Technology has advanced at a very fast rate in the last decade. What is more important is that it has also become affordable, and its applications available to all. Fast development along with affordability has not only benefited the consumer, but also the producers and more importantly, entrepreneurs.
How? That is what Bold: How to Go Big Create Wealth and Impact the World is about. Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler show you how technological developments in the last couple of decades have hurled business and innovation in a higher orbit.
Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World
Authors: Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler Pages: 336 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster (February 3, 2015) ISBN-10: 1476709564, 978-1476709567
The authors begin with a lesson in history and show us how technology is on the path of exponential growth. The point is that you need to build businesses for tomorrow’s technology and constantly reinvent yourself. They explain this with example of Kodak that pioneered the portable camera, but soon had to reinvent themselves to compensate for loss of their main revenue source – camera film – with advent of digital camera. The authors explain their views adhering to the ‘Show, don’t tell’ mantra with examples from world’s leading corporations and entrepreneurs.
In Five to Change the World, the authors discuss the key exponential growth areas and how they are changing our world. These developments in hardware and software present numerous opportunities to entrepreneurs to think boldly and create new products and services that never existed.
However, exponential technology by itself is not enough to birth successful businesses. To use this amazing power of technology, entrepreneurs need to think big. Bold Mindset shares various examples, business processes, and the psychology of thinking big and thinking bold.
Although technology has not yet solved humanity’s most pressing problems, it has made participation of masses possible. Information and communication technology developments have made it possible for everyone to let their opinions and views heard. Anyone with a cell phone can now have their day in the ‘court’ by simply tweeting to the Prime Minster or the President. And this is where the true power of crowd sourcing lies.
The last part of the book, The Bold Crowd, discusses the power of crowd and the value of small. Businesses can now recruit thousands to code software, get feedback on designs and features, and create products that the masses already like (because they are the ones who have voted for the features).
Cash strapped entrepreneurs can go to this same multitude and ask for that first round of finance as a loan or as a donation. The possibilities of harnessing this power of the eager young are limitless, and you will hear the best of these opportunities from the authors here.
Bold is an amazing resource for anyone who is awed by the technological advances, but not sure how it impacts their business now and in the near future. For entrepreneurs standing on the cusp of launching a product, the book gives the much needed tools to insulate their business idea from the rapid changes and to employ current technology and business processes to make their venture successful and sustainable.
Peter Diamandis interviewed by Mike Koenigs
Other Books from the authors:
