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Bestselling author and motivational speaker Steve Pemberton inspires you to be the anchor the world needs and shows how to live with integrity, resilience, and authenticity.
We aren’t losing our way—we’re losing what holds us steady. Steve Pemberton, bestselling author of A Chance in the World and The Lighthouse Effect, names this moment The Drift: a quiet but consequential movement away from the institutions, relationships, and shared assumptions that once anchored us. As those anchors loosen, work grows more transactional, communities become more fragile, and our personal lives strain under the weight of holding everything together. Into the gap comes counterfeit connection: the appearance of belonging without its substance.
Yet that is not the whole story. Grounded in original research on what actually steadies people today, The Anchor Principlereveals what the dominant narrative misses: as traditional anchors weaken, people are already stepping in, quietly taking responsibility for stability, meaning, and connection. From a Boys & Girls Club director in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to school volunteers in Fort Myers, Florida, they see their lives as opportunities to lift others up.
At the heart of the book is anchor duality: setting your own anchor and becoming one for others are the same act, seen from two directions. Drawing on his own journey, from a childhood in foster care to the C-suite, Pemberton traces the anchors that held him and shows you how to choose where and how to hold fast.
“There are people who remind us that even in the most uncertain seasons of our lives, we can still find something steady to hold onto. Steve Pemberton is one of those people. In The Anchor Principle, he beautifully explores the people, values, and commitments that keep us grounded—and the responsibility we have to become that source of strength for others. Steve writes with the wisdom of someone who has experienced both hardship and extraordinary possibility, and with the compassion of someone who has never forgotten the people who helped him along the way. This is a beautiful and deeply hopeful book about finding what holds us, protecting what matters, and becoming an anchor for someone else.”
“Steve Pemberton has spent his life studying what allows people to remain grounded when the world around them is changing. I saw that firsthand during our years together at Walgreens, where Steve brought not only leadership and conviction to his work, but a deep understanding of people and the values that hold organizations together. In The Anchor Principle, he extends that wisdom far beyond the workplace. Through powerful stories, thoughtful research, and lessons drawn from an extraordinary life, Steve challenges us to examine what we are anchored to—and whether those anchors still have the holding power we need. This is a timely, hopeful, and deeply human book for anyone seeking greater clarity, purpose, and steadiness in an increasingly uncertain world.”
“The best leaders notice when someone's work and sense of purpose have come apart. Most of us feel that drift long before we can name it. The Anchor Principle gives us the language for what happens when we become disconnected from our purpose and, just as important, what to do about it. The stories it tells are a beautiful reminder that reconnecting to what matters most is possible, for us and for the people we lead.”
“The most powerful idea in The Anchor Principle may also be its most surprising: being anchored is necessary to see how far we can go, as people and as a society. Steve Pemberton shows us that when we are clear about who we are, what we value, and what we are unwilling to surrender, we become freer to grow, to take risks, and to imagine possibilities we might otherwise have missed. This is not a book about holding on to what once was. It is about becoming grounded enough to move confidently toward what comes next.”