The Book How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World’s Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs isn’t a book.
It’s more like a collection of advice and how-to’s based on the many interviews the host Guy Raz held with successful entrepreneurs for his famous podcast that wears a similar name: How I built this by Guy Raz.
Funny enough though I did get some thought nuggets from the book so all in all, I wouldn’t consider the book a waste of my time. I got something out of it, and that’s what counts in the end. Read on for a more in-depth review and some unfiltered thoughts How I Built This.
How is the book written?
It’s not a single cohesive story; it’s a collection of stories and anecdotes stitched together from the many people that Guy has interviewed over the years. From these interviews, Guy saw patterns emerge that he strang together into an entrepreneurial timeline.
And that’s precisely how the book is structured, as a set of events or circumstances that a founder with high ambitions might encounter in their days of hardship while trying to make their company a success.
Every chapter is a step of the way with companion advice based on entrepreneurial experiences from some of the successful businessmen and women Guy has interviewed of the years.
This makes the book quite hard to read. It’s not a cohesive story, and I get that it isn’t intended that way, but some business books have a particular flow that makes one chapter logically go into the other. I did not get that feeling with How I built this. Every chapter felt like a new chapter in a heroes journey where the hero would be a different person every chapter. It wasn’t fascinating since it’s so chronological.
There was no more profound connection between the tips, tricks and advice. It felt like a cookie-cutter ‘let’s make a book out of the juiciest content from our’ podcast book. And that is how it read.
What problems do I have with the how-to book?
It just feels like it’s slapped together.
I get Guy has spoken to many entrepreneurs over the years and learned a lot from them. I genuinely believe that’s the case. But the book feels cheap. Many of the anecdotes from the book are old and are copied from the podcast. I bought the book because I expected insights from the book that I could not get from the podcast, but this was not the case.
I felt like everything I read in the book already came across in the podcast. There were no new nuggets or insights. Just a slapped-together collection of insights from different podcasts and strung together into a how-to list where you get the answer for every step at the way.
And then my opinion about the answers. It’s just so unscientific and so based on N of 1 anecdote. Sometimes N becomes 2 or 3 but for the most part that’s it. The book and its substance are so subject to survivorship bias my eyes started to bleed.
And I get it. These successful people are inspiring, and yes, I think their stories are informative, they indeed are. But I would have expected some objectiveness in the book. It read like only truths were spoken without any caveats or second opinions given.
For me, it would have been refreshing to see some alternating insights from people that might have also tried but failed. A section on failure and the lessons from that would also make the book more unique. Maybe for a second edition?
So, did How I Built this give me any value?
Like I said in the intro, funny enough the book gave me some exciting and meaningful insights. As an entrepreneur myself, I tend to be over obsessive with self-improvement and productivity gains.
I know that more knowledge isn’t the key to more success because if that were the case, we would all be billionaires with six-pack abs by now, but still, I tend to read non-fiction books because or the rare though nuggets that might pop up once in a while when you read something.
And guess what, How I built this gave me two crucial thought nuggets. (Check out this article to understand what thought nuggets are.)
As a founder I set the standards in my company, I choose what the company’s values should be, and as the founder, you should map out a set of ethical values based on your own beliefs. I’ve lost this idea in the past two years. I’ve lost my own beliefs, and I haven’t acted on them at all.
The book has shown me that as a founder, I should take this more serious, and I should try to do everything to establish a culture in which I would like to work myself.
Which gets me to the second insight: I’m not building my company for myself anymore. I don’t know who I’m doing it at this moment in time, but it’s not essential. I’m not thinking about myself. I’m not enjoying the process anymore like I used to do. The book showed me that especially during the later section, when Guy goes into the story behind Founder of the Outdoor fashion brand Patagonia.
Significant insights, right? Life-changing right? Not so much, these thoughts were lingering in my brain for a while, and the book just crystalized them and made them come up. Which is important in itself. I have to give credit where credit is due.
I will act on these insights, and I will focus on enjoying the process more. I need to find joy again. And I will find it. Trust me; I will.
In the end, when I make up the balance, I think the book was hard to read, not so much fun, not very original since its all content from the podcast, but in the end, it did spark a few interesting thoughts which made the book worth reading—a mixed bag of feelings.
How I’d advise you to read this book
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur and you want to be inspired yourself, I wouldn’t recommend you this book. There are plenty more inspiring books on entrepreneurship out there. If you’re going to start a business you shouldn’t be reading about it, you should be a) working on the company, b) building out your product or service, or c) talking about it to others through speaking engagements, marketing or direct selling. Please do not read this book if you want to get inspired.
This book is for those entrepreneurs that want to see how some of the most successful have dealt with specific scenarios that we’re thrown at them. It’s no more than that. And always remember the principle of survivorship bias when reading the anecdotes. Use the insights in the book but don’t take them for truths. Always take this type of stories and information with a grain of salt.
In the end, while reading, you might get lucky like I was and find a thought nugget.
Check out the book for yourself, and hopefully, you’ll find some value in the book as well.
Good luck with your journey, and have a great day!
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