lucas

Heard great things about Godin, but I think I should have started with an earlier book. This is a very silly, sophomoric rant chock full of Terminator 2 language like "The Resistance" used ad nauseam. The author spends an exhaustive amount of time talking about "creating art," and yet, at the end of the book, the term "art" is still left just as ambiguous as words like "success" or "happiness." Fun to talk about (cue the violins) but ultimately, not at all actionable. Godin suggests that people should fight against "The Resistance" by not using bullet point in their power point presentations and by not answering emails. These are the non-conformist dreams of a high school student convinced he's going to wear torn jeans and run the world. If you want to be indispensable, what you need to do is outperform everyone around you. Period. No book needed. And you had better be able to answer emails and had better be able to use bullets in your Power Points. It's not romantic, fun or as ambiguous as creating "art," but that's how stuff gets done. Renegades have and will continue to shape business, sure, but they first understood it. They knew the rules before they broke them. And first and foremost they had SKILLS. Today's cookie cutter workforce is only possible because people lack real skills. They have B.S degrees that are totally worthless in practical application. They can't chop wood or weld iron or write well or paint. So they come to an office and answer phones or go to a factory and gut chickens. Or they manage a Starbucks for the heath benefits. This is only sad if you assume that people HATE those jobs, and that's not an assumption you can make. Millions of people are happy as clams to put parts on a conveyor belt, thrilled to bits to sort mail, and totally content getting told what to do (you'll find, most people thrive with strong authority).

Most business books are rubbish... this is a gem. Read it again and again. Absolutely priceless.

Like 90% of non-fiction these days, a simple essay would deliver the same idea just as effectively as an entire book. Same here... great ideas, but no need for a book. 1 to 2 chapters could have done it.

This is a very interesting story of startup success, but very much a fluke. Seeing as tons of entrepreneurs are reading this books, the big danger is to try to model Hsieh's strategy to find success themselves. While I truly believe that customer service is the future of sales and vitally important, it's important to remember that Zappos was nearly bankrupt multiple times and if not for linkexchange cash, it would never have been. Happiness didn't save the business. Seed money did. Not a criticism in any way, but an important thing to note... you can't happy your way to success alone. You need a solid business model and cash.

This book's best seller status and acclaims are purely manufactured. It's really not worth reviewing. It's just a bad book.