The Japanese and Korean editions of My Start-Up Life are available for sale. Here's the link to the Korean edition. Here's the link to the Japanese edition on Amazon.com Japan. Below are the covers of each. Apparently the Japanese edition has several manga drawings of me and of other scenes, which is pretty amusing.
I contributed a post to the Los Angeles Times Jacket Copy blog. It's a brief caution to the many, many people who are considering trying to write a book. Opening graf:
Do you have a book in you? Imagine: Late nights pecking furiously on the keyboard with a glass of red wine by your side, animated conversations with your editor and agent and, eventually, the final, beautiful product: a hardcover book with your name on the cover. Then your publisher sends you on a book tour where you sign books, do readings, hobnob with literary types and generally feel very writerly. Dream on, baby!
I go on to say that while there are still good reasons to write upon dead-trees, the publishing process is much grittier than advertised.
I got extremely lucky with my book and publisher. So this sentiment is based more on what I've observed in the industry over the past year while meeting and brainstorming with dozens of authors. It can be a tough slog, and people ought to know this before committing themselves to the particular medium of book.
My friend Shawn Powers -- who I met randomly a year and a half ago in a laundry mat in Dresden, Germany, and then re-connected when he pursued his PhD at USC -- just sent me this photo of My Start-Up Life in a small bookstore at the Jakarta, Indonesia airport. Second row from the front, on the left. Discover Your Inner Economist is also there. Thanks to the proliferation of English language bookstores around the world, authors who sell worldwide rights to a big publisher will find their book in all sorts of cool nooks and crannies.
Like every other author out there, I must humbly remind you to consider My Start-Up Life: What a (Very) Young CEO Learned on His Journey Through Silicon Valley as a gift this holiday season. Have a friend who's thinking about starting a business? Have a teenager at home who's restless? Just want to support this pajama-wearing blogger? Get it on Amazon today.
I was excited to see 800-CEO-Read, the premier business book outlet and reviewer, name My Start-Up Life as a semi-finalist in the "Small Business / Entrepreneurship Category" for Best Book of 2007. We'll find out the final winners in January.
Economist Arnold Kling named the book one of the best of 2007 in the business category.
Hedge fund manager Jason Wood, in a holiday gift list, called it "worth buying for your favorite geek."
Professor of entrepreneurship Jeff Cornwall called it "worth your read over the holidays...a good read for entrepreneurs young or old."
More than a year ago I wrote a post titled "Every Cold Call Can be Warm":
I get about a couple requests a week from strangers asking me to take some action (look at something and give feedback, talk on the phone, meet for coffee). It's astonishing the variance in quality of such cold calls. For anyone who has a blog (like me) there is an abundance of material that can make a cold call more meaningful.
Since my book came out the number of random emails I get (which I enjoy, by the way -- keep 'em coming!) has increased. What's also increased is the body of material from which a cold caller can draw to find a common bond.
Last week I got a random email from a guy named Akshay Kapur. Saying he was trying to embody the spirit of "every cold call can be warm," his email had six bullet points:
I love this. I will enthusiastically talk with Akshay on the phone. When you don't have a personal introduction to someone, the next best thing is to show you've done your homework.
If you do your homework and are persistent after the initial outreach (ie, don't give up after one unanswered email), I think you can meet with just about anyone. I know I've done this myself with pretty good success.
Below is an excerpt from my book My Start-Up Life. It's about how entrepreneurs harbor a bias toward action. Please buy the book on Amazon.com or pick it up at Barnes & Noble / Borders!
Given two ambitious, intelligent people, both of whom have some big ideas, why does one start getting things done while the other one stays stuck in the dreaming stage? What's the difference between two people whose success is premised on executing tasks across a variety of disciplines -- as is the case in most start-ups -- and one seems to be able to do more quicker, while the other person spends excessive time fretting, planning, dreaming, or consulting people? Here are some differences I see:
* People who get stuff done maintain a high commitment to themselves. They don't want to let themselves down. The chief motivation to achieve comes from within, not externally. It is easy to not keep promises you make to yourself ("Gee, I think I'm going to stop smoking" or "Gee, I'm going to join the gym this month").
* People who get stuff done strive for "good enough." Good enough is a key principle in entrepreneurship. If your aim is "perfect," the future is so far away it may be hard to get going.
* People who get stuff done think about the short-term future. At the end of meetings, they ask, "So what are the next steps?" It's easy to analyze the present or dream about the distant future, but actionable tasks over the next 2-4 weeks is most important for keeping the ball moving.
* People who get stuff done "dream" and "talk" as much as the next guy, but they share these dreams and ideas with others. By sharing your intentions with others, you introduce yet another accountability mechanism.
* People who get stuff done begin. Taking that first step can be the hardest. Act now! As Taoism founder Lao Tzu said, "A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step."
What mindset allows me to be productive? I'm fortunate not to have many onerous projects that I loathe to work on. Loving what you do is key to getting stuff done and not simply talking about it. If something is difficult, I break it down into parts and organize its related tasks on my computer. When I'm effective and productive, I treat myself by going to the gym, eating a Clif Bar (ha!), or making time to do a blog post.
Do you want to be known as a doer or a talker? Do you want to start businesses or just talk about starting businesses? The answers to these questions—and others like them—are better indicators of your future success in business than the slickness of your b-plan, the extent of your funding, or who you know. Get going!
No one in the publishing industry really understands Amazon.com. All anyone agrees to is that it's a huge force and moves millions of books.
How Amazon prices books is one of the many unknowns. Bryan Kaplan once speculated about what it means when Amazon discounts a book further after pub date. If you read his post and the comments, you realize that there are compelling arguments on both sides (whether demand is increasing or decreasing), especially given the last comment that all economic theory should be called into question for Amazon.
In any event, Amazon.com just slashed the price of my book to $16.47. If you read this blog, I'd really appreciate it if you could pick up the newly discounted book now on Amazon or at your local Barnes & Noble or Borders.
"My Start-Up Life is the best memoir I've yet seen on the start-up experience."
- Shel Israel, veteran Silicon Valley figure
"If you like business, you will like this book. It's written in a style
that is engaging and easy to read. It embraces the emotional paradoxes
that entrepreneurship can bring - the moments of self-doubt, the triumphs of self-confidence, the pain of failures, and the realization
that those failures are only temporary. It's filled with great advice,
and avoids any kind of magic bullet hocus pocus business thinking"
- Rob May, BusinessPundit.com
7,000 business books are published each year. The New York Times reviews about a dozen of those in their "Off the Shelf" column in the Sunday business section.
I would love to be able to explain why they chose to review my book today. I can't. I had no inside track. All I can say is that I got really, really lucky. Again. It's even more of an honor to be reviewed by Harry Hurt III, an amazing writer who I've read for years.
The review is eminently fair, pointing out both strengths and weaknesses in the book. Hurt would have liked to have seen more financial information about Comcate -- as he notes, I'm reticent because unlike other books in this genre, Comcate is still around, still fighting competitors for deals, still forming partnerships, still hiring. In this sense, it can't tell all. Hurt also says the book lacks socioeconomic / political context, a fair complaint. (On a side note, Hurt inaccurately says Inc. Magazine named me Entrepreneur of the Year; not true.)
All in all, though, I think it's a positive review: "Very much worth reading" and "informative, precocious, and entertaining" are two phrases which jump out in this spirit. He calls some of the entrepreneurial how-tos "insightful and inspirational".
I'm sure in the coming days some people will take shots at me, some people will roll their eyes, some people will think I've self-promoted my way into the New York Times. I'm still learning to deal with these kind of sentiments which automatically come (truthful or not) with higher profile.
But hopefully, some people will read the review and the book and feel inspired to start their own entrepreneurial journey. They will feel more ready to be CEO of their own life. And they will pick up some practical advice -- not from the world's most successful entrepreneur, not from the world's most successful young entrepreneur -- just some musings from a guy who's accumulated a bunch of unique experiences, loves to write, and tried to deliver his thoughts in a way that would provoke thinking, spark laughter, and inspire action.
Thanks again to Harry Hurt and the New York Times for choosing to review my book.
I'll be speaking Monday evening at SD Forum's Start-Up SIG. The topic is mentors and advisors and how they can help you build your company and career. I will also be signing books. Hope to see you there!
DATE & TIME:
Monday, June 18
7:00pm-9:00pm
LOCATION:
SAP, Southern Cross Room, Building D
3410 Hillview Avenue
Palo Alto, CA, 94304
COST & REGISTRATION:
$15 at the door for non-SDForum members, no charge for SDForum members.
Today's New York Times (Thursday) has a piece by economist Tyler Cowen titled, The Loose Reins on U.S. Teenagers Can Produce Trouble or Entrepreneurs.
Cowen discusses some of the cultural influences responsible for America's unusually high rate of youth entrepreneurship. I am quoted and My Start-Up Life is referenced. Excerpt:
America’s culture of marketing provided inspiration. Ben Casnocha surveyed his future customers and asked them what services they needed and how much they were willing to pay. He also had to persuade people to do business with a teenager. He had no formal education in marketing but, as a suburban American youth, he was exposed to intense commercial marketing every day. He decided to become an entrepreneur at the age of 12, he says, after being struck by the Apple “Think Different” ad. Critics contend that corporate selling and advertising are dumbing down America’s young. But marketing often motivates or instructs young people. In addition, it can teach them how to think about marketing messages more critically.
The fact that American schooling is less disciplined than that in other countries gives young creators the time and the energy to accomplish something outside their formal education. Despite his intellectual talents, Ben, in his book, admits that he received indifferent grades and had little emotional attachment to most of his formal schooling. Whenever he could, he used sick days to set up meetings for his business.
The longstanding criticism of the American school system is that even in the better schools, too many students just “get by” rather than engage in a rigorous curriculum. This academic leniency is bad for many average or subpar students, but it also allows some students to flourish. Relatively loose family structures have similar effects; American children are especially likely to be working on their own projects, rather than being directed by parents and elders.
Do you know someone who's graduating this spring? Have a teenage nephew? Consider giving the book My Start-Up Life. It can make the perfect gift for any grad interested in leadership, business, or technology.
"My Start-up Life is the best gift you can buy your teenage son or daughter...it will give them confidence in their own abilities and courage to take on new challenges....It is Harry Potter meets Good to Great."
--- Auren Hoffman, CEO, RapLeaf
"What makes his book interesting to me...is that it bypasses the rah-rah, self-congratulation common among the young entrepreneur set, instead capturing, with remarkable lucidity, the complexities of trying to balance being a teenager and running a business. It also replaces the generic advice endemic to the genre ("follow your dreams and it will all work out") with practical mediations on issues such as the role of luck in big successes and the proper care and feeding of mentors. In the end, this is a serious guide that goes a long way toward deconstructing and explaining what exactly allows the Bens of the world to do what they do."
--- Calvin Newport, PhD Candidate, MIT; Author, How to Become a Straight-A Student
"Casnocha's debut is a fast read that chronicles his successes and failures in a way that makes them accessible to a student of entrepreneurship at any age. From his tricks-of-the-trade (printing business cards for his advisors) to the shock of his tribulations (including the disaster that kicked "Judy from Bellbeach" off her professional list-serv) to the laugh-out-loud moments of this bildungsroman (parlaying the lesson of learning to "say no" into a prom date), this book entertains and teaches the whole way through."
--- Benjamin Abram, Student, Duke University
"Ben's first book is well written and explores the early stages of his business ventures. A great read for anyone interested in leadership and/or business."
--- Lindsay Eierman, Student, University of Pennsylvania
"Ben's message not only to established entrepreneurs, but to entrepreneurs-to-be, is full of inspiration when dealing with the new 21st century world. I am including this book in my course Entrepreneurship for Scientists and Engineers as a must-read reference".
--- Dr. Alberto Correa, Professor, The University of Texas at El Paso
Otto Penzler has an amusing reflection in the New York Sun on last week's Book Expo of America at the Javits Center. I was there, and sympathize with all his emotions. The sheer scale was astounding: a gazillion publishers, authors, agents, and most of all, books! Who said the publishing industry is dead?
Wandering around the convention center and chatting with people, I became aware of how much I've learned in just a few months. I am familiar with most imprints of most major publishers; I know how bestseller lists work, how Amazon processes orders, and how bookstores decide to stock books; I know how Barnes & Noble arranges books; I understand the author-agent-publisher relationship; I know a bunch of people in the book publicity world. And yet even with all this learning, I still feel like a newbie! The world of publishing is so vast and so complicated (and so messed up, in many ways).
All in all, though, it was pretty energizing to be in an environment with 30,000 people passionate about books and the business of delivering them to readers.
Here's a photo of my co-author (on my new project) Tom Kuegler and our agent Lisa DiMona, and then a photo of Ron Hogan of Galleycat and me.
Marty Nemko is probably the top career coach in the country, editing the career section for U.S. News & World Report as well as hosting a popular radio show in the Bay Area. I had the pleasure of being a guest on his show the other week and we chatted for thirty minutes. Here's the link (Real Player only). Below are the show notes / his questions. I actually haven't listened to it yet, but I recall an entertaining conversation.
1:50 – Do you really have any doubts that entrepreneurship is The Way?
2:30 – Why not being a medical researcher or heading a non-profit or being a government leader?
3:15 – Is your motivation really is to change the world?
3:30 – If your motivation is a pie, what percentage of the pie is to make big bucks? What percentage is to change the world? The percentage to make fun? What is the real ratio for Ben?
4:06 – I was fascinated by the way you spend a typical day; I want you to describe in micro detail, start from the minute you wake up. Tell me what time you wake up and tell me microscopically what you do because in the details are lots of clues to what makes you different than the millions of nineteen year olds are lacking.
4:31 – Did you cut classes in all of those days?
6:27 – You and me have a drive to get a ton done, how many hours a week would you say you are working?
7:05 – Can you, from your nineteen year old perspective, do you have any ideas as to what differentiates nuts like us from other folks?
7:35 – Were you not motivated before those people?
8:30 – Would you call happy somebody like Mother Teresa who died in poverty helping people, living in squalor and fighting malaria and all of that. I would say that she was content which in my judgment should be the goal of life, but I certainly cannot define that as happy.
9:34 – Could you describe high school for us please?
10:29 – Tell me something more, give me a specific anecdote that comes to mind about your high school life. I know you spent a lot of time cutting and going and doing your business and then going back to school, but you’re still got school and you’re still very much a part of that community. You play basketball for your high school. Give me an anecdote that exemplifies the BS of high school life.
12:38 – Why would you go to college rather than follow the rule of Steve Case or Michael Dell?
12:58 – Opportunity costs means that instead of spending a hundred and fifty thousand, or any brand name school, and years of time when your mind and energy is at its absolute maximum, think what a guy with a potential like Ben Casnocha could be doing in not just starting a business but experiencing and learning and even the dabbling you were saying, look at that as the opportunity cost.
15:00 – One of the things that you’ve done well is you network well. How much of that is simply…you’re a nice guy, you’re an interesting guy, you’re smart, you’re a verbal guy, you’re a handsome guy…very easy to network! What advice do you have for the rest of us who don’t make a great first impression?
15:34 – What if you’re shy? Studies show that 41% of people are shy. What if you’re one of those 41%?
16:35 – One of your great networking successes was you got to attend the Keiretsu Forum and thereby met a billionaire. Walk me through the steps of how you networked your way into that.
18:26 – How did you meet Marc Benioff? I mean Salesforce.com is one of the hottest hosted software companies in the world. How did you meet him?
22:00 – Do you believe that you would have been significantly less successful in the absence of your father? Your father’s tutelage and/or the lead he initially gave you?
23:42 – Tell us about the BlackBerry story.
24:55 – Since then have you checked your Blackberry in the car?
29:56 – What keeps you up at night? What do really think hard about?
31:42 – Being an entrepreneur is the key to being sure you’ll never be obsolete. Do you buy that?
I've always loved haiku. And with my new interest in all things Japan, my interest in haiku has risen correspondingly. (Female sources also whisper from the shadows that poetry helps a man get in touch with his soft side?)
The best haiku experiment I've done was for my birthday last year, when I asked dozens of adult friends what they regret not doing when they were younger. Many answered, per my request, in haiku form.
Last week venture capitalist Brad Feld asked his readers to submit their best haikus with the word "start-up" in it. We're happy to announce the winner, Scott Yates, who will receive an autographed copy of my book My Start-Up Life in the mail:
startups, like parents,
get heaps of good, bad advice.
which bits to ignore?
There were several other good entries which you can read in the comments to Brad's post. One last-second entry made me chuckle:
Jack Bauer start-up
damnit damnit damnit damn
it damnit damnit
In other book news, here are some reviews that have been trickling in from early readers (who I don't know personally):
"Ben holds nothing back in his account, describing all the successes and failures, good decisions and mistakes that he experienced along the way. For anyone interested in the entrepreneurial process, this account will prove very revealing."
- David Wilson
"What's...jaw opening is the level of wisdom and self-awareness he displays. A simply written yet remarkably direct, honest, and, yes, a bit heart-wrenching account about a lost teenagerhood."
- Barbara Jacobs, American Library Association
"When it comes right down to it, this book should help everyone realize that if you want to get somewhere, you have to continuously battle through sticky situations with an undying desire to learn, willingness to teach yourself, eagerness to find new information, an egoless disposition that makes it easy to ask for help when you need it, and on a very basic level, how to continue putting one foot in front of the other. On a lighter note...this story will not only give you inspiration, but will make you spit coffee if you are not careful. For such a young writer, you wouldn't expect the entertainment level of the book to be so high. But it is."
- In Bubble Wrap, Business Book Reviews from 800CEORead.com.
"Even if you're not an entrepreneur, this book offers lots of great anecdotes and ideas that will help you do any job better or improve your career path.... He has a crisp, clear writing style that wastes little time on platitudes and navel-gazing and focuses more on sharing his lessons learned and vision."
- Chip Griffen
"If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, this book will give you the kick in the ass you need to start doing something about it."
- Ryan Healey
I'm pleased to announce that my book is the #1 Mover and Shaker on Amazon.com today (out of millions of books).
The book is also listed in Amazon's "Hot Releases" page.
What's the buzz about? Find out for yourself by buying a copy today. If you forward me your Amazon email receipt by midnight tonight (Monday) you'll be entered to win a free dinner on me in San Francisco this summer!
Help me beat Harry Potter and The Secret. Buy my book today!
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