Thrive by Arianna Huffington
Submitted by Alex1
Thrive by Arianna Huffington is a memoir published by Harmony
Books in 2014. It has 342 pages and it gives a lot of advice on how to be a
successful business owner including the “Third Metric” to success. She shares
stories of her own and of her friends on their best and worst moments as
business owners or workers.
This book
was about the “Third Metric” to success which includes well-being, wisdom,
wonder and giving. There’s a separate chapter for well-being, wisdom, wonder
and giving which shares personal stories and gives advice about how these
aspects of life can affect someone’s business or work life. This whole book
started when Arianna fell from her desk and hurt her eye and ended up having to
go to the hospital. She realized how exhausted and over worked she was and
realized that she needed to change things. It talks a lot about women but also
about men and how sometimes they just can’t do it all. It’s not possible to run
a huge business, raise multiple children and maintain a healthy well being.
I thought
that this book was average at best. It did make me rethink things about wanting
to own a huge business or corporation. I never really thought about how tired
and overworked that would make me, so I do think she was successful in getting
her point across, but I don’t think the way she wrote it was anything great.
I do think that Arianna Huffington
achieved her purpose with writing this book, but I think she did that after the
first 5 pages in each chapter. She repeated herself so much. She mostly made her
point on each subject in the first couple paragraphs of each chapter then
dragged on the point for 50 more pages. There were two quotations that I really
enjoyed and found meaningful and helpful. The first quotation was a piece of
advice that her mother always gave her when she was young. “Darling, just
change the channel. You are in control of the clicker. Don’t replay the same
bad, scary movie.” The second quotation was said by Erin Callan, the former
chief financial officer of Lehman Brothers. “After all, the function of
leadership is to be able to see the iceberg before it hits the Titanic.” I like
this quotation because it’s true and makes me think about whether or not I am
or someone else really is a good leader.
This book
is not a book I would want to read again, but I didn’t hate it. I think that
the message was good. It would be a good book for other females to read because
of how much female oriented power is included. It’s important to stay healthy
if you want your business to also stay healthy, so yes it was a great message
but not a very well written book.
Losing
My Virginity by Richard
Branson
submitted by Alex2
Losing
My Virginity is an autobiography written on the life and business ventures
of billionaire Richard Branson. The book was published by Crown Business in
1997 and has 573 pages. The book deals with anything from Branson’s childhood,
to the entrepreneurial successes that made him rich. It also provides those who
are aspiring to become successful in business with advice.
The book
begins with Branson’s childhood. Branson’s parents gave their children a great
deal of respect and often challenged them with difficult tasks. Later on
Branson was sent to a private school where he was considered “lazy” when in
reality he had dyslexia. Although his athletic talent brought Branson a great
deal of popularity, he left at school at age 16 to pursue success in business.
From then on Branson’s business ventures included a magazine, a record store, a
record company, an airline, a mobile company, and an aspiring. commercial space
“airline”. The book describes the highs and the lows in Branson’s life
pertaining to these events and also describes separate aspects of his life such
as an international air balloon flight.
Losing
My Virginity is a successful autobiography that makes it difficult to put
the book down. Branson gives advice based on his many business successes but
also failures. One of Branson’s main topics that by he shows by example is that
you can be an entrepreneur that puts a great deal of time into family and
adventure, and still be extremely successful. The book displays Branson’s
willingness to go against the directions of his advisors and take risks. These
risks have resulted in several billion dollar companies and Branson described
the difficulty of taking some of these risks very successfully. In chapter 13
Branson decided in thirty seconds that he wanted to own an airline. A large portion of the book also deals with
Branson’s achievements that do not involve business. These include hot air
ballooning, long distance swims, and other feats that have brought him close to
death. In conclusion Branson states that there is, in fact no formula to
success in business. Risks and extreme confidence made Branson rich, and his
tone seems to point readers towards doing the same, but carefully. Overall the
book surprised me. Although some of the risks seemed too good to be true,
Branson still inspired me. I never got the sense that he was trying to be
smarter or better than the reader yet he is still a billionaire.
Richard
Branson was extremely successful in achieving his purpose in writing an
autobiography detailing his business ventures and adventures. The book was
long, yet was an easy read. The vocabulary that Branson used was always easily
understood and never left me confused such as other long novels occasionally
do. As a result the writing isn’t
overwhelmingly powerful or difficult but it is beautiful regardless of its
simplicity. The book has several strengths yet it also has weaknesses.
Branson’s nontraditional (often irrational) business actions made him into a
billionaire and the book made it very interesting to see how these radical
decisions played out. When Branson’s Virgin Airlines was on the brink of
bankruptcy, (resulting from a brutal battle with British Airways) the book felt
like a thriller and not an autobiography. Branson was eventually forced to sell
Virgin Records to save the company. On the other hand, although the book is
nonfiction it sometimes felt as if it were a fairy tale. Often I found myself
questioning whether the accomplishments and adventures that I was reading about
were humanly possible. Personally I would
recommend another book for an aspiring entrepreneur even though it is an
exceptional read for the average joe. As an author Richard Branson has all the
qualifications ever required to write an autobiography regarding business.
Branson has lived a life filled with adventures and has started various
companies earning him a net worth of 4.9 billion dollars. Although I agree with
Branson’s conclusion that there is no set formula to achieving success in
business, I disagree with his belief in taking calculated risks, to a certain
degree. Although risks are necessary to build a multibillion dollar
corporation, why continue to take these risks once your business is colossal?
Overall I found the book inspiring yet I question whether I, let alone anyone
can take a path to success that is even remotely similar to Branson’s. I would
recommend the book to others who enjoy an interesting read and who want to
learn more about the rock star of the business world. The book is packed with
tales of Branson’s adventures and overwhelmingly successful business ventures.
Losing
My Virginity was an autobiography that kept me on my toes and made it
difficult to put the book down. Weather it was a global hot air balloon flight
or a commercial airline to space, the book never failed to surprise me. Richard
Branson’s business methods were radical yet have left him with billions and
have proven his genius. If you are interested in Branson the book is a must
read, as he is much deeper than most people expect. Branson has written several
different books and I am interested to explore a few more.
Only the Paranoid
Survive by Andrew Grove
Submitted by Bailey
Andrew Grove’s
book, Only the Paranoid Survive, is an informational book that is useful
for anyone who plans on running a business or is already running a business.
Grove talks about his strategy and how he became a leader at Intel as well as
the downfalls in his business. Grove has a theory that the more successful one
becomes, the more people want a part of that business and if the owners aren’t
prepared then the business will collapse. He talks about something called a
strategic inflection point which he defines as when a business has a fundamental
change. Grove tells us about many times when his business went through
fundamental changes and how he dealt with them.
I think anyone
who plans on being or even is already an entrepreneur should read this book
because it shows that businesses aren’t as easy to run as they seem. This book
shows that even a tiny error can ruin the entire business like when Intel had a
bug in a microchip that was very rare but forced his company to recall all the
chips which set his company back a huge amount. His examples are concrete proof
that this can happen.
I highly
recommend this book because it is definitely worth reading. This book can help
entrepreneurs greatly and will help their businesses in the long run. I think
if business owners are “paranoid” of errors just as Grove was then they will be
better owners.
Geeks by Jon Katz
Submitted by Ben
Geeks is a
novel written by Jon Katz in which there are two boys named Jesse Dailey and
Eric Twilegar. They both had plenty in common and considering the hardships
they went through with their families. In high school they were considered to
be outsiders and proudly were able to call themselves geeks.
Jesse and Eric were geeks. They knew
it and it didn’t bother them. Jesse used to be in a gang and was a user of
drugs and Eric was a short muscular shy teenager with a beard. Jesse and Eric
both had a common interest in computers that led to their jobs. Jesse
worked at a small computer business called Emco, and Eric sold computers at a
local office max. Self confidence is key to the whole story of these two young
kids. In the beginning of the book both had very low self confidence and had no
friends beside each other. With the help
of one reporter named Jon Katz, their confidence level was slowly rising. They
were able to move out of the small town and move to Chicago when very quickly
they both realize that they need a degree to earn a well paying job. The
friendship they had is why all of this was able to happen. Without them being
there for each other when their families split, they wouldn't have had enough
self confidence and motivation to really do something with their lives.
Self acceptance was the theme from the
very beginning. They accepted that they were geeks and weren't afraid of being
called one. They were proud of what they had and didn't care if they were being
judged. They accepted the fact that they were different. With the help of the
reporter and author of the book they were able to turn their lives around and
really understand that they were capable of doing better.
I liked the book and how the author portrayed
a few different themes and didn't just stick to one. The book did jump around
quite a bit and was a little difficult to fully understand everything but other
than that was a good read. Jesse and Eric were very successful and had enough
confidence to move away from their small hometown and into the real world.
Where college became a choice they wanted to pursue. Without Jon Katz there
would be no book and definitely no success story. Jon was the wakeup call they
needed and although he wasn't mean, he was there for them and acted as a father
figure. The book had a good success story and really made you realize self
confidence can get you very far.
The author’s
purpose was to write a book about a life of a geek but instead he wrote the
story about Jesse and Eric. He soon realized that they needed help and a little
shove in the right direction and he believed they could make money doing what
they love. Although the writing was a little difficult you could understand it.
It was very effective and made you think about being able to push himself
through the struggles of life. The author very much qualifies to write the book
because he witnessed himself most of what happened and both the boys talked and
communicated with him. He understood what they were going through and was just
amazed of the struggles they went through with their family. My recommendation
of the book would have to be to people who like books about life stories with
success. The book is very much interesting but at times you will have to slow
down and reread the paragraph. It was very moving knowing that a little bit of
self confidence and perseverance can really go a long way.
Self
confidence and perseverance can really be the main key to success. If you can't
accept who you are then you will never be successful. It really helped me
understand what success really is and what you have to do in order to become
successful. The author wants his readers to understand that with just a few
different themes he was able to tell the story of “How two lost boys ride the
internet out of Idaho”. Without self confidence, friendship, and perseverance,
Jesse and Eric would have never been able to leave their small hometown and
accomplish something with their lives.
The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie
Submitted by Brysen
Heart Strong as Steel
The Autobiography of Andrew
Carnegie gives the reader not just an overview of important parts of Carnegie’s
life; instead, it describes his entire life with great detail. In my opinion, I
didn’t enjoy the book all that much only due to the fact that I don’t like
reading autobiography books. But, if someone who enjoys an autobiography book
was looking for a book, this one would be a great one to read. This is a great
book to get inspired by. It is a wonderful example of an inspiration not only
because it’s a good read, but because it is wrote by the man himself (Carnegie)
who was a living inspiration. Carnegie wrote this book to give a biography of
his life and how he achieved, in my point of view, a maximum level of success.
Reading this book can show you how much work is required to become successful
and can help you become motivated to shoot for anything higher than the stars.
In this read, I found that Carnegie
went into some of the deepest of detail of his life, even in his childhood. He
explains his friends, what him and his friends did, steps he took to get to his
level of success, and who/what helped him through the toughest of his times. As
for hitting the biography title for a book, Carnegie nailed it for what he was
going for. The vocabulary in this book is quite advanced, even for our time,
which shows that Carnegie wasn’t just someone who got lucky and became a higher
class individual; he was actually an intelligent man. After reading this book,
I saw Carnegie as much more than before. I only knew that he was one of the top
three richest men in the world just because he created one of the most
industrial materials of his time. But, he explains the whole process with
every, specific detail right down to the raw materials that he needed for every
pound of steel he made. He also describes the whole process of how he started
the business from the ground up and what was required for it all.
This book is a fantastic read for someone looking for more
of a challenge of a read and for someone who is searching for some form of
motivation. If you are going to read this book, I highly recommend having quite
some time on their hands and doesn’t mind reading about someone’s entire life
story and how they ended up where they are/were.
The Bear Necessities of
Business by
Maxine Clark
Submitted by Hannah
Maxine Clark has many
accomplishments; one is that she built the thriving company called Build-A-Bear
Workshop from scratch. She also wrote the book The Bear Necessities of Business
with the help of numerous writers. She writes of her experiences of her own
business intending to help readers build productive businesses.
Clark left her high income
management job at Payless shoe store and used her retirement fund to start a
small business. This business quickly grew into the large nationwide
corporation that is known as Build-A-Bear Workshop. The business opened many
new experiences for Clark and she decided to share them with the world. She
segmented her book up into seven parts with chapters and sections within those
chapters. Some of the tips she filled her book with are to create a welcoming
work space, to listen to everyone’s advice good and bad, and many more. Other
tips she highlighted in her own business are that she has a laid back dress
code, and her building is filled with primary colors. Additionally, she has a
bulletin board at her head quarters filled with pictures and letters from
customers that have visited her stores.
Reviews of the book have shown that
Clark achieved her purpose in writing the book and many found aid from it. The
book was delightful and filled with helpful tips, but Clark should stick with
building bears instead of writing books. I enjoyed the book but found a few
negative she uses basic literature and goes on rants which makes it easy to
lose track. The book is often repetitive; the titles of the sections are many
times either the first sentence of that chapter or the last of the one
before. With the rants and
repetitiveness I wasn’t hooked. Also she focused on the brighter sides of her
business which made it unrealistic by not mentioning many things that go wrong.
The only negative experience that she really expresses is when a warehouse roof
caved in. I would recommend this book to high school students that are looking
to go into a business field do to the easy literature.
I was disappointed with the book
but I will definitely take her tips into consideration in the future. If anyone
was interested in reading her book I would recommend them to read it by
section. That way it will be easier to follow along with.
iWoz by Steve Wozniak
Submitted by Jared
I’ve never seen the movie “Jobs” but I have been interested in how
the minds behind Apple came to be. In “iWoz” Steve Wozniak explains all the
wacky and amazing things he did when he grew up. The book kept me interested
all the way until the end. I thought Wozniak did a very good job telling the
story of his life from the beginning. If you’re into high tech machinery and
love learning where all these cool computers and iPads came from then this book
is right down your alley. The book also teaches you some things you may not
have known about technology, making it not only a life story book, but also an
educational book.
Steve Wozniak wanted to tell people how he grew up to become the
man he is today. He starts by talking about who his parents were and what they
did. His father was a very successful football player at Caltech, now he is an
engineer. Wozniak says that his full name is Stephan Gary Wozniak, and he was
born in 1950. The book tells of a lot of cool and interesting things Steve
created when he was growing up. While he’s telling some of his stories, if he’s
talking about something he was making and talked about devices some people may
not know about, he’ll explain what they are before continuing. Steve wasn’t
serious all the time either; he was a big troublemaker and got trouble in
school many times.
Wozniak tells his story very well and in great detail. When
Wozniak and Jobs met they became best of friends, often causing all sorts of
mischief. Eventually they began to work together to create the Apple I. It was
very successful and Wozniak explains some of the issues and arguments, he and
Jobs had over the years. In 1976 during the creation of the Apple II, Wozniak
and Jobs got in an argument about the Apple II having eight slots which were
connectors you can plug extra circuit boards into in case you want more
functions on your computer but Jobs wanted it to only have two connectors for a
printer and a modem. Steve tells of many stories with him and Steve in the most
interesting of ways to keep many people interested.
Steve Wozniak is a very smart man, and he wanted to share his life
story with the world. He was never boring when he was telling it, he always
kept it interesting. He also taught people some things people may not have
known about technology that could be useful in the future. He answered people’s
questions that they may have been wondering for years.
People all around the world wonder how the minds behind Apple came
up with their ideas. They can finally learn all that they’ve wanted to know and
more.
How to Fail
at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott
Adams
Submitted by Mark
This is a book review on an
autobiography called How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.
This novel was written by Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert; one of the most
widely distributed comic strips and one of the most popular. Adams started his
full time career of writing Dilbert in 1995 and uses multiple Dilbert strips in
his book, many of his rantings even come back to the creation and
successfulness with Dilbert. Scott Adams failed at a lot of things and he tells
you how all his failures helped him become successful, hence the title of this
book.
This autobiography was about Scott Adams, he talks about his life; His failures his ideas, his failed ideas, his systems and much, much more. He also conveys into the central theme of this book that humor raises your energy and that can help in everything from school, work, or personal life. He goes on to write how even though he failed at many things, and he describes many in detail, how each failure helped him in the long run. Everything he tried, even if it or he failed, he would learn something and that would help him later. The things he failed at are things from trying to start a business to things like a job interview. His main point is that even though failure is failure, which isn't usually looked at as good, it can help you in life and in winning at a later date, even though you failed it at the time. He even goes on to tell us readers about the time he was crazy and sent to a psychologist, the time he lost his voice for over a year and he was doing speeches for large audiences for different organizations. How his pinky stopped working in his drawing hand and how that affected him, and his chapter called ¨ Passion is Bullshit¨ that goes on to tell about how he was a bank investor and how they only wanted to invest in boring people; People that only wanted to be successful and look good on a spreadsheet, not someone that was passionate about it, and he then goes on to tell you why.
This book was very, very successful in my eyes. He, the author,
told about his life, from his failures to his success. He uses humor and talks
to the reader kind of directly which makes the book more interactive with the
reader and more interesting. The author achieved his purpose of showing how
even though failing is not always good, it can lead to success. His writing is
effective and gets to the point, all while keeping you interested. The only
weakness in my eyes about this book is that it was a tad bit long, other than
that it was perfect. The qualifications of the author to write this book was
that he lived it and knows himself quite well. The book was very interactive
and interesting. I would recommend it to people that have to read a book for a
class and this type of book would suffice. The type of reader that would enjoy
this book would be people that like humor and are looking for a business book
or a self help book. The book affected me by having me look at things a little
differently; you can fail at things but still win.
"How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big"
provides the reader with comedy, a story, and a business view on things; Even
though you fail at something now, that failure can help you at something else
later. It's very informative and even when it tells you some information it
provides where he got it from, he sites it. It reads very smoothly and you
don't want to put the book down. It is a very interesting story and I would
recommend it to many different people.
The Wizard of Lies by Diana Henriques
submitted by Matt
The Wizard of Lies by Diana
Henriques portrays the life of the thought to be best investment banker on Wall
Street. Published in 2012 and known for spending time on the New York Times
bestseller list, this book describes the fraud life of Bernie Madoff. Madoff ran one of the biggest ponzi schemes
ever with a staggering value of around 65 billion dollars. Many close relatives
and friends had trusted him with large sums of money and had no idea that he
was just playing them.
To begin with Bernie Madoff ran a successful investing firm
but when he realized his business was growing too fast he had to do something.
The book describes how his side business of managing friends and family’s money
turned wrong faster than he could handle. For years Madoff had been filing
false earning reports that made it look like he had made millions for his
investors. But in reality he had taken all their money and left all the
investors with nothing. Not even his wife and two sons who had worked alongside
their dad for years had realized what he had done. Bernie knew that he would
eventually be caught for what he had been doing so with this in mind he had
hidden millions in offshore bank accounts for his family once he had been
thrown in prison. While the public was in panic over all the money that had
been stolen from innocent people he had handed out millions of dollars in
bonuses to his closest employees before he was arrested. With all this said
Bernie Madoff knew he would be spending the rest of his life in prison for his
crimes.
Author Diana Henriques in my opinion successfully portrays
all point about Bernie Madoff. She states in the first chapter that Madoff had
no intention to run this ponzi scheme at first but one day it just sort of spun
out of control. She also states that she thinks Bernie is a decent man but he
just lost his way as many people do with the influence of money. A clear point
of the book is that the people you trust most in life can be the ones taking
advantage of you and you may never know. Another big theme is that people that
don’t look like criminals are usually the ones who get away with their crimes
because no one expects they could be responsible for their actions just like
Bernie Madoff. The author was able to bring myself into the book by convincing
me that Madoff had just lost his way and was trying not to disappoint his
family but in the end all that was accomplished was a large split of his
family. This connected with me because I have encountered situations like
Madoff did, trying to impress his family and keep them together.
The author’s main purpose was to
explain the whole story of Bernie Madoff and how he got involved in one of the
biggest ponzi schemes in history. Diana Henriques correctly and efficiently
describes the process in which Madoff went through to run his scheme and she
also describes the victims of his actions to exact detail. This book is very
long and is not for the once in a while reader and it will only entertain a
certain crowd of people. I found this book very interesting due to the fact that
he had played the government for over twenty years and no one realized what he
was doing. It really is work of a genius with what he was able to pull off and
how long he was able to do it for. He is now etched in history for being a
terrible person for stealing millions.
In my opinion this story really
reveals Madoffs true story and the origin of his ponzi scheme. Not being able
to see true criminals is what the author is trying to say in the story and that
people have to be careful on who they trust in life so they don’t get stabbed
in the back. If the reader gets the same message I did then I think it might
help them in an overall life lesson and hopefully help them in the future.
Up close: Oprah Winfrey by Ilene Cooper
Submitted by Olivia
The book
“Up close: Oprah Winfrey” by Ilene Cooper is a touching story about Oprah’s
life growing up and becoming who she is today. The book is inspirational as I
kept on reading more and more. As a young kid she was poor and didn’t have much
but her knowledge and voice, which is what, helped her become who she is today.
In the book Oprah talks about all the issues she faced or had that nobody knew
about until the book came out, Oprah comes clean. This book can also relate to
many people that have gone through the things that Oprah went through growing
up.
“Up close:
Oprah Winfrey” is a touching book about Oprah’s life and how she became famous.
She did not grow up wealthy, at least with her mother. Her father was wealthier
but just your typical citizen. Oprah would travel all over because her mother
couldn’t stay in an area for long because of her job and because she always
wanted to move around. When Oprah’s mom couldn’t handle her she would send her
to her father’s where Oprah liked it best because he had an actual house and
she got her own room. Everyone that met Oprah knew that she was special and
very talented because she was very intelligent and could perform public
speaking so well. That is what got Oprah famous. She was also the type of
person to keep her issues to herself and not tell anyone, and that came in
handy to her because she could help other people with their issue that related to
hers and that made her feel good. Oprah got a job where she would be on the
radio and talk. She was such a good public speaker that she easily got a job
anywhere that involved her talking. She just kept going up and up in life till
she finally become famous and had her very own talk show.
My opinion
on this book is it is a great book for anyone to read. Not one bit of it was
boring to me and kept me awake the whole time I was reading. It is a very
interesting book because it is all true and not made up. It is interesting how
someone can go from being poor to one day being very wealthy. Oprah is a very
strong woman by all the things she went through in life. She was molested by
her uncle, had a rough life growing up, was pregnant at a young age and that
baby didn’t survive because it was a premi. Even though she went through all
those things she still stayed strong. She was a very confident person going up
and everyone loved her, it was almost impossible for someone not to like her.
In this book I did not find any weaknesses and lots of strengths because this
book is so powerful. You would expect a book to have some boring parts in it
but this book just keeps going on about all these interesting things about
Oprah that I didn’t even know and it was very interesting to me. I don’t have a
very large intention span but this book kept me interested that entire time.
The type of readers that would enjoy this book are people that like to read
non-fiction books. People that like to read about other people’s lives that
they know are famous and became what they became to be.
When I
finished this book it left me happy. In the beginning of the book I felt bad
for what Oprah had to go through but she stayed strong and that just made me
feel happy for her. People should read this book because it isn’t too short and
isn’t too long and keeps you interested the entire time. I loved the book and
what’s best is it is all true and about someone tons of people know about. I
learned so much about Oprah more than I know about any other famous person
because it goes into her life and how she grew up and became famous. This is a
great book and anyone can read it.
Steve Jobs the Man
Who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal
Submitted by Scott
This was one
of the best biographies I have ever read in my life. At first I did not think that this book was
going to be too good because most of the other biographies I have read were not
very good. But this book was different,
I was impressed with the knowledge and all the quotes this author put into this
book. I did not realize how brilliant
Steve Jobs really was and how outside of the box he thought. The whole book talks about how he found
himself and wasn't sure what he really wanted to do when he first got out of
high school.
Not many people know what they want to
do right out of high school. They have
to find themselves, and that is what Steve Jobs did. He was adopted at a very young age and his
parents loved him very much. They would
do anything for him; they would go out of their way to get him anything he
wanted. When he brought up the idea of
going to college his parents were all for it.
They even saved up enough money to put him through college, but the
family had no idea what he was going to do once at college.
When Jobs got to college he hated it,
he did not like the whole routine, having to go to classes at certain times and
having to do what he was told. It
reminded him of high school which he also hated. So Jobs dropped out of college and started
exploring other ways of living. He goes
into heavy drug use with LSD and Marijuana.
Jobs moved into an apartment with no heat or electricity. He lived there for a couple of months then he
realized he wanted more out of his life than just working a crappy job and
living in a crappy apartment. So he
decided to hook up with his friend from high school, and they started making
computers and things of that nature.
After a while Jobs realized that he
liked computers and putting thing together since he was a little boy. He then started trying to make smaller
versions of what he saw in the real world.
He made his company, “Apple”, after years of trial and error with
building computers.
“Apple” became
larger than Jobs imagined however, when the company was small and just starting
off, he sold too many of his stocks and lost power. Apple was no longer his company. After his departure the company began to
decline, they realized no one else had his creativeness and restored his
position as the CEO of Apple.
The biography
of Steve Jobs shows when people explore what they are interested in many times
they find the thing that they were destined to do. Jobs was a brilliant man, after trusting his
instincts and exploring different areas, he found he could be successful doing
not only what he liked to do but what he had the talent to succeed in
doing.
Facebook Drama
The Boy Billionaire: Mark Zuckerberg In His Own Words
Submitted by Tim
“Unlike the late Steve Jobs, Mark
Zuckerberg shies away from the limelight and the cameras. But insights into
Zuckerberg’s personal life reveal a lot about his character, about how he
thinks, and about his values that have shaped Facebook” - Page 53, THE BOY
BILLIONAIRE: Mark Zuckerberg In His Own Words.
Facebook is known as a worldwide
social networking site that if used properly helps people become connected and
united. THE BOY BILLIONAIRE: Mark Zuckerberg in His Own Words is set up
as an autobiography/biography where someone edits it but Zuckerberg tells them
about himself. Throughout the whole book its set up in stages of his life, for
example it starts about his net worth as a little background information then
moves into personal things. It gives about two pages on each of the 12 divided
sections then if gives us either two to 15 quotes that Mark has told E! other
sources, or blogs from his personal accounts. Later towards the end it gives us
letters to young investors and milestones all important to the young and great
Mark Zuckerberg. The book itself is really great in my opinion. Just the way it
is set up into stages of his life with quotes or blogs that he actually has
said, tells us about his way of thinking and just how much of a genius he was
at a young age.
After a painful breakup with his
girlfriend Mark went home and started to drink. Later he posted on his more
well known blogs. “I’m a little intoxicated, I’m not gonna lie. So what if it’s
not even 10p.m. and it’s a Tuesday night? What? The Kirkland (dormitory)
facebook is open on my desktop and some of these people have pretty horrendous
facebook pics. I almost want to put some of these faces next to pictures of
farm animals and have people vote on which is more attractive. (11:09) Yea,
it’s on. I’m not exactly sure how the farm animals are going to fit into this
whole thing (You can’t really ever be sure with farm animals), but I like the
idea of comparing two people together. (12:58) Let the hacking begin.” -MZ blog
posts February 4-5 2004, via Huffington Post. Thus the beginning of Face Mash,
this was just the beginning of Mark's career as a lifelong computer hacker.
Later in his life when Mark launched Facebook he was hit with lawsuits
explaining that he committed IP theft. “With success comes litigation. As soon
as Zuckerberg launched, The face book drew attention, and the ire, of the
Winklevoss twins and Divya Narendra… from Zuckerberg, whom they claim committed
internet protocol (IP) theft” - Page 73. Mark lost the lawsuit(s) and had to pay
millions in dollars however he still has Facebook today and is still making
money.
With all these challenges in his life
Marks hard work finally paid off, “ Facebook’s long-awaited Initial public
offering (IPO) raised $16 billion, giving it a market evaluation of $104
billion. It made Zuckerberg one of the world’s youngest billionaires. The
following day, he married his long-time girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, and the
next chapter of his life began” - Page 15.
When readers read this book they
should take away that in life people will hit you with things saying you stole
this idea from them or what not and you will lose some important people and
gain some important friends, but in the end it is all worth it if you make
money and your dreams come true.
The Google Boys: Sergey Brin and Larry Page in their own words
Submitted by Vince
This non-fiction book “The Google
Boys” is a compilation of excerpts of Sergey Brin’s and Larry Page’s various
interviews and lectures throughout the years after founding Google. Some are
from magazine interviews while others are excerpts from presentations they give
around the country. The excerpts are used to answer generic questions placed by
the editor after all these interviews had taken place.
The editor,
George Beahm, has basic questions bolded before each section of the book
followed by a collection of quotations from both Brin and Page that contain
their opinions and/or answers to these questions. The book mainly focuses on
the partners’ management styles and their entrepreneurial quest to founding
Google. Page states that in making his company "one of the interesting
things we noticed was that companies correlate on decision-making and speed of
decision-making" (Page 41). Brin states later in the book about
advertising and using it to grow your business. He states, about advertising,
"the key is to put up advertising that will be really useful to our users
and not slow down our site" (Brin 60). This describes what a start up
business should take into account when advertising their business or service.
Lastly; Brin gives advice about hiring "passionate people." For a
business to have success, its employees need to be on-board with ideas and have
a drive that keeps them there. Brin states on page 56 "you want to make
sure you are hiring employees because they love to work here [...] and they're
not here primarily for the money." An uninterested employee will not
benefit your company.
My opinion of
the book is one of high esteem. I believed this work to have been pleasant and
an easy read. The layout of the novel, having a broad question answered through
past quotations, gave a sense of closure and assurance of the validity and
truthfulness of the non-fiction book. The Google Boys was a quick read
and I think this was due partially to the fact that the work was only direct
quotations, not to mention the content was informative and eye-catching to keep
me reading more and more. The great majority of the book is Brin and Page
telling of their hardships and roadblocks in creating the great corporation now
known as Google. Brin had come to America as an immigrant and had a much harder
time getting into the flow of the nation as opposed to Page who was a born
American. Google was started in their rented garage with a number of computers
that were running a very small program made by Page. Important conclusions to be
made from this book is that if hard work and determination can get a Russian
immigrant and a middle-class college graduate a multibillion dollar
corporation, then it can get anyone else with that determination a successful
business. I do not read too many books that consist entirely of non-fiction,
but I can say that this popular non-fiction, enveloped in its quotations and
facts, gave me more enthusiasm and ideas to use in my own personal life than
any other book or article I have ever read. Beahm did a meritorious job of
carefully placing interesting and detailed quotations from page and Brin that
allowed for clear and intricate information and answers.
The Google
Boys is worded much like a personal interview would be and if merely
listened to, instead of read, would have sounded like a live interview. For
this reason, as well as others, I enjoyed this book and its topic.
The author’s
purpose in writing this book was to show the entrepreneurial spirit that Larry
Page and Sergey Brin had to create their now billion dollar corporation. I also
felt that the main vibe of the book was to show what hard work and utter
dedication can do. Both of the founders were on track to acquiring PhDs and
being wealthy but they changed their minds and did what they loved and now have
achieved more money and fame than they would have, had they continued their PhD
studies.
This book
targets the non-fiction book readers and anyone interested in technology. It
takes quotations from the past and puts them into an easy-to-read interview
style. I recommend this book very highly to anyone interested in starting a
business as these two men, as they have obviously proven, give years of
experience and information in just 158 pages that can help a person create a
business that will last decades or more. Since this book was nearly entirely
quotations from first-hand sources -the founders themselves- I doubt none of
the information no matter how far-fetched it may appear to be. The only
weakness I would have to say about this book would be that at very few times the quotations tended to
trail off into a different topic than that of the bolded one.
To conclude; The
Google Boys was an informative but simple, non-fiction book that
effectively educated me in certain aspects of entrepreneurship that I had not
previously known. Page and Brin had clear qualifications since they were
primary sources of what the book was about and there were no quizzical or
controversial statements that were not merely a stated opinion. I recommend
this book highly to anyone interested in its topic or in its idea of starting a
business from the bottom.
