Book review

I have been in the entrepreneurship and the start-up game for a long time. Curriculum development, evaluations, books, training, workshops and I started a few companies myself. THE success factor When I deliver workshops, I always try to explain, what I think is THE success factors for early success. Networks. Apart from very hard work

Long time ago In my first day as a junior advisor (May 1986), I was told to interview a CEO whose business had just failed and gone bankrupt. He lost everything. He lost his wife, his money, his business and his house. All he was left with was a chair and a mattress (Dutch law).

ASK is a pain Some books are a real pain. For example “ASK”. It took 63 pages, or 1/3 of the book to get to the point. In those 63 pages, we got the life story of the author and a constant up-selling of the methodology. Including advice on how to read the book and

Acceleration We are living through one of the greatest inflexion points in history. The three largest forces on the planet—technology, globalisation, and climate change—are all accelerating at once. Every day, going forward we’re going to be asked to dance in a hurricane, set off by these accelerations. Thank you for being late Like many others,

Ever since I read “Drawdown”, I am fascinated by nature, agriculture and in particular soil. I am also now of the firm opinion that chemical fertilisers should be banned immediately. It is like giving plants hard drugs, delivers false growth and nutrition, and it kills no only soil but also poisoning our water and us.

Selling is hard. Creating long term value is harder. The obstacle is the way Ryan Holiday is the author of “The obstacle is the way”. One of my favourite books. Stoicism as the entrepreneurs’ operating system. He was also the assistant to Robert Greene, the man behind “33 strategies of war”, THE book on strategy.

“Real Artists Don’t Starve: Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Creative Age” is another book on how to achieve success and not to die from hunger. Gig economy In the new gig economy, we are all artist. Starting with deciding to be an artist or entrepreneur. After that choice, the trick is not to