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References

InsideSpin hopefully contains a great deal of insightful material. It represents a culmination of experience from a number of working careers, enhanced by a variety of excellent 3rd party readings. There is no claim of uniqueness (except perhaps in the approach I took to the nature of the collection of material).

This section documents a handful of the key publications that underpin the style and approach InsideSpin has taken to espouse how entrepreneurs seek excellence. Please read all of these materials to add them to your mental repertoire, even if there are only the two (for now).

Title

Author

Commentary

The Alchemist Paulo Coelho You will be hit immediately by the first few pages in terms of how insightful the author identifies 4 key obstacles that we all face preventing achievement of our lifelong goals and dreams -- we are told from a young age everything we want to do is impossible, we are afraid to hurt those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue a dream, we fear defeat, we inherently fear the realization of the dream. To be a successful entrepreneur, these obstacles need to be overcome and only a few who try, overcome them all. I have seen this in the pursuit of my career and often find myself seeing these obstacles materialize in the businesses I encounter. It's an excellence book and highly relevant if you intend on heading down the entrepreneurial path.
     
Crossing the Chasm Geoffrey Moore Crossing the Chasm lays out, in a very insightful way, key operating principals that should be followed throughout the life cycle of a market. It provides guidelines that can help make key decisions in emerging markets through to aging markets which, among other things, encourages the business leader to be adaptive in the way they organize business plans and set operational objectives. It focuses extensively on the challenges of preparing for and breaking through into the main stream opportunity most young companies pursue. I admit to being a huge Chasm fan, not for the specifics of what is in the book, but for the concepts captured in its pages and the insightful way in which the author encourages you to think. I had the opportunity to participate in a working seminar facilitated by Geoffrey early in his career and walked away feeling many of my thoughts crystallized by his words and concepts. I have carried this insightful approach throughout my career and attribute much of PlateSpin's success to what I learned in those early days.