Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.
Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.
The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.
Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.
The Challenge
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning.
But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?
The Study
For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?
The Standards
Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.
The Comparisons
The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good?
Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't.
The Findings
The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include:
- Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness.
- The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence.
- A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology.
- The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.
“Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.”
Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?
Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.
Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.
Learn how to:
- make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
- overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
- design your environment to make success easier;
- get back on track when you fall off course;
...and much more.
Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.
Audible, an Amazon company, has the world’s largest selection of audiobooks and original ad-free audio shows. Whatever your passion, your interests, or favorite authors, there’s a perfect listen for you.
Listen to great storytelling narrated by A-list celebrities or audiobooks about A-list celebrities. Turn a chair into the best seat in the house while you listen to a full-cast performance. Turn everyday jogs into adventures. With our free app, audiobooks go where you go. Even if you switch devices, you’ll never lose your place.
Start your free 30-day trial
✓ Free membership for 30 days with 1 audiobook + 2 Audible Originals.
✓ After trial, 3 titles each month: 1 audiobook + 2 Audible Originals.
✓ Exclusive audio-guided wellness programs.
How to use this Hack?
- Download your favorite audiobook and listen to some of your favorite audiobooks. You can listen at a faster speed (e.g. 2x or 3x speed)
Book summary app that gives you key ideas and insights from the world's bestsellers. Read or listen – choose your format and grow on the go!
This is for the lifetime deal on AppSumo!
The 10th anniversary edition of the bestselling foundational business training manual for ambitious readers, featuring new concepts and mental models: updated, expanded, and revised.
Many people assume they need to attend business school to learn how to build a successful business or advance in their career. That's not true. The vast majority of modern business practice requires little more than common sense, simple arithmetic, and knowledge of a few very important ideas and principles.
The Personal MBA 10th Anniversary Edition provides a clear overview of the essentials of every major business topic: entrepreneurship, product development, marketing, sales, negotiation, accounting, finance, productivity, communication, psychology, leadership, systems design, analysis, and operations management...all in one comprehensive volume.
Inside you'll learn concepts such as:
The 5 Parts of Every Business: You can understand and improve any business, large or small, by focusing on five fundamental topics.
The 12 Forms of Value: Products and services are only two of the twelve ways you can create value for your customers.
4 Methods to Increase Revenue: There are only four ways for a business to bring in more money. Do you know what they are?
Business degrees are often a poor investment, but business skills are always useful, no matter how you acquire them.
The Personal MBA will help you do great work, make good decisions, and take full advantage of your skills, abilities, and available opportunities--no matter what you do (or would like to do) for a living.
Learn what sets high achievers apart -- from Bill Gates to the Beatles -- in this #1 bestseller from "a singular talent" (New York Times Book Review).
In this stunning book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?
His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.
Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.
YOU WANT LESS.
You want fewer distractions and less on your plate. The daily barrage of e-mails, texts, tweets, messages, and meetings distract you and stress you out. The simultaneous demands of work and family are taking a toll. And what's the cost? Second-rate work, missed deadlines, smaller pay cheques, fewer promotions-and lots of stress.
AND YOU WANT MORE.
You want more productivity from your work. More income for a better lifestyle. You want more satisfaction from life, and more time for yourself, your family, and your friends.
NOW YOU CAN HAVE BOTH-LESS AND MORE.
In The ONE Thing, you'll learn to
cut through the clutter
achieve better results in less time
build momentum toward your goal
dial down the stress
overcome that overwhelmed feeling
revive your energy
stay on track
master what matters to you
The ONE Thing is the New York Times bestseller which delivers extraordinary results in every area of your life-work, personal, family, and spiritual.
WHAT'S YOUR ONE THING?
Achieve "Massive Action" results and accomplish your business dreams!
While most people operate with only three degrees of action-no action, retreat, or normal action-if you're after big goals, you don't want to settle for the ordinary. To reach the next level, you must understand the coveted 4th degree of action. This 4th degree, also know as the 10 X Rule, is that level of action that guarantees companies and individuals realize their goals and dreams.
The 10 X Rule unveils the principle of "Massive Action," allowing you to blast through business cliches and risk-aversion while taking concrete steps to reach your dreams. It also demonstrates why people get stuck in the first three actions and how to move into making the 10X Rule a discipline. Find out exactly where to start, what to do, and how to follow up each action you take with more action to achieve Massive Action results.
- Learn the "Estimation of Effort" calculation to ensure you exceed your targets
- Make the Fourth Degree a way of life and defy mediocrity
- Discover the time management myth
- Get the exact reasons why people fail and others succeed
- Know the exact formula to solve problems
Extreme success is by definition outside the realm of normal action. Instead of behaving like everybody else and settling for average results, take Massive Action with The 10 X Rule, remove luck and chance from your business equation, and lock in massive success.
Tim Ferriss shares some habits on how important it is to win the day by winning the morning.
Videos:
- Habit: How Top Performers Start Their Mornings - Tim Ferriss shares some habits of top performers during their morning routines.
- Habit: How to Create a Morning Routine - Tim Ferriss talks about creating a better morning routine.
About Tribe of Mentors
Tim Ferriss, the number-one New York Times best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, shares the ultimate choose-your-own-adventure book - a compilation of tools, tactics, and habits from 130+ of the world's top performers. From iconic entrepreneurs to elite athletes, from artists to billionaire investors, their short profiles can help you answer life's most challenging questions, achieve extraordinary results, and transform your life.
From the author:
In 2017, several of my close friends died in rapid succession. It was a very hard year, as it was for many people.
It was also a stark reminder that time is our scarcest, non-renewable resource.
With a renewed sense of urgency, I began asking myself many questions:
- Were my goals my own, or simply what I thought I should want?
- How much of life had I missed from underplanning or overplanning?
- How could I be kinder to myself?
- How could I better say “no” to the trivial many to better say “yes” to the critical few?
- How could I best reassess my priorities and my purpose in this world?
To find answers, I reached out to the most impressive world-class performers in the world, ranging from wunderkinds in their 20s to icons in their 70s and 80s. No stone was left unturned.
This book contains their answers - practical and tactical advice from mentors who have found solutions. Whether you want to 10x your results, get unstuck, or reinvent yourself, someone else has traveled a similar path and taken notes.
This book, Tribe of Mentors, includes many of the people I grew up viewing as idols or demi-gods. Less than 10% have been on my podcast (The Tim Ferriss Show, more than 200 million downloads), making this a brand-new playbook of playbooks.
No matter your challenge or opportunity, something in this audiobook can help.
Among other things, you will learn:
- More than 50 morning routines - both for the early riser and those who struggle to get out of bed.
- How TED curator Chris Anderson realized that the best way to get things done is to let go.
- The best purchases of $100 or less (you'll never have to think about the right gift again).
- How to overcome failure and bounce back towards success.
- Why Humans of New York creator Brandon Stanton believes that the best art will always be the riskiest.
- How to meditate and be more mindful (and not just for those that find it easy).
- Why tennis champion Maria Sharapova believe that “losing makes you think in ways victories can’t.”
- How to truly achieve work-life balance (and why most people tell you it isn’t realistic).
- How billionaire Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz transformed the way he engages with difficult situations to reduce suffering.
- Ways to thrive (and survive) the overwhelming amount of information you process every day.
- How to achieve clarity on your purpose and assess your priorities.
- And much more.