A VC - Latest Comments in Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

ShanaC — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:08:56 -0000

I did write that Blogpost,
http://www.shanacarp.com/es...

It came up in the comments how I would love to see Seth Godin talk about the moment in the Republic where Socrates bans most of his eras classical poetry. I'm thinking of asking.

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

StephenUnique — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:13:15 -0000

Never Land is a valuable construct. But Peter and Wendy by Barrie is not in my top 50 list of books for entrepreneurs to read. Nor are any of the Harry Potter books. Unless the entrepreneur is selling to children.

I get the idea of story you're going for. You've answered my question about the inclusion of the work. Value can be difficult to find, so if you and your readers are getting it from Rand, then who am I to question how you spend your time?

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

reece — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:56:42 -0000

Thanks!

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

reece — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:37:03 -0000

No problem. Let's face it, entrepreneurs are dreamers... Never Never Land is all around us, and it's up to us to make it reality.

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fredwilson — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:32:27 -0000

That rocks

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fredwilson — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:32:21 -0000

Exactly. You can get inspiration in many places. I talked about snowcrash in another part of this thread

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

fredwilson — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:32:15 -0000

Thanks for bringing this discussion back to where it started reece

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

fredwilson — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:58:53 -0000

Don't you think that never never land is a valuable construct?

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

reece — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:34:25 -0000

This is great! Thanks Fred and Zach.

It's timely for me, as my startup has been reading many of these books for self-education. We've read plenty of business books, but I really enjoy the books with story as well. I read Atlas Shrugged after a recommendation from my co-founder, and have now passed on the same copy to our third co-founder. He's suggested that Atlas may be taking too much of his time from his usual reads like Good to Great and Purple Cow, but in the end the purpose is the same - learning and inspiration.

So with all this reading, we're starting a company library. All of the books that we read in (sometimes loose) relation to our business, are going to live at our HQ, available to all of our employees with certain selections recommended for specific individuals. Maybe we'll make it public on our site sometime soon...

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

StephenUnique — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:20:37 -0000

OK. I can see how you find that aspect of it inspiring. People, myself included, draw inspiration from a lot of fiction. For instance, I read Neal Stephenson because I love that it helps me expand my imagination about what is possible. Even if the socio-culture aspects of his worlds do not.

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

reece — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:08:07 -0000

Rand's theories aside, Fred originally started this post about books for entrepreneurs with a focus on story. Atlas Shrugged is a great, inspiring story, exhibiting total perseverance in the quest to build greatness and more importantly, to live life the way it should be lived.

This is a quote from Atlas that I love, even if it means I "live in Never Never Land" it resonates deeply with me:

"…But he still thought it self-evident that one had to do what was right; he had never learned how people could want to do otherwise; he had learned only that they did. It still seemed simple and incomprehensible to him: simple that things should be right, and incomprehensible that they weren’t."

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

StephenUnique — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:12:33 -0000

Internal consistency was the weak standard I was looking for. What's ironic to me is that Rand spent a lifetime preaching the virtues of reason but failed to consider even simple consequences of her ideas. She admitted that govt was necessary, but couldn't find an implementable method to fund it. She proposed taxing transactions without seeing the obvious implications (reduced transactions). In the end, Objectivism's political vision is impossible and inconsistent, and the world that she imagines around it is equally impossible. So, I have trouble visualizing how her writings are different than my children describing a desire to live in Never Never Land.

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

fredwilson — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:06:30 -0000

It depends on how you read it and what you put it next to

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

fredwilson — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:04:35 -0000

We used that book's insights to raise our first USV fund back in 2004. Very dry and analytical but it helped us articulate what was happening with the internet technological revolution and we were right

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

Sam — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:02:30 -0000

2 very good ones:

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (this isn't a cheesy "how to be successful book")

The Road by Cormac McCarthy (a very sobering book that puts EVERYTHING in perspective... everyone should read this).

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

fredwilson — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:00:32 -0000

Agreed with both critiques

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

fredwilson — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:56:47 -0000

Hey mike. Nice to hear from you. I love the notion of 'touchstone books'

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

StephanieSmith — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:56:11 -0000

I'm the founder/CEO of a micro-community aggregator (http://wecommune.com) so my "bible" is E.F. Schumacher's 'Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered'. The title kind of says it all ;)

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

StephenUnique — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:24:21 -0000

I still don't get the inclusion of Atlas Shrugged. Not because it's a right wing favorite; because the thesis is so easily decimated. What type of inspiration are you drawing from it? When I read it, it makes me feel discouraged that people believe this world is actually possible.

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

Robert — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:03:24 -0000

Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

fredwilson — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:51:33 -0000

Thanks chris. I love peer production!

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

Glenn Gutierrez — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:07:26 -0000

Great wiki. Need to add these to the weekly reading list.

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

Riaz Kanani — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:18:37 -0000

The list is great but it is missing one vital ingredient.. why I should read them/why are they being suggested (over and above them being a top 3 read for entrepreneurs).

It does list who has suggested them, so those added by people you admire/trust will get more attention but a few lines saying why would help.

Over time that list will get longer and longer till it becomes as irrelevant as any other list..

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

Staffan Hillberg — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:02:06 -0000

"Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0" is a great book dealing with many of the successful startups, mistakes made and how VC's think and act.

"Done Deals: Venture Capitalists Tell Their Stories" is also a good book.

Re: Books For Entrepreneurs (continued)

Dave Pinsen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:47:17 -0000

If you haven't seen it yet, check out my suggestion in the previous thread re a place where you might want to post a link to this. Good luck with it.