Savvy founders hoping to avoid the pitfalls on the road to success may benefit from this book’s engaging tips.
A book for entrepreneurs and marketing specialists that encourages company founders to maximize their brand by telling their own stories.
Gerhardt wants readers to understand the power of their brand when marketing their company, arguing that “people buy from people.” When consumers feel a connection to a person, he asserts, rather than a company, they’re more likely to become customers. The author’s first step in building a founder’s brand is to help make them into a storyteller, and to that end, he provides a series of questions to lead founders through the process of identifying and articulating the narrative of their lives and businesses. He encourages them to be personal and vulnerable, sharing details of their lives that will help others connect with their struggles and triumphs. He continues by asking founders to identify exactly who their customers are and to show what problem the company is fixing for them. These steps culminate in an “explainer,” which briefly and succinctly tells prospective customers the who, what, and why of one’s company. Gerhardt also wants founders to figure out who their role models, mentors, and “anti-role models” are so they can follow the successes and avoid the challenges of those who’ve come before. The second part of the book effectively focuses on how to get a founder’s brand and story out to potential customers, using detailed examples of how to use social media podcasts and speaking opportunities to stand out from the crowd. Overall, this is a well-structured and encouraging book made specifically for those who are just starting down the path of building a business. Gerhardt generously shares what he’s learned from years of experience and expresses hope for others’ success in a genuine manner. He does tend to lean heavily on instances from his own career, but he also incorporates examples from the experiences of well-known figures such as Spanx founder Sara Blakely and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Savvy founders hoping to avoid the pitfalls on the road to success may benefit from this book’s engaging tips.Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5445-2341-5
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Jobs was an American original, and Isaacson's impeccably researched, vibrant biography—fully endorsed by his subject—does...
An unforgettable tale of a one-of-a-kind visionary.
With a unique ability to meld arts and technology and an uncanny understanding of consumers' desires, Apple founder Steve Jobs (1955–2011) played a major role in transforming not just computer technology, but a variety of industries. When Jobs died earlier this month, the outpouring of emotion from the general public was surprisingly intense. His creations, which he knew we wanted before we did, were more than mere tools; everything from the iPod to the MacBook Pro touched us on a gut level and became an integral part of our lives. This was why those of us who were hip to Steve Jobs the Inventor were so moved when he passed. However, those who had an in-depth knowledge of Steve Jobs the Businessman might not have taken such a nostalgic view of his life. According to acclaimed biographer and Aspen Institute CEO Isaacson (American Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and a Heroes of a Hurricane, 2009, etc.) in this consistently engaging, warts-and-all biography, Jobs was not necessarily the most pleasant boss. We learn about Jobs' predilection for humiliating his co-workers into their best performances; his habit of profanely dismissing an underling's idea, only to claim it as his own later; and his ability to manipulate a situation with an evangelical, fact-mangling technique that friends and foes alike referred to as his "reality distortion field." But we also learn how—through his alternative education, his pilgrimage to India, a heap of acid trips and a fateful meeting with engineering genius Steve Wozniak—Jobs became Jobs and Apple became Apple. Though the narrative could have used a tighter edit in a few places, Isaacson's portrait of this complex, often unlikable genius is, to quote Jobs, insanely great.
Jobs was an American original, and Isaacson's impeccably researched, vibrant biography—fully endorsed by his subject—does his legacy proud.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-4853-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Essential reading for citizens of the here and now. Other economists should marvel at how that plain language can be put to...
A French academic serves up a long, rigorous critique, dense with historical data, of American-style predatory capitalism—and offers remedies that Karl Marx might applaud.
Economist Piketty considers capital, in the monetary sense, from the vantage of what he considers the capital of the world, namely Paris; at times, his discussions of how capital works, and especially public capital, befit Locke-ian France and not Hobbesian America, a source of some controversy in the wide discussion surrounding his book. At heart, though, his argument turns on well-founded economic principles, notably r > g, meaning that the “rate of return on capital significantly exceeds the growth rate of the economy,” in Piketty’s gloss. It logically follows that when such conditions prevail, then wealth will accumulate in a few hands faster than it can be broadly distributed. By the author’s reckoning, the United States is one of the leading nations in the “high inequality” camp, though it was not always so. In the colonial era, Piketty likens the inequality quotient in New England to be about that of Scandinavia today, with few abject poor and few mega-rich. The difference is that the rich now—who are mostly the “supermanagers” of business rather than the “superstars” of sports and entertainment—have surrounded themselves with political shields that keep them safe from the specter of paying more in taxes and adding to the fund of public wealth. The author’s data is unassailable. His policy recommendations are considerably more controversial, including his call for a global tax on wealth. From start to finish, the discussion is written in plainspoken prose that, though punctuated by formulas, also draws on a wide range of cultural references.
Essential reading for citizens of the here and now. Other economists should marvel at how that plain language can be put to work explaining the most complex of ideas, foremost among them the fact that economic inequality is at an all-time high—and is only bound to grow worse.Pub Date: March 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-674-43000-6
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Belknap/Harvard Univ.
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
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