A comprehensive, easy-to-read manual for people launching new ventures.
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A Silicon Valley CEO–turned–company adviser uses the Socratic method to help readers clarify their ambitions, circumstances, and capabilities.
Daglow begins each of six major sections in this debut business book with questions that address such topics as defining projects, building teams, locating work sites, securing funding, managing risks, and thinking long-term. He asks readers to write thoughtful answers to these queries before reading his commentary, which is filled with anecdotes, observations, and tips drawn from his experience leading video game makers Electronic Arts and Broderbund, founding game developer Stormfront Studios, and advising new and established companies. The format mirrors his previous volume for video game designers, but the questions and comments here are designed to apply broadly to anyone with a “Dream Project.” That said, they’re particularly relevant for tech-based startups. He explores issues related to new products and services, retail shops, home-based solo operations, and new initiatives within large organizations. But although Daglow addresses readers’ dreams, he’s no Pollyanna; he also warns readers to conserve cash, avoid foolish risks, and not neglect family, and his watchwords are “balance and common sense.” He calls his approach “The Passion-Process-Product Method,” which considers an entrepreneur’s motivating passion to be foundational, and he offers practical steps toward achieving a profitable product. No single guide for entrepreneurs can cover everything, but Daglow’s touches on many essential startup challenges. The author also excels at probing internal issues in a company, discussing how one assesses commitment and prepares for failure. His prose shows a clarity of thought and authority borne of experience. Daglow suggests that readers “Think of this book as a private discussion between you and me.” Then he adds, “Wait, check that. Think of this book as a private discussion between you and you.” Those who combine introspection with his seasoned counsel will gain not only a tutorial on business realities, but also insight into themselves.
A comprehensive, easy-to-read manual for people launching new ventures.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9967815-4-1
Page Count: 523
Publisher: Sausalito Media
Review Posted Online: July 8, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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Noted jazz and pop record producer Thiele offers a chatty autobiography. Aided by record-business colleague Golden, Thiele traces his career from his start as a ``pubescent, novice jazz record producer'' in the 1940s through the '50s, when he headed Coral, Dot, and Roulette Records, and the '60s, when he worked for ABC and ran the famous Impulse! jazz label. At Coral, Thiele championed the work of ``hillbilly'' singer Buddy Holly, although the only sessions he produced with Holly were marred by saccharine strings. The producer specialized in more mainstream popsters like the irrepressibly perky Teresa Brewer (who later became his fourth wife) and the bubble-machine muzak-meister Lawrence Welk. At Dot, Thiele was instrumental in recording Jack Kerouac's famous beat- generation ramblings to jazz accompaniment (recordings that Dot's president found ``pornographic''), while also overseeing a steady stream of pop hits. He then moved to the Mafia-controlled Roulette label, where he observed the ``silk-suited, pinky-ringed'' entourage who frequented the label's offices. Incredibly, however, Thiele remembers the famously hard-nosed Morris Levy, who ran the label and was eventually convicted of extortion, as ``one of the kindest, most warm-hearted, and classiest music men I have ever known.'' At ABC/Impulse!, Thiele oversaw the classic recordings of John Coltrane, although he is the first to admit that Coltrane essentially produced his own sessions. Like many producers of the day, Thiele participated in the ownership of publishing rights to some of the songs he recorded; he makes no apology for this practice, which he calls ``entirely appropriate and without any ethical conflicts.'' A pleasant, if not exactly riveting, memoir that will be of most interest to those with a thirst for cocktail-hour stories of the record biz. (25 halftones, not seen)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-19-508629-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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