Book review # 22 The Launch Pad 

If you read the inner cover of this book it will said that its about investment firm  Y combinators which is a famous incubator for startups in Silicon valley. The book is about Paul Graham, a visionary in this business who has funded many successful start-ups. 

In the first chapter of this book Graham said

“If you start a startups, you will probably fail. Most startups fail. It’s the nature of the business. But it’s not necessarily a mistake to try something that has a 90 percent change of failing, if you can afford the risk. Failing at forty, when you have family to support could be serious. But if you fail at twenty-two, so what? If you try to start a startup right out of college and it tanks, you will end up twenty-three broke and a lot smarter. Which, if you think about it, is roughly what you hope to get from a graduate program. “

Brilliant guy isn’t he? 

However, after finish this book, I believe this is the book about determination, the story of people who wants to be different, who wants to stand out, who believes is total devotion and perhaps who wants to change the world. 

They all start off small, some of them end up where they start but a lot smarter, some of them end up big. Neither, all of them inspires generations to come. They are the seeds of the true revolution of this world. 

However, it does come with a hell of responsibility. As Graham said 

“Here we don’t fire you. The market fires you, If you are sucking, I’m not going to run along behind you saying  You’re sucking, you’re sucking, c’mon, stop sucking.”

Graham stress that the most successful startups are the ones that completely remove all distractions. “ They just sleep, eat, exercise and program” that’s the kind of devotion you need to have. Forget parties, movies, long sleep or  fancy dinners. It’s just 30 mins jogging in the morning, 16 hours of work and 5 hours of sleep and tons of frozen food  along the way. 

That’s what built greatest companies in the world in this century 

As Harj Tagger, 19, and Oxford University student and cofounder of Auctomatic, which was acquired by Canadian media company for $5Million, wrote

its suddenly dawns on you that there’s actually a chance you can succeed  despite stupids odds. Logically speaking you can argue success stories there’s a hundred failures, you might say. And you might well be right. The point is that sometimes you just need to forget what logic tells you and just go after something because you want it that bad - YC gives you the belief to do that by placing you in the perfect environment. 

 

What you will definitely learn from the book,  more than anything, is that devotion is what makes these start ups a success story. 

Is this book for everyone, I certainly don’t think so. You will definitely enjoy more of this book if you are in the IT business. But generally it is good for all people who wants to start a startups. 

8.5/10

Cheers

Tab