Here is an interesting and humourus book on startup failures and success:
Ideas for a new venture arrive with a moment of blinding insight. Some start as accidents; otheres take us years of wandering effort to gel the real concept into shape. Regardless of the cause, for most new ventures, the flash of inspiration is followed by a downhill journey that fades into insignificance. It is a rar venture whose original vision and potential are fully realized.
Why is that? Unlike parenthood, there is no parental instinct that guides us in nurturing the grwoing yound businesses. Beyond the missing paternal instinct, there is an observable pattern of repeated fatalistic behavior tat indicates failure is neither well documented nor well understood.
My facination with failure has now spanned 15 years – spent with new ventures in some shape or from, …
Here is a bit of humour from Jawwad’s own promotion e-mail:
At the business school orientation for new arrivals, a fellow student asked me why I was at Columbia. My response drew a look of confusion – “I always wanted to write a book, run the New York Marathon and do a play on Broadway, the MBA is just for cheap subsidized housing.”
This of course was January 1999. As of 22 April 2006, I am proud to report that I am too fat to run and that though there were multiple attempts to produce Harvey, a Mary Allen Chase Play about a six foot tall invisible rabbit, all were sabotaged by a six foot tall invisible rabbit.
It is worth a read for the lessons, inspiration and the humour. Everyone will be able to relate to it in some way. Be it choices we make, or the arrogance that comes to one embarked on a startup adventure or the humbling effect of startups on onself. It is pricey at $15.77 available as digital download from amazon. Here is a lesson for success I guess 🙂
Links:
Book: Blue Screen of Death by Jawwad Farid
The book website: http://bluescreen.alchemya.com
Reviews so far: http://bluescreen.alchemya.com/reviews.html
Cheers.
- Proto.in: Ideasthat will shape the Startup ecosystem - January 23, 2007
- VC1.0,Stagflation and VC2.0 Preambe - August 25, 2006
- Of Capital, Fear and Diet - July 14, 2006
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