This post’s about me reflecting on issues affecting everyone. I thought I’d share my musings here, please feel free to participate.

The music business is under siege. So are print publications, the auto industry and some more that you can think to add.

The Milk’s All Over The Grass

We’re in a recession and many industries are in trouble, but are (more…)

I finally made time to read Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days by Jessica Livingston

Founders At Work Book

Wow! What an interesting and insightful book! It’s just one of those books that you wish you had read when they hit the shelves, and it leaves you with strange but exciting feeling that you could not possibly have gained the knowledge within from any other source.

From The Horses’ Mouth

The book contains candid one-on-one interviews between the author and 32 entrepreneurs, most of whom have built the most successful tech businesses in the world today.

Lessons On Relevance

What struck me is the fact that most of these success stories originally started out with a different business idea from what eventually made them successful. The challenges they faced and their accidental discoveries make you realise that the tech business world could easily have been a different place than what we know and take for granted today.

My favourite stories are from the early days of computing (Lotus, Apple Computer, Adobe Systems, Software Arts, WAIS, and RIM). There isn’t a single interview that I did not find interesting.

The Rocky Road

I was bowled over by the humorous escapades of Paul Graham (Y-Combinator) and Evan Williams* (Blogger.com) – Things went horribly wrong yet these folks kept going even with little or no money.
*Evan Williams sold Blogger.com to Google and went on to co-found twitter.com with Biz Stone

Not many people can claim to have inspired new University programs. These folks can and I recommend this book to anyone in the tech business and everyone who isn’t.

Be warned, once you start reading itll be hard to put this book down

Have you read it yet? What are your thoughts?

Blogging is still a mystery to most people, let alone businesses, who are likely to dismiss it as “Just a fad”, “Kiddie stuff”, etc.

I have personally struggled to explain to business clients why the inclusion of a blog is important to their online presence. The conversation usually veers towards the client thinking I’m pitching a way to broadcast press releases. This is how it usually ends:

Client: 1, Me: 0

That’s because social internet platforms are still really hard to explain in a business context. Heck, Twitter is hard to explain!

This was a thorny issue until I found this great free e-book made available by iCrossing, experts in web search technology headquartered in the UK.

Don’t let the word ‘e-book’ scare you into thinking this is a thick bible of techical pages on blogging. Far from it. The book is 24-pages (cover-to-cover) of easy reading wich can be finished over two cups of coffee (or a couple of cigarettes, sandwitch, brandy and whatever else rocks your boat).

What I like about it is that it give straight, easy to understand answers to the most asked questions:

Why should my company start blogging?

What are the benefits?

What’s the best way to do it?

What about the costs?

This book is not just for companies. Anyone who wants to learn about blogging will find it indispensable. Even pro-bloggers will find a thing or  two they hadn’t thought of.

Grab yourself a copy (pdf)

Read the book intro post by iCrossing