I’ve been inquisitive since young age, using the internet forums and blogs to satisfy my curiosity in my early adult life. When that wasn’t enough, finding the non-fiction book category changed my learning for the better, as it fulfilled the knowledge gaps I’ve carried when jumping into a business context from a pure Arts and Design education.
Here are five books and the reasions why I’ve gifted or recommended to anyone looking to create and build a better the future:
Zero to one
Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
What would you build if you had to start from zero? Most often you’re taught (or compelled) to start with what’s already works, and give your own take on a similar version of that. So this thought-provoking/contrarian point of view, it’s an engaging read that one might disagree or agree with. But it’s a great book to learn about new/different perspectives.
“Every moment in business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them.”
Peter Thiel
Creativity Inc
Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace
Starting a business by itself its not easy. But creating one that has never existed before its even harder. This book tells the story of how Pixar went from making super computers for CGI early adopters, to a service to Disney to a product content creator with Toy Story.
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Blitzscaling
Reid Hoffman, Chris Yeh
Startups seemed simple for me – create a product concept, build a deck, get investment and take the product to market, right? Of course there’s a lot more to that.
This book is a primer on how valuable businesses are built and scaled. As many I follow closely tech startups and companies news, and with every update of an distinguished team member leaving, I used to think pessimistically about the future of said organization. However, through the book I finally understood how talent must adapt to the company’s current situation :
“One metaphor I use to explain this shift is to take yet another analogy from military history: the marines take the beach, the army takes the country, and the police govern the country. Marines are start-up people who are used to dealing with chaos and improvising solutions on the spot. Army soldiers are scale-up people, who know how to rapidly seize and secure territory once your forces make it off the beach. And police officers are stability people, whose job is to sustain rather than disrupt. The marines and the army can usually work together, and the army and the police can usually work together, but the marines and the police rarely work well together. As you blitzscale, you may need to find new beaches for your marines to take rather than ask them to help patrol the existing ones.”
Reid Hoffman
Radical Candor
Kim Scott
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Build
Tony Fadell
Last but not least, the product “bible”. In 2022 Tony Fadell launched a mentor-in-a-book and I could only wish he would have done it sooner.
“Your messaging is your product. The story you’re telling shapes the thing you’re making.”
