As much as I want to be a better Software Developer, I feel other skills like soft skills, business and entrepreneurship skills has to be developed too. To improve my writing I felt having a personal blog I can post would go a long way in catapulting me to my lofty height as far as writing is concerned. As a developer, I'm more interested in the impacts my code will have on the world, not just for writing's sake. Even I love working on tools with great applicability. Who knows if they'll become the next Facebook? Smiles. Since the impact is my keyword, I felt having a quality entrepreneurial skill in addition to my coding skill we help me reach more people. In essence, create more value by delivering it to others.
Agenda
Today, I will be sharing with you some of the books on my read list with a summary of what I've learned from each in my quest to better my entrepreneurial skills. Books are boring Ehn! Trust us they aren't as boring as you think. In addition to becoming a good reader as you read, you may also become a good writer. The best people at writing that I know are also good at reading. They've read a lot, therefore they have a very wide knowledgebase. I'll end this with a popular saying.
Readers as leaders.
My List
Below are some of the books on my shelf.
It gives me a broad overview of business models. In this book, the author divided any form of business into 9 building blocks namely: Customer segment, Value proposition, Key resource, key Activities, channel, Cost structure, Customer relationship, key partners and revenue stream. A business model gives us an overview of what a business is made up of. Say, you want to pitch an investor. A business will help you concisely explain your business. Care to learn more.
This book is one of my favourites, its pages are minimal. Yet it contains a lot of proven facts on how to talk to your user, assuming you've built a product. As Steve Blank used to say: Get out of the building. He believes building a great product won't be enough. Your ability to speak with enough customers is what will make the difference. And this book will prepare you for that. Trust me! It has helped me. The ability to talk to user will not only make you a better communicator, but it will also enable you to build effective products with wide adoptions. From a side project to a fully-fledged software project, talking to human will help you get better as a developer.
This book is the LOML (love of my life) for now, as they say at where I come from. I've taken it as a companion and I strive to follow its teachings religiously. Steve Blank is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur with experiences building good companies. Below are the points I can highlight from his book:
- Startup is not a smaller version of large companies.
- Startup is an organization in search of a profitable, and scalable business model.
- Most job titles in most startups are irrelevant.
- Do things that don't scale. You'll get better as you work with customers.
- And lastly my favourite: Get out of the building. Don't just build.
The lessons in the book are endless. This work is worth reading if you dream of building your own company one day just like me.
And finally,
Luckily, this is the book I'm reading presently. It is all about tracking, prioritization and measuring the right metrics in companies. And also, how companies like Google, Intel, remind and so on, have used OKR to drive their growth. I became fascinated with the concept of OKR when a CEO I admired a lot posted about it. It is a great read try it out.
Thank you for following through till the end, let me know what you think in the comment section and I'll see you next week.