What You Do Is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz

[nelsonic]

Until we have our Library App up-and-running, I feel this is the best way to propose new books to read.

As mentioned in dwyl/product-owner-guide#46 Ben Horowitz is unquestionably one of the most successful product managers (and later startup investor/coach) in recent history.

I thoroughly enjoyed his previous book "The Hard Thing About Hard Things" and think that everyone interested in startups (or "management") should read (or listen to) it.

His new book was released this week: https://www.amazon.com/What-You-Do-Who-Are/dp/0062871331

And I think it has the potential to be even better than the last one.
The new book aims to help teams and businesses create a purposeful culture that can weather the good times and the bad.

In the book, Ben examines four intriguing models of leadership and culture-building well outside the usual business case studies:

• Haiti’s Toussaint Louverture, the leader of the only successful slave revolt in history
• the Samurai, who ruled Japan for seven hundred years and shaped modern Japanese culture
• Genghis Khan, who built the world’s largest empire
• Shaka Senghor, an American ex-con who created a formidable prison gang and ultimately transformed prison culture.

"If you don’t methodically set your culture, then two-thirds of it will end up being accidental and the rest will be a mistake."

"Your culture is who you are. Who you are is not the values you list on the wall. It’s not what you say at an all-hands. It’s not your marketing campaign. It’s not even what you believe. It’s what you do. What you do is who you are."

More detail: https://a16z.com/2019/10/10/ben-horowitz-what-you-do-is-who-you-are-proceeds

"Ben’s book is a great read – with uncomfortable truths about entrepreneurship and how to lead a company" ~ Larry Page

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/What-You-Do-Is-Who-You-Are-Audiobook/0008356149

@iteles thinking of spending this month's Audible credit on this book.
(we will still have 3 credits available so you can get anything else you are keen on ...)

Related:

• Ben and Marc Explain (Practically) Everything – Part 1:
  https://a16z.com/2014/08/25/a16z-podcast-ben-and-marc-explain-practically-everything-part-1
• Ben and Marc Explain (Practically) Everything – Part 2:
  https://a16z.com/2014/08/26/a16z-podcast-ben-and-marc-explain-practically-everything-part-2