Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson. 2011. ISBN 9781451648539. This book has been on my Kindle forever. I had a chance during the holidays to finally get to it.   It was simply  delightful.  Unvarnished, no fan boy prose, just a good story.   The author was able to acknowledge the reality distortion field and rise above it to see what was going on.  I have probably read every book and article I could find about Jobs, but this book really wraps the whole story up. Lots of quotes from others and lots of pure Steve.  If you choose to read this – your time is well spent. I found it inspirational and full of good learning.

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Seizing Our Destiny. 2012s best communities to live, work, grow and prosper in. Robert Bell, John Jung & Louis Zacharilla 2012. ISBN 9781477635797. Published by www.intelligentcommunity.org.   If you want to find out how Quebec has been able to devastate BC’s gaming industry, read this book.  (Its also likely that Federal and Provincial funds were used) . Seven cities are detailed as to how they have been able to be innovative and grow jobs when others are losing them.  The cities described include Quebec City, Riverside California, Saint John NB, Stratford  On., Oulu FIN,  and Tuichung City, Taiwan.   None of these are big cities in their respective countries but they have been able to grow against the world trends.  And it is all because they understand that it needs process, structure and people to make it work.  So simple it is brilliant.  A small but insightful book , great for  short trip.   The five attributes of Intelligent cites are:

1. Broadband connectivity (Low cost fiber optics – as a community utility)
2. Knowledge workforce – which needs to be developed and supported
3. Digital inclusion. Policies and funding to ensure the have nos can also be included
4. Innovation.  Just like it is a needed in business, cities need it too to build the businesses needed
5. Marketing and advocacy. Some hire a city manager skilled in economic development = tell the story skillfully

The Top 10 Distinctions Between Entrepreneurs and Employees. Keith Cameron Smith. 2012. ISBN 9780345535504.  A little book, full of great insights. The author has the ability to clearly and simply articulate and then expand on what makes the difference.  E.g. Distinction no 1. Entrepreneurs take risks because of faith. Employees play it safe because of fear.  This is a worthwhile addition to your self help library.  One of those books that bears multiple re-readings.

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The Launch Pad. Inside Y combinator Silicon Valley’s most exclusive school for startups.  Randall Stross. 2012. ISBN  9781591845294. The author( a good  writer)  spent the summer of 2011 with the 64 start-ups funded by Y combinator and recored what happens.  It is three month uber intensive (selective 3% of applicants get in)  program ending in a marathon Demo Day in front of several hundred qualified investors.  The book has similarities to Tracey Kidders 1981 classic , The Soul of New Machine,  in that all the covers are off and you get to look right into how it is done – warts and all.  This makes this a new classic.  Y Combinator is really Paul Graham the founder, and his core of follow on investors who put up $150 00 for every company that demos.   About 2/3   of the companies each session get even more follow on investing, 1/3 a small amount more and 1/5  none at all.  The success rate shows that by 2010,  Dropbox exited for more than  the next 199 all together , and No 2 OMGPOP exited for more than the next 198 cos altogether. Perhaps you can add up 21 of non exiting stars who had a value of $ 4.7 b. So the odds are long, but this model appears to work better than any other startup model.   You need highly selective auditions, companies that had a killer coder and a killer salesperson,  non stop attention to the job at hand and sufficient guaranteed follow on  funding to make the time/effort  expended worth the while of the participants.

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