I was in New York a couple of weeks ago and dropped into Barnes and Noble @ Union Square - far and away my favourite bookstore - to grab a bunch of books not readily available in Australia. (Actually, I "dropped in" about 4 times!). A couple are absolute gems, particularly Made to Stick and Founders At Work.
Founders At Work is a collection of interviews by Jessica Livingston, a partner at YCombinator, with founders of successful and interesting startups such as PayPal, Flickr, RIM, Hotmail and Apple.
It's a fantastic book absolutely jam packed with nuggets of entrepreneurial gold and no hint of filler. The sequential format makes it very easy to read in bits and pieces.
There are a couple of threads that weave their way throughout the whole book:
Your first big idea is seldom your best idea.
Financial (and other) constraints enforce creativity.
I was surprised at how many great companies were formed to create something quite different to their breakthrough product. Hotmail, for example, was born out of necessity whilst trying to create a web database.
I think the lesson here is that the best time to start working on your own big idea is right now. I'd better go get started then, eh?
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