The Creator's Code
The Six Essential Skills of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Kevin Plank was relatively small for an American footballer, and when he weighed the cotton T-shirt he wore under his team uniform, he found it weighed three pounds because it was so drenched in sweat. Knowing he couldn't hinder himself in this way, he set about finding a material that wasn't so absorbent. Going to a local fabric shop, he soon learned that synthetic materials would not take in as much sweat, so he had a shirt made and found it added just four ounces over the course of a game. When he gave some team-mates samples to try, they also soon saw the advantages. He began to produce the shirts commercially, and now Under Armour is a $2 billion global brand used by people from every sport.
Packed with fascinating and inspirational tales of success, Amy Wilkinson's brilliant book explains the six essential skills required by entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams. Based on in-depth interviews with the founders of numerous global brands, from eBay to Spanx, from LinkedIn to PayPal, she shows just what they did and what set them apart. For the key to being a successful entrepreneur isn't necessarily about being 'first', it is about being the 'only' one, and devising a new formula where none previously existed. Above all, these stories show how - if you follow the right steps - anyone can become a successful entrepreneur.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this ambitious but not totally satisfying debut, Wilkinson, senior fellow at Harvard's Center for Public Leadership, lists the necessary skills for innovators and entrepreneurs. Drawing on more than 200 interviews with leading entrepreneurs, she identifies six specific techniques: "find the gap," "drive for daylight," "fly the OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) loop," "fail wisely," "network minds," and "gift small goods." She also draws a portrait of creators as tirelessly working, networking, and sharing. The entrepreneurs depicted here ultimately triumph, but they also fail, at least at first, and in small, calculated ways. Their trick: staying optimistic while rigorously analyzing each mistake. "I've not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work," Thomas Edison is reported to have said. Elsewhere, Wilkinson quotes an unflappable Elon Musk on starting Telsa Motors: "It feels like chewing glass and staring into the abyss." Wilkinson clarifies that the "skills aren't a monopoly of a special category of person," but are attainable for people willing to commit themselves. Still, despite the book's impressive array of case studies, it may leave readers feeling that, while the average innovator undoubtedly possesses all the skills enumerated here, there's a lot more to world-changing innovation.
