Chicago, he went back to school to earn the advanced degrees necessary to become a baseball coach. Dr. Doug entered a Masters degree program in sport psychology, and it was there that he had his ‘aha!’ moment: If the psychological principles he was learning could be applied to athletes, why not try them out on traders– a similarly competitive breed?

The idea worked. Less than five years later, Dr. Doug is an in-demand public speaker and Peak Performance coach, counting the titans of Wall Street, hedge funds, and largest banks in the world among his clients.

Dr. Doug received his B.A. from Colgate University in 1994, and went on to earn an M.S. in Exercise Science in 2000 from Southern Connecticut State University. In 2005, he received his Ph.D. in Psychology (with an emphasis in sport psychology) from Capella University. He is currently the chief executive officer of DrDoug.com, a consulting firm specializing in “Peak Performance Coaching.”

Dr. Doug is based in New York City, where he lives with his wife and three children. He is a regular contributor for CNBC and has also appeared on NBC’s Today Show, VH1’s The Fabulous Life, and currently hosts a weekly video blog for CNBC.