How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World's Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs by Guy Raz.
What’s it about:
Stories of how various companies were founded, from Netflix to Airbnb. Each chapter has practical advice, e.g. ‘Find Your Co-Founder’ and ‘The Art of the Pivot’, which is brought to life with examples.
What Lynn learned:
You don’t have to feel comfortable being labelled an ‘entrepreneur’ – you might be a dreamer, an idealist, or someone just keen to make the world a better place.
Being an entrepreneur goes against our desire to be picked and fit in – I never thought of It like that.
A typically successful career may still make you bored.
The common theme in start-ups that fail most is that they have a single founder, not a partnership or team.
Often luck and fortune play a key role in having start-up success.
Culture -first can be a key part of a company’s success, e.g. Netflix (p.204), but I wonder how this fits with the fact that it often goes counter to diversity.
Good examples of entrepreneurs are Levi Strauss. Eli Janney, Chet Pipkin and even Herb Keeleher’ (p. 231). Leaving this here as a reminder to myself to research them.
Fave quotes:
‘When, swinging on the monkey bars of life, they finally took one hand off the bar behind them and swung forward to reach for the next bar in front of them…. They are taking the leap of faith knowing they have carefully packed checked and triple-checked their parachute’ (p.21)
‘(entrepreneurs) are defined by a seemingly inextinguishable belief in their idea’ (p. 95)
‘Failing is scaring. Wasting your life is dangerous’ (p.18)
‘Forget feeling successful. You can feel like a downright failure when you get to the right place for all the wrong reasons’ (p. 192)
Why relevant right now:
We’re in the age of the side hustle, the bloggers, the portfolio careers – this is a guide on What It Takes to found a company.
Interest factor: 4/5
Coffee table cred: 3/5
Ignorance of external world while reading: 4/5
Book cover design: 3/5
Help the existential crisis: 3/5
