Entrepreneurship Memoir

Uma das mais bem-sucedidas histórias de empreendedorismo do Brasil começou com uma demissão. Em 2001, Guilherme Benchimol iniciava sua carreira no mercado financeiro carioca quando perdeu o emprego. Envergonhado, decidiu fugir do Rio de Janeiro: pegou o carro e dirigiu quase 20 horas até Porto Alegre, onde, longe dos principais centros financeiros do país, fundou uma modesta empresa de investimentos, a XP, numa salinha de 25 metros quadrados.

A single mother of four, Angie Cella, dreamed one night about a device that put gems in her hair. She woke up thinking she would invent it, because she loved what she had seen. A few weeks later, she had a second dream. In this one, God told her, “I want you to make this product.” As a woman with a burgeoning faith who’d been waiting for just this kind of direction, Angie spent the next several years navigating the tough and often painful - yet ultimately gratifying - road to success.

From the small country town of Abbotsford to the skyscrapers of New York, this book shares the hard-learned lessons and captivating story of the start-up of Naked Boxer Briefs, a Nasdaq publicly-traded company that had A-list celebrity endorsements, raised over 17 million dollars, and sold its product in department stores around the world, including Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s.

Today's heads of big companies are as recognizable to us as the most popular entertainers or sports stars, but the heart and soul of every organization are those leaders below the CEO. Today's celebrity CEO has become either a figurehead or an egomaniac, and often too public a personality to get the real work done. That work is done instead by teams of leaders - exceptional deputies who forge great partnerships to maximize both organizational and personal success.

Why did Harsh Mariwala leave his family business? Why did the Burman family quit the day-to-day operations of Dabur? How did the Dhingras turn a collapsing business into India's second-largest paint company? The Inheritors offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at what goes on in Marico, Dabur, Keventers, Berger Paints, Select Group, Antara, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Luxor, and Motilal Oswal. The audiobook focuses on culture, family politics, ego battles, business rivalries, and a lot more. And then, of course, there are the inheritors themselves.

In this inspirational and informative book, Latham demonstrates how the power of sound entrepreneurial thinking can lead to positive results in the most daunting of circumstances. Latham’s company, Thermagon Inc., evolved as an offshoot of the explosive growth of silicon chips driving the computer industry and the information age. As a female, Latham defied all odds by successfully creating the products, the facilities, and the funding for a thriving and much sought-after company in a world of technology overwhelmingly dominated by men.

In the past 10 years, the Internet video platform YouTube has changed media and entertainment as profoundly as the invention of film, radio, and television did more than six decades earlier. Streampunks is a firsthand account of this upstart company, examining how it evolved and where it will take us next.

Richard Branson, one of the world's most famous and admired business leaders, argues that it's time to turn capitalism upside down - to shift our values from an exclusive focus on profit to also caring for people, communities and the planet. As he writes: "It's a vibrant and definite sea change from the way business was always done, when financial profit was a driving force. Today, people aren't afraid to say, Screw business as usual!-and show they mean it."

When 21-year-old Michael Dell asked E. Lee Walker to be the president of his fledgling computer company, PC’s Limited, Walker, in his mid-40s, immediately thought about all the people who had helped him through life - as an undergraduate at Texas A&M, a graduate student at Harvard, and a once-young entrepreneur himself. As he and Dell created the foundation of what would become one of the most successful companies in the world, Walker was guided by the lessons of his past business ventures, his belief in the power of imagination, and his relationships with people.

In 2001, Adam Neumann arrived in New York after five years as a conscript in the Israeli navy. Just over 15 years later, he had transformed himself into the charismatic CEO of a company worth $47 billion. With his long hair and feel-good mantras, the six-foot-five Neumann looked the part of a messianic Silicon Valley entrepreneur. The vision he offered was mesmerising: a radical reimagining of work space for a new generation. He called it WeWork.

Leigh Perkins bought Orvis in 1965 and over the next thirty years would revolutionize the catalog industry as he successfully blended his love for the outdoors with his business acumen. A Sportsman's Life is the story of a man, his company, and his love of the outdoors, his commitment to conservation, and his infectious enthusiasm for the good life.

In Beer School, authors and entrepreneurs Steve Hindy and Tom Potter share the improbable saga of Brooklyn Brewery, the company they grew from a home-brew hobby into a multimillion-dollar business - all in the most competitive beer market in the United States. If you have a thirst for entrepreneurial success, drink up. If you are a business manager or owner and want fresh ideas and insight, tap in. You'll learn entrepreneurial basics, plus some things textbooks don't teach you, as you follow the company's successes (and a few failures).

In Catch of the Decade, two of Australia's most successful online superstars reveal how they've built, launched, merged, and sold some of the most disruptive businesses in Australia today: Catch, Scoopon, Menulog, and Luxury Escapes. This book contains little-known secrets and strategies that will help you shorten your learning curve, avoid mistakes, and bring your business dream alive.

George Washington: general, statesman...businessman? Most people don't know that Washington was the country's first true entrepreneur, responsible for innovations in several industries. In George Washington, Entrepreneur, John Berlau presents a fresh, surprising take on our forefather's business pursuits. History has depicted Washington as a gifted general and political pragmatist, not an intellectual heavyweight. But he was a serious inventor and inveterate tinkerer and just as intelligent as Jefferson or Franklin.

Elon Musk fait partie de ceux qui changent les règles du jeu. Largement considéré comme le plus grand industriel du moment, il porte l'innovation à des niveaux rarement atteints au point d'avoir servi de modèle pour Tony Stark, alias Iron Man. À 44 ans, il a monté en quelques années une entreprise, Tesla, qui révolutionne l'industrie automobile, une autre, SpaceX, qui concurrence Arianespace. Il a auparavant bouleversé le marché des paiements avec PayPal. Son objectif ultime : coloniser Mars.

When Ashton Kutcher first heard about 50 Cent's nine-figure Vitaminwater windfall in 2007, the actor realized he'd been missing out. He soon followed the rapper's formula - seeking equity instead of cash for endorsement deals - but with a twist: as the first person to top one million Twitter followers, Kutcher leveraged his social reach to accumulate stakes in a vast range of user-hungry tech startups. A decade later, Kutcher is perhaps the brightest in a firmament of star investors from Beyoncé and Jay-Z to Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez.

Roland Martin is a name synonymous with excellence in journalism and entrepreneurship, particularly within the Black community. Through his prolific career in media and his ventures in business, Martin has not only broken barriers, but has also been a relentless advocate for social justice and equality.

Facebook's founding is legend: In a Harvard dorm, wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg invented a new way to connect with friends...and the rest is history. But for the people who actually molded this great idea into a game-changing $300 billion company, the experience was far more tumultuous and uncertain than we might expect. Mike Hoefflinger was one of those Facebook insiders.

Have you ever been curious what happens when you take a leap of faith into entrepreneurship? Unfulfilled in her corporate job, and frustrated with dating app options, I Failed, is a humorous recounting of Whitney Linscott’s attempt to launch a dating app. This book pulls the curtain back on what it's really like to be an entrepreneur and has more twists, turns, and hair raising scares than a roller coaster at a carnival that was assembled by a drunk orangutan.

The Bet: An Entrepreneur’s All-In Strategy to Win in Business is a one-of-a-kind road map for an entrepreneur's business, filled with inspiring and sometimes funny anecdotes from Jay's own life that show how entrepreneurial endeavors require a certain spirit, drive, and intelligence to make it in the competitive world that is business. True entrepreneurs like Jay will only become motivated by his life, his lessons, and his passion to help others grow.