Bold: How to Go Big, Make Bank, and Better the World

Bold is an audacious and interesting book. I heard an interview with co-author Steven Kotler on Ted Ryce's Man Project podcast and decided to check out the book. Bold's central premise seems pretty trite: that big goals are within everyone's grasp and that by dreaming big we can accomplish great things. The difference is that the authors seem to really believe in this premise and have put it into action in their own lives. Co-author Peter Diamandis is responsible for one of the most awesome projects I've ever heard of--mining asteroids in space. Now, we've all heard of this, and ok, big whoop, it's a moonshot, to borrow the authors' phrase, why do I need to read the book? (Or in my case, listen to, since I bought the book on audio cd, which I recommend, because I suspect the sometimes repetitive nature and heavy use of anecdotes works better as an orally told story then on the written page, explaining some of the negative reviews.) Well, it was only when I listened to Diamandis and Kotler tie together new, big emerging technologies and their rationale that I understood why mining asteroids was a big deal. The mining of the asteroids is only part one of a much bigger plan to defeat the earth's gravity well. Basically, first you mine the asteroids. Then you harvest resources that can be turned, via orbital 3-D printing, into more ships to mine more asteroids. Once you hit this stage, you have incredible exponential growth limited only by the number of asteroids that find their way into the range of our ships. You have von Neumann machines in space. Once I heard that--and if I can pat myself on the back, did a little of the math in my head, because P&S brush past this concept a little quickly--I was basically all in. This is an incredible concept. (If this doesn't excite you a little or you go what a bunch of garbage, you can safely skip this book.) But, what the heck does mining asteroids in space in order to create a self-perpetuating robotic spaceship fleet have to do with our more mundane lives? Well, the other point of dreaming big, or going for a 10x performance, is that, as Astro Teller, director of Google's X laboratories, you will not hit your goal. Some external factors will intervene. But if you shoot for 10x and you end up getting 2x, that's great! Whereas if you aim for 2x and end up getting 1.1x, that's kind of a bummer. (Side note on Astro: he gets misidentified in the book as the grandson of the father of the atomic bomb, which would probably come as a surprise to Robert Oppenheimer, but hey, could explain a certain degree of the well-documented enmity between Oppenheimer and Edward Teller, Astro's grandfather of record, and father of the hydrogen bomb. If this kind of thing offends you, or the simple fact that the guy took the nickname Astro and ran with it, you also probably need to avoid this book until you re-calibrate. I'm a fan of Oppenheimer but I got over it in the time it took to raise and lower my eyebrow.) So, set your goals big, tear down your preconceptions, work hard at them, and if not amazing things, certainly better things will follow than if you dream small. Hard to argue with that. Sure, I think the criticism that a lot of this is easier said than done is absolute valid. Most of us can't crack the Rolodex and murmur "hmmm, should I reach out to Clinton, Page, Branson, or Bezos?" Fair enough. And, the publishing world is strewn with guys who seem to be selling the sale, selling the dream, and it really is all b.s. But, there's a certain something in these guys' vision that makes you say to yourself "ok, inner cynic, your points are absolutely well noted, but why not give it a shot?" That brings me to a new concept that P&S explain and how I'll close this rambling review: stone soup. Again, this is a mega-cliche of the highest order. Ok, we all know the concept that the guy comes to town without a pot to micturate in and slowly convinces all the otherwise skeptical people to buy in. But, P&S explain so well how Peter took the stone soup concept and made the International Space University work, that you are really able to see how it works in real life. Basically, you come up with the idea, an idea that is so intoxicating that co-collaborators can't help but be interested because they don't want to be on the outside looking in. Here's another secret: if your idea is good enough, you can get pretty high level people interested. They will be interested because that's how they made it in the first place by recognizing and exploiting great opportunities. Another bonus of truly high level folks is that they don't have an immediate need for cash and their reputation is valuable to them, so you're not as likely to get screwed over by them. On the negative side, gaining and capturing their attention is difficult. This emphasis on IDEAS as the most important thing is why I can't help but enjoy this book. It's like a how to grow X book, and the X is your idea. So, Bold differs from all the other "you can do it" books because it does not encourage you to put your capital at risk, nor does it make dubious promises about how if you simply do [real estate, investing, computer science] everything will be gravy. Instead, all that Bold asks is that you put your idea into play and gives you some resources to do it. Highly recommended.

"Bold" is one of the most thought-provoking business books I've read in a long time. Most of us know how the information age and the internet has up-ended the industrial age, and I think I'm savvy to the implications and opportunities, but I learned several valuable tools that I previously did not know even existed. The book opens with a lesson, and this sentence I highlighted: "Thus, on April 9, 2012, just three months after Kodak filed for bankruptcy, Instagram and its 13 employees were bought by Facebook for $1 billion." How does that happen. Kodak was obviously positioned to lead on digital photography; they even had developed some of the early technology. But they lacked vision, they had hubris, they worried about losing all that film and chemical business. They did not see the forest for the trees. We see that now. But most do not see it still happening today. Jeff Bezos had the vision for Amazon. It wasn't about books long-term; it was about everything. Today, look at Amazon and look at the long-dethroned Sears catalog. The difference is taught and/or reinforced in this book. Co-Author Diamandis is currently executive chairman of Planetary Resources, a company planning to mine asteroids for precious metals. Sound crazy to you? As Diamandis said in an interview, "Listen, the day before something is truly a breakthrough, it's a crazy idea." No doubt the folks in the executive suite of companies like Barnes and Noble thought selling books on the internet was a crazy, outlandish idea. Why didn't Hilton or Marriott think of AirBnB? Besides vision, "Bold" goes into the 6Ds -- from democratize to deceptive, each a step in the evolution of an industry that the established businesses -- that is, their leaders -- miss. A particular telling graphic in the book shows how $900,000 worth of equipment/application can now be accessed in your smart phone, much of it for free. This is the 3rd D, Demonetization. Of course, a big part of formula is that "linear companies" (like Kodak) "with lots of employees and lots of physical processes and facilities" is being impacted by "exponential companies" (like Instagram) with their "use of networks or automation and/or its leveraging of the crowd. The rest of the book focuses on how to build the later, with some tools/exponential technologies, and examples of people using them. For example, Quirky and Kickstarter. If you can't figure out how to build a business after learning about all of these resources, you may just not have the vision yourself. The book can be dry in parts. Like many tech-focused people, the authors like to use dry technical jargon (the 6 Ds come to mind); or when they say creativity is "recombinatory." I prefer how James Altucher says it: "idea sex" -- combining two or more things to create a new thing/business. Because of the dry language it took me longer than usual to finish it. But I'm glad I did.

Why this book is actually worth the read? Because it offers you a new perspective that is not usually offered. It opens new ideologies that you may have never heard of. Many are disputing that he is just saying stuff that you already know, but trust me. Most of the stuff that he spoke about, I never knew before (And I spend hours reading self-help books and TED talks). The reality is that if you are not a businessman, entrepreneur (Aspiring or established), or someone who wants to change their life radically (To make a leader out of yourself in the world of business), this book may not be for you. If you are looking for self-improvement to be in a old, dull paradigm (Working a 9-5 job you hate to support the house you need a 9-5 job to support); this book isn't for you. Then you should read another book that gives out lies so that you can feel comfortable in your situation, even though you shouldn't. This book is for the people who dare say they aren't living the life they want to. This book is for those who need a guide to get from their old lifestyle to a new one. Many people, because they are so dead set on this linear paradigm (And you will learn lots in the book about this), that they give it 2 stars because this book says "Screw that paradigm, you should embrace this new reality". 40 years down the line, this is what business will look like. And the ones who started business this way, 40 years from now, will be the businessmen that aspiring entrepreneurs look up to, like many look up to Richard Branson right now because of his ability to build a grand global corporation from a record company.

This is THE business book not only for our contemporary times but for generations to come! It is essentially the textbook for the new breed of exponential entrepreneurs who understand that the world has already totally changed (in an exponential way) and that things are never going back to the way they were (the linear way). Personally, I loved the ability of the authors to communicate effectively their passion for exponential tech and creating a world of abundance for all: Mr.Diamandis and Mr. Kotler nailed it and nailed it BIG AND BOLD in this one. This is the stuff that epic genius is made of and I totally recommend this book to anyone who is a bit curious about the amazing world emerging around them in these FAST changing times. In this brave new world emerging, be prepared to disrupt your industry or to be disrupted. It's definitly time to go bold :) PS: I also love the work of Mr.Diamandis with Singularity University and Abundance360. He is just awesome!

linear technology からexponential technologyの世紀に移っていることを明らかにしてくれた。

Good book 👍👍👍

Another „WOW“ book written by the duo Diamandis / Kotler on the topic mtp (massive transformative purpose). Both authors encourage us (as described in three parts of the book covering „bold technology“, „bold mindset“ and „bold crowd“) to find our MTP by thinking not only „outside the box“, but stop limiting our thoughts and ideas by (conventions & other) frontiers. The ever increasing speed of new technologies (in exponential ways) give powerful tools to make your ideas come true, feats which were limited to the rich and powerful (e.g. royalty in the past, then governments or multinational companies) can now be done by individuals or small groups, as described in the first part. The middle section explains how to develop a mindset to set the scene for our world changer, do not to get stopped by failures or limits („think bold“), the final part is describing how to use the power of the „online crowd“ by presenting how to successfully build your own community which supports your ideas. In general, the enthusiasm is field and the idea of helping people finding their MTP resp. purpose in changing the world is really jumping on you while experiencing this wonderful book. To summarize resp. simplify look for an important challenge which has significant impact to the world, hold on to your ideas, find like minded people to support and go on making the world a better one. The book has a significant notes section, the authors are hosting several websites on the topic, however, some urls have changed (see „abundance.digital“ instead of „abundancehub.com“), the ways to connect to the authors are multiple ones. Great read, which took me basically one weekend to finish, can recommend this book for all you are still looking "that special something to prove" or for those who are interested in world changing or improvement.

If you have time for just one book, then this is the one that should occupy your starving mind.