Book Review - The Startup of You
The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career by Reid HoffmanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is from the CEO / Co-Founder of a Web 2.0 company, LinkedIn and goes a great detail into the culture and professional aspects of similar companies that existing in silicon valley. Reid Hoffman gives the examples of many startup founders and sets the stage for how and why started their respective ventures. The stories which I did not know earlier and which caught my attention were the stories of Netflix and Zappos. Both were amazing. The best part the book in my opinion is the many examples that Reid and Ben provide as examples to support the point they were trying to say.
I also liked the chapters in which the authors give sufficient focus on the failed auto industry business in US and what the computer industry and the leaders of computer industry can learn from that episode.
Most part of the book is no-frills, bare minimum good practical advise which many should follow and I believe, it is obvious to everyone. But reinforcing and giving concrete shape to those abstract ideas still helps and this book does a great job at it. Since I am enthusiastic about startup and their stories, I found this book easy to read, it caught my attention quickly and I could finish it without any lag. The final list of the reference books many a good one to follow up and keep the interest in the subject going. This book is about Internet business and your career when the Internet is always ON. I would say it should be categorized under "popular-business" similar to "popular-science" genre.