Steven Kotler and Peter Diamandis wrote Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World
What I enjoyed about Bold was the sheer audacity of what the authors aim for. These two think big — as in “let’s start a company to mine asteroids” big. And they have enough success on their resume to show they can really do these things.
In Bold the authors become pragmatic — well, to the extent any world changing idea seems pragmatic. At least they share the “how” of doing great things and not just the “why” of doing them. Much of the advice is easily found elsewhere and is typical for start-up entrepreneurs. Many of the case stories are well known and offer little new.
But it is a good consolidation of ideas that are contained in other books. For instance, the 8 rules for success as an entrepreneur are tried and true concepts but are usefully repeated in the book:
- Focus on the user.
- Share everything.
- Look for ideas everywhere.
- Think big but start small.
- Never fail to fail.
- Spark with imagination, fuel with data.
- Be a platform.
- Have a mission that matters.
Is that helpful? To the extent it keeps us on track and open to new ideas, absolutely. The book has more detail on each of the 8 points (and this is just a snippet of the overall book).
The overall impact is encouraging. It’s fun to dream big and then search for likeminded people who want to cheer you on. These authors achieve that and are to be thanked for encouraging dreamers to do the impossible. I don’t rate the books I read, but if I did this one would be a solid B+ to me and probably an A- to others who seldom read in this genre.
