Last week, I wrote about starting fires.
I believe that a great idea is a spark...
And that a spark can turn into a great fire that can change our lives, as long as we bring the resources and hustle necessary to make that happen.
How then do we expose ourselves to great ideas?
The short answer:
Books.
Books are the perfect harbinger for ideas:
On that note, I want to share a few books with you that have personally sparked positive change in my own life.
These books are specifically related to business, entrepreneurship, and / or startups in some way, shape, or form, but I think many of the lessons from these books extend far beyond that subject matter.
My hope is that if even one of these books creates a spark for you like they have for me, the world (or at least the people who matter) will be a lot better off.
Enjoy.
The book that started it all for me.
I read Poke the Box in 2011 when it was first released. It was figuratively the poke (or better yet: kick) I needed to stop talking about all the ideas I had and start bringing them to life.
This little book prompted me to start Tommorkes.com, In The Trenches, Insurgent Publishing, more recently Publishers' Empire, and continues to push me to do bigger, scarier things.
You won't find anything "how-to" in this book - instead you'll find about 96 pages of cajoling, prodding, and poking with one call to action:
Start. Today, not tomorrow.
Also, the design of the book, from the cover, to the shape, size, and weight of the book is something special. It's such an easy book to pick up, read, and share, making it truly timeless (it's also one of my biggest motivators for becoming a publisher in the first place, so I owe a lot to this book).
I'm biased here - I had the opportunity to work with Dan to launch this book (his first) to market.
That said, I loved this book from the first read through - it challenged me to reevaluate the business I was building, specifically how I was building it. Was I taking calculated and measurable action rapidly, or hiding behind research, study, and other things that don't actually allow us to validate our work?
The book itself has been a bestseller since launch, sitting next to the biggest names in business / startup nonfiction, including Peter Thiel's Zero to One (another book that made this list) and Eric Ries' The Lean Startup. The fact that the book stands next to these giants speaks for itself.
At a fluff-free 150 pages, you can read it this evening and be launching your business tomorrow.
If you're looking for a nuts-and-bolts approach to business without losing site of the 10,000 foot, strategic vision of it all, check out The Innovator's Dilemma.
This is the first book I read that hammered home the idea that every product or service is actually a "job to be done."
In other words:
Answer these questions and you have your killer app.
Trust me when I say: these questions will change everything about how you approach, build, and sell your product or service.
The Innovator's Dilemma on Amazon.
Jeff Goins, author of Wrecked and The In-Between, is getting ready to launch his latest book: The Art of Work.
Full-disclosure: because I'm working with Jeff on his new book launch I got early access to the book itself. After reading it in one sitting, I can say this: The Art of Work is an essential book for every artist, writer, and entrepreneur - and at times, it's a tearjerker (although I was born without tear glands, so I definitely didn't cry).
Jeff has an uncanny ability to approach a subject analytically yet passionately, never losing focus of the big picture (the "why"). In The Art of Work, Jeff gives us a framework for approaching our life's work - what we were meant to do - and does so with enough tough love to get us moving.
Life is too short to do what doesn’t matter, to waste your time on things that don’t amount to much. What we all want is to know our time on earth has meant something." - Jeff Goins, The Art of Work
While The Art of Work won't be officially released until mid March, Jeff is doing something really cool: he's giving away free copies of his book (you just have to pick up the shipping and handling).
So if you're looking for a powerful, easy read (that won't be so easy to forget), grab it while it's hot:
*limited time only
This book taught me to how to turn a great idea into an actionable business model, one that reduces waste (of time and money), uncertainty (the framework will help you figure out what you don't know), and fear (because your sole focus becomes validation).
I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that Running Lean has dramatically improved my understanding of the functions and processes behind a startup and has led directly to the success of the many projects I've launched in the past year (and helped avoid bigger failures of the ones that didn't quite pan out).
This should be required reading for freshmen in high school, along with a corresponding four year track that teaches students how businesses operate, how startups work, and practical, hands-on experimentation to test out the theory in real life.
Sorry for that aside. I just think this book is incredible. I'll get off my high horse now.
Really, this should be four separate recommendations, Nassim Taleb's full incerto:
In Taleb's own words, this 4-volume incerto is:
an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision making when we don’t understand the world, expressed in the form of a personal essay with autobiographical sections, stories, parables, and philosophical, historical, and scientific discussions in nonoverlapping volumes that can be accessed in any order." - Nassim Taleb
Antifragile and Nassim Taleb's corresponding incerto are some of the most valuable books I've ever read in my life. A combination of timeless philosophy, astute mathematics and statistics, and enjoyably opinionated reflection on the modern world, Taleb doesn't pull punches nor does he sell out to industry leaders, many who he unabashedly calls our for being frauds.
A must read if you're starting a new venture as it will help you build an antifragile business (a concept and term you'll grow to love as you explore Taleb's Antifragile).
Not a business book but certainly more than a book exclusively for writers, The War of Art is a rallying cry for great work.
Steven Pressfield is the author of so many bestsellers it's hard to keep track (including my favorite book of all time: Gates of Fire). This book is the culmination of a lifetime of creative work, in the trenches, day after day, struggling to get noticed and sell even a single manuscript (coming close to suicide at least once in the process).
The War of Art is a tough, brutal, uncompromising book.
Yet at its core, The War of Art is hopeful.
It teaches us that we can conquer our inner creative enemy, that we don't have to throw in the towel when things get tough, that there's always a solution if we're eager and disciplined enough to find (or create) it.
Any entrepreneur intending to do something bold in this life, read this book first.
Like many of the books on this list, I wish Crossing the Chasm had been mandatory reading in high school. Not because it's easy - quite the opposite.
It's hard, but it's necessary.
It's hard to understand what makes a great product, how to grow a company beyond early adopters, and what moves an economy at its most fundamental level (believe it or not, there's more to it than supply and demand curves) - hard but necessary if you want to create a business that makes an impact.
If you're interested in how successful companies must evolve to move from early adopters to early majority, I highly recommend Crossing the Chasm.
Assets put money in your pocket. Liabilities take money out of your pocket.
This simple phrase was enough to change the trajectory of my life, peaking my interested in real estate investing, stock investing, options trading, and eventually business, publishing, and teaching.
A short read and for some it will be painfully simplistic, but still highly recommend as a basis for what makes good investing (and good business).
I'm reaching a bit with this book, but found it important enough to share.
Frogs into Princes is not a business book. In fact, it's hard to call it a book at all. It's actually a transcription from a seminar conducted by two psychiatrists and, to my knowledge, is the foundation of what has evolved into Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
From the outside, Frogs into Princes is a book on psychology, but at its core, it teaches us how people respond to triggers. In other words, what makes someone tick - or take action.
For those creative enough, these ideas can be extrapolated into the business world, helping us create products and services - and the marketing and sales copy around the product or service - that make people want to take action (buy our stuff).
Not for easy reading, but highly recommended.
Zero to One is one of the best books on startups I've ever read.
Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, takes on startups, innovation, and what it takes to create the future.
Unlike Running Lean, which provides a practical framework for creating a startup, Zero to One is more conceptual in nature, challenging preconceived notions of startups, or rather: what it takes to create a truly important startup.
Important startups are companies with products or services that move the needle from zero to one.
While The 7 Day Startup challenges us to take action today and launch something fast (which I love), Zero to One challenges us to think big and act even bigger - the perfect compliment to fast action, in my opinion.
The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself.” - Peter Thiel, Zero to One
Now it's your turn:
What books are you reading this year?
Better yet, what books do you recommend the rest of us read this year?
Share below in the comments.
I had a conversation with a friend the other day. We were talking about her situation and what her 5 year goals were.
The response: “to be self-employed with a healthy, cashflowing business.”
“What’s stopping you?” I asked.
“My biggest reservation to becoming an entrepreneur is money. Current funds are limited, and I’m not sure the steps I need to take to make money in the beginning. I mean, I get how it’s done in concept, but I don’t know how to get there, and I’m scared of losing everything.” [bolded for emphasis]
This is not an uncommon feeling.
So many people understand – at a conceptual level – how business works: sell something for profit (i.e. for more than you paid for it).
Yet the practical steps to get there are confusing. And the thought of “not making it” or “losing it all” is terrifying.
So what is a driven, motivated person to do?
The Incredible Hulk is a pretty interesting superhero. When he gets angry, he becomes indestructible.
Actually, better than indestructible; the more people mess with him (shoot him with bullets, RPGs, lasers, whatever), the STRONGER he gets.
At one point, Hulk even went up against Superman (supposedly the strongest / most invincible hero in comic-world), and it ended up a draw.
Talk about one nasty honey badger.
But this begs the question…
How can something be better than indestructible?
The answer is simple: better than indestructible is something that GAINS from that which tries to destroy it.
Antifragile, a term coined by Nassim Taleb (who wrote a book by the same name), refers to things that gain from disorder.
Another way to understand this concept is to start with its opposite:
The porcelain teacup is fragile. It doesn’t like to be thrown. In fact, it is hurt by such volatility (throwing the porcelain teacup onto cement is a catastrophic event for the teacup).
A bunker (or Superman) is robust. Drop bombs on it and it can withstand the impact (up to a point).
The average person may believe robustness is the opposite of fragility – that there are only things in this world that are destroyed by disorder and things that can withstand disorder (up to a point), and our job is to avoid the former and build the latter.
But robust is not the opposite of fragile.
The opposite of fragile is something that actually IMPROVES or gains from disorder, volatility, and uncertainty; something that wants to be shaken, thrown, or disrupted...
Like options traders, Donald Trump, or the Incredible Hulk – the more you throw at them, the stronger they become.
I believe there’s another thing that is antifragile by its nature:
Entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship is a disruption-seeking enterprise. If everything were consistent, proven, and complete, entrepreneurship could not exist.
But the entrepreneur exists because things are chaotic, disordered, and broken - and because there is room (and need) for change, improvement, fixing, and redesign (and new design).
Of course, just because entrepreneurship is antifragile doesn’t mean all entrepreneurs are antifragile.
On the contrary, many are as fragile as employees at the robot factory, prone to the dips and busts of the market.
Many, but not all.
Some entrepreneurs are antifragile – they thrive on uncertainty, chaos, and disruption – and their businesses benefit from such volatility.
This is the type of entrepreneur you want to be (if you care about survival or success).
Of course, to become antifragile requires that you build your businesses in a particular, often times unconventional way.
Here’s how:
*note: this is my interpretation of Taleb’s Antifragile and my attempt to apply his logic to the world of entrepreneurship. I would encourage anyone who reads this and finds it interesting to consider reading Antifragile as the book is full of powerful, domain-independent ideas.
When it comes to the world of entrepreneurship, some projects you start (and ship) will flop - bad. Most will have marginal success, but not much (not enough for you to retire). And a few, just a few, will blow up.
Therefore, the more projects you start (and ship), the better, as you increase the odds of creating something that is a big winner.
If you only start (and ship) one project – one book, one novel, one album – you are essentially putting all your eggs in one basket and rolling the dice. It might work out, although the probability is excruciatingly low. If it does, good for you.
More than likely, it won’t.
So don't just start and ship one thing.
Commit to output.
Be consistent. Show up every day. Learn from your successes and failures. And keep shipping.
Survivability in entrepreneurship, as in life, is less about scoring a big win, as it is about mitigating the big loss.
The hunter doesn’t increase his odds of survival by killing the biggest elephant, but by avoiding snakes, lions, and poisonous berries.
In order for the hunter to limit his exposure to these catastrophic things, he must (1) know what they are, (2) know where they are, and (3) create systems (or easy to follow guidelines) to avoid them.
For example: don’t set up camp in the high grass; don’t hang out by the watering hole; only eat the berries the rest of your crew eats, etc.
In the same way, a business should avoid the snakes, lions, and poisonous berries of their operation: high-barrier-to-entry businesses, fierce competition, and debt.
As a rule of thumb:
High-barrier-to-entry businesses are any businesses that employ lobbyists; you’ll know a fierce competition market when you receive lots of warnings about consulting an attorney, etc.; and debt is, well, debt (don’t go into it to build something).
The following are some systems (or easy to follow guidelines) that will help you limit your downside exposure:
Bootstrapping means building something (product or service) with limited financial investment (internal or external).
The less money you put into an unproven product or service, the less downside risk if it doesn’t work. On the contrary, the more heavily you invest in something, the more you NEED it to hit big (remember the John Carpenter Effect?)
When we bootstrap, we automatically limit downside (you can’t bootstrap a high barrier to entry business, nor can you go in debt), yet we can still expose ourselves to unlimited upside depending on what we’re building (more below).
The sooner you can test your product (or book, blog, movement, etc.) with an audience, the faster you can find the answer to the most important entrepreneurial question: will this work?
When the reverse happens – when we take our time building and perfecting the product before we validate, we run the risk (arguably, the certainty) of going over budget and designing something no one wants.
This is the single thing that cripples more businesses (and dreams) than anything else.
What’s worse, the longer we spend fondling our great idea, the more we fall in love with the solution, and the market hates entrepreneurs who fall in love with their solutions.
So how do we fix it?
Get over yourself: ship fast and ship often. Create a minimum viable product (service, anything) – something stripped of every feature you think you need (but don’t) – and sell it to someone.
Another rule of thumb: there’s no validation unless money exchanges hands.
The desk-jockey is linear. In exchange for (supposed) safety, security, and a consistent paycheck, the white-collar worker becomes fragile. Any sudden movement in the market and there goes his job (and all the – supposed – safety, security, and consistent paychecks).
The entrepreneur, by his nature, is nonlinear. Meaning: there is an asymmetry to his actions. 1 more hour at work does not mean another $17.25 (plus overtime depending on the time of day) in his pocket (like it does for the linear robot factory employee). It could very well mean $0. Or negative (as in – we finance ourselves and lose money because we haven’t made a sale).
But it could also mean $22,105.00 like it did for my friend John Lee Dumas, whose newest product made that from a new webinar (approximately one hour long).
John has embraced nonlinearity by creating products with unlimited payoff. What is the most John can make from his digital ecourses? Exactly.
*note: there’s another way that John has leveraged nonlinearity, which is by creating a product that requires very little to scale. If it blows up, he may need new hosting, maybe a new server to rent…but no new offices, nor new employees are necessary to scale these products. He has created a very positive, nonlinear business, and it shows.
Success equals options.
Simply put: successful people have more options than less successful people.
You might disagree with this at first glance, but think about it.
If Richard Bronson, Steve Jobs, or Alexander the Great thousands of years ago wanted to start a new enterprise, could they? Of course they could. They could start a dozen. Money creates options.
Aladdin the street rat, however, is limited in his options (until he finds the genie, which, naturally, increases his optionality and thus his success).
Make sense?
Before you get bummed and throw in the towel because you have no money, realize this: skills create options too.
The skilled copywriter can take on all sorts of new jobs (and charge a premium). So can the skilled artist, magician, and brain surgeon. The more skilled we become, and the more skills we learn, the more options become available to us.
Three ways to increase your options:
1. Make lots of money (or be born into a trust fund, which is more common)
2. Make lots of friends (a strong network with skilled people increases your options and opportunities)
2. Acquire and perfect new skills.
The former may seem the most desirable, but in reality, money without skills leads to no money (and still no skills) very quickly. So if you’re born at the bottom, take comfort – you have the incredible opportunity to learn necessary and essential skills that will increase your optionality as an entrepreneur (and help you create real wealth that lasts).
This rule is particularly geared toward solo entrepreneurs who are trying to bootstrap a business.
One of the best ways to increase your optionality, limit your downside risk, increase your upside potential, and become antifragile is to take part in as many entrepreneurial projects as possible (to the point where you can still deliver impact in each project).
This works for the same reason that shipping often works: some things you do will work. Most won’t.
Better to have a 5% stake in 100 companies than a 100% stake in one.
The former makes you antifragile, the latter a slave.
This doesn’t mean throw away the work you’re doing on your startup. Keep at it.
What I’m saying is: increase your optionality (and antifragility) by teaming up with other entrepreneurs on other projects. Ones that can leverage your strengths without consuming a ton of your time. And make sure you have an equity stake if possible (in not, make sure the project itself will lead to growth in your other businesses or expand your network in a positive way).
So what’s the verdict in your business – are you antifragile?
If not, what can you do to become antifragile?
Leave a comment and let us know how you leverage antifragility in your business – or how you plan to in the future.
Started, finished, and shipped in Windhoek, Namibia.
Total Writing Time: 2:57 hrs.