The author went through the entire history of venture capital as his dad practically started the industry. It’s almost like a family business as his son, Tim, is also involved in the venture capital business. The book is thick with good stories and anecdotes of successes and failures. It’s not a how-to book to start your business but it did have a good explanations for each role of the players (funders, team, the pitch/product/market, deal and relationship) involved in funding a start up.

The top ten avoidable mistakes of entrepreneurs serve as good lessons:
1. creating only optimistic projections about market size and customer acquisitions.
2. Underestimating timelines.
3. Trying to do everything yourself.
4. Failing to master the elevator pitch.
5. Not downsizing when necessary.
6. Being inflexible.
7. Not developing a clear marketing plan.
8. Building a board that consists of only friends.
9. Not taking action in a recession.
10. Not knowing the right way to approach venture capitalists.

What it takes to succeed: brains and education, energy and passion, expertise, vision, and integrity, and a sense of humor.

I’ve learned that venture capitalists add value to providing the advises and industry contacts, and even needed leadership talents to guide the startup to a profitable end. The end game may not always be IPO as the IPO has gotten harder due to the recent law change to merge banking with investment banking. Being bought up by a big company seems to be the norm nowadays.

I envy the author’s experiences from private venture capital investors to service public role like the Ex-Im bank, and even to fund socially-serving non-profit organizations. Very interesting journey the author has traveled – a real treat for the readers.

I read Roger Lowenstein’s “When Genius Failed” book before. His writing is journalistic and full of facts, unlike some other books like Michael Lewis’ The Big Short. Looks like he’s done a great deal of research in writing this book. It’s mainly about how the then-Secretary-of-Treasury, Hank Paulson, and Federal Reserve Chief, Ben Bernanke, and New York Federal Reserve Bank President, Tim Geithner dealt with the financial crises and the aftermath throughout the year 2007 and 2008. He went to great details about how the crisis – mainly the subprime mortgage came about, its development and its end result.

I learned about how the rescue didn’t take root in the beginning because Benanke was trying to fix the liquidity problem rather than the capital problem. Bernanke was blindsided by his familiarity with the historical ill of the Great Depression in 1930’s. Hank Paulson was hamstrung by his principle of moral hazard – the reckless assumption of risks knowing there’s an insurance or safety nets – the bailout. The logic of letting Lehman die but rescuing Morgan Stanley and AIG was not rational but it was the best the government could do without causing a meltdown and ripple effect across the entire economy.

Whether the Wall Street learned this lesson and the Federal government has re-instated enough regulation to avoid this kind of crisis in the future remains to be seen. I doubt the future generation of the people in Wall Street will remember this hard lesson. History is bound to repeat in the future unless the government comes up with a better set of regulation to control the leverage and risk without overburdening the firms. The author wasn’t optimistic either because the financial instruments being invented were simply too exotic for the government to gauge and the excessive compensation in the Wall Street firms attract envies of the unscrupulous.

So many people were harmed and continued to be harmed by the repercussions of the financial tidal wave of the 2008. One thing people should always remember. When there is too much a good thing like easy credit, no-down-payment mortgage, high-flying stock market (like the tech bubble), something or a bubble is being built up that will eventually bust. Let the common sense rule: when it’s too good to be true, it’s probably so.

The few weeks leading to September 2008 were made for a cliff hanger movie. Most people were too busy to survive financially to pay attention to the drama on the Wall Street and yet it’s where it all started. It’s simply amazing to me how few people (probably no more than a hundred) can cause so much damage. In a way they are the financial terrorists that triggered the financial weapon of mass destruction. Amazing.

This is the story of the Quants, the PhD Mathematicians who turned the financial market into a gambling casino. They made an obscene amount of money but ended up wrecking the market they helped to create. The players are: Peter Muller (Morgan Stanley), Ken Griffin (Citadel), Cliff Asness (AQR Capital Management), Boaz Weinstein (Deutsche Bank), Jim Simons (Renaissance Technologies), Aaron Brown, Paul Wilmott (foretell the meltdown), Benoit Mandelbrot (warned of the danger), and finally Ed Thorp, who started it all with the books “Beat the Dealers” and “Beat the Market” books.

It’s hard to tell with certainty what really caused the meltdown. The author seemed to point the finger at Allen Greenspan’s low-interest policy that started the housing bubble and his lack of oversight of investment bankers and hedge funds industry. If this were true, one should argue that Greenspan’s long tenure at the helm may be to blame for his insufficient understanding of the risk takings going on under his nose.

I learned a lot on how the Quants make money by hedge one bet against another bet in search of easy money or “sure” thing or the “truths.” There are the frequency trading to arbitrage values, and there are the hedging bets – all done with a huge amount of leverage and precision. Of course, those trades broke down when the market turned illiquid, which caused the melt down. In principle, all the algorithms should all work but when everything is linked from one another. A small change can cause a tsunami of ripple effects. Now they know.

The stories of the rich Quants’ spending their new-found wealth on such luxuries as $80M paintings, and luxurious homes, vacation homes, fancy cars, really excited my resentment and many tax payers who ended up paying for their mess. It’s not different than the Internet bubble that brought on the rise of greedy people and their excesses. The destructive ending was the same except they were bailed out by the government instead of the reduced wealth of the over-exuberant investors.

This is a reasonable good book that tells the stories of these Quants people but more importantly, it revealed the mentality and the motivations of these people. They thought they were doing goods to rid the market of inefficiencies and making lots of money along the way. Whether or not they realized the danger of the leverages from their bets is hard to know. But it’s like a drug addiction, you may know it’s bad for you and the society; it’s hard to break away from it. Ultimately, it’s the failing of the human nature and greed that did them in, dragging the society and world to the brink of a financial collapse. How the government can craft a good policy to prevent a similar collapse from happening in the future remains to be seen.

This book is similar to William Zinsser’s “Writing Well” book. This one goes into more details on techniques. The rules can be complicated but the spirit of writing should be preserved to be clear and concise for the reader to experience the messages/stories/contents. The book was a little hard to read but the contents are rich.

The 12 guidelines:
1. Keep sentences short, and keep to one main idea per sentence.
2. Avoid pretensions, gobbledygook and euphemisms.
3. Change long and difficult words to short and simple words.
4. Be wary of jargon, fad, and cliche
5. Use the right word.
6. Avoid beginning with long dependent phrases.
7. Prefer active verbs and the active voice.
8. Cut wordiness.
9. Avoid vague qualifiers.
10. Prune prepositions.
11. Limit number and symbol.
12. Get right to the point. And stay there.

There are other tips on storytelling, description, use of metaphors, similes, analogy, allusion, foreshadowing like in “you won’t believe what happened next”), irony, and word play. The authors dived into the sound effect via the use of euphony, rhyme, internal rhyme, alliteration, resonance, consonance, assonance, onomatopoeia, cacophony, and etc.

On Pace, write fast and edit slow, avoid speedbumps (often arise from intrusions and obtrusion), logic and speed reading.

Dispelling myths: avoid split infinitives when it gets in the way of grace and precision and split away when it preserves grace and precision. Split verb phrase is not wrong, but is seldom unattractive. Use contractions where it makes sense. Use of ‘a’ and ‘an.’ “None” and “couple” can be singular or plural.

This is the 2nd time I read this book, the first time being a few years ago. I too watched the movie and still remembered the stellar performance of Jack Lemon. I particularly enjoyed the flashback to author’s early days in school – his relationship with his coach and the Morrie’s own early life – discovered his mother’s death via a telegram at age of 8, growing up with his young brother David, who contracted polio at early age, his step-mother, Eva’ influence, and identified his father’s body at the morgue. In addition, the author shared his relationship with his brother, who was fighting cancer remotely on his own in Spain. It helps to re-read this book every few years as we get closer and closer to the end line. A few lessons I learned:

If you must feel sorry for yourself, give yourself a good cry (limit your self-pity) and then concentrate on the good things that are still happening in your life.

Our culture doesn’t encourage us to think about the most important things in our life – our family, relationships and friendships. We’re so wrapped up with “egotistical things” (career, having enough money, meeting the mortgage, and etc.)

Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live. Ask the little bird, “Is today the day? Am I Ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?” “Everyone knows they’re going to die, but nobody believes it.”

The great poet Auden said, “Love each other or perish.” “Without love, we are birds with broken wings.”

Embrace your emotion and experience it fully. Then detach from it.

Aging is not just decay. It’s growth. It’s more than the negative that you’re going to die, it’s also the positive that you understand you’re going to die, and that you live a better life because of it. If you have found meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more and do more. If you’re always battling against getting older, you’re going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow.

“Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness.” “The day he learned that he was terminally ill was the day he lost interest in his purchasing power.” “Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” “If you’re trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down at you anyhow. And if you’re trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.” “Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won’t be dissatisfied, you won’t be envious, you won’t be longing for somebody else’s things. On the contrary, you’ll be overwhelmed with what comes back.”

“Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone.” On marriage, it’s important to respect each other, compromise, talk openly about what goes on between the two, have a common set of values. The biggest set of value is your belief in the importance of your marriage.

On culture: “No matter where you live, the biggest defect we human beings have is our shortsightedness. We don’t see what we could be. We should be looking at our potential, stretching ourselves into everything we can become.” “Invest in the human family. Invest in people. Build a little community of those you love and who love you.”

Forgive others but most importantly forgive yourself.

“It’s not contagious, you know. Death is as natural as life. It’s part of the deal we made.” “We aren’t waves; we’re all part of the ocean.” “There is no formula to relationships. They have to be negotiated in loving ways, with room for both parties, what they want and what they need, what they can do and what their life is like.”

Here are the Youtube Videos with Ted Koppel: 1, 2, 3, 4, ….

Switch is about making difficult changes. The author came up with a formula how to direct the rider, motivate the Elephant and shape the path. I think they are probably a good framework. Many examples were given to reinforce the framework. Very good book for someone who want to take on the challenge of changing people and make a difference. A summary is as follows:

Direct the rider (the thinker)

Find the bright spots:
Investigate what’s working and clone it.
Solving malnutrition problem in a Vietnam village.
Use solution-focused therapy (not caring about archaeology): what’s the first small sign you’d see that would make you think the problem was gone.

Script the critical moves
Don’t think big picture, think in terms of specific behavior.
When the road is uncertain, the Elephant will insist on taking the default path. Decision paralysis can be deadly for change – because the most familiar change is always the status quo. Use clear rules. 1% milk vs. eat healthy. Set behavior goals. Force abusive parents to play with the kids (bend like a reed.) Clarity dissolves resistance.

Point to the Destination
Change is easier when you know where you’re going and why it’s worth it.
Destination postcards: “You will be 3rd grader soon.” Use SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and timely) goals. Emotional goals work better. B&W (Black & White) goals: BP’s “no dry holes” goal. “When you’re at the beginning, don’t obsess about the middle, because the middle is going to look different once you get there. Just look for a strong beginning and a strong ending and get moving.”

Motivate the Elephant (emotion)
Find the feeling
Knowing something isn’t enough to cause change. Make people feel something.
Use the SEE-FEEL-CHANGE. Use of video game for teenager cancel patients.

Shrink the change
Break down the change until it no longer spooks the Elephant. Limit the investment you’re asking for. Think small wins. A small deal reduces importance, reduces demand, and raises received skill levels – all three factors will tend to make change easier and more self-sustaining.

Grow the people
Cultivate a sense of identity and instill the growth mindset.
Convince people they’re the people of the desired state. Two basic models of decision making: consequence model and identity model (ask “who am I? what kind of situation is this? What would someone like me do in this situation?”). How can you make your change a matter of identity rather than a matter of consequences? Fixed mindset vs. growth mindset – Will struggle, we will fail, we will be knocked down – but throughout, we’ll get better and we’ll succeed in the end. The Elephant has to be believe that it’s capable of conquering the change: shrink the change or/and grow the people.

Shape the Path
Tweak the environment
When then situation changes, the behavior changes. So change the situation. [Front coaches for early bird students. Quiet hours. Throwing out the phone system at Rackspace, 1-click ordering, simplifying the online time sheet]

Build habits
When behavior is habitual, it’s “free” – it doesn’t tax the rider. Look for ways to encourage habits. [Setting “action triggers,” eating two bowls of soup while dieting, using checklists]

Rally the herd
Behavior is contagious. Help it spread. [“Fataki” in Tanzania, “free spaces” in hospital, seeding the tip jar]

In a way, Tony Hsieh is a genius by definition. He has the book smart and talents; he was able to breeze through high school and Harvard with ease. But most importantly, he has the entrepreneur blood running since childhood with his earthworm venture and button-making business. He stumbled into the Internet craze during the dotcom boom with the LinkExchange in his first endeavor after quitting the boring Oracle QA job upon graduating from Harvard. He made a killing after selling it to Microsoft for $265M and walked away with almost $32M, forfeiting $8M during the VIP (Vesting in peace) period because he was bored. Up until this, one can probably discount his ability that he was born the right time and got lucky. But what came next defined how he was as a mature businessman and visionary.

Zappos.com was one of his angel investment. He was supposed to sit back and pick the winning horses. Instead, he dived in and staked all of his “easy” money in it. Along the journey, he evolved the company into a company with a mission and strong differentiating culture with emphasis in customer service – an unusual differentiator for an internet company. At the end, he was the white knight that Zappos needed and a better man he became.

There are lots of lessons learned (like never outsourcing your differentiators) and interesting stories that Tony told throughout the book. I admire his entrepreneur spirit (quitting when he’s not challenged) and tenacity (tough it out like climbing the summit of Kilimanjaro and driving 36 hours from California to Kentucky). It’s a very good book who wants to start and grow a business with a good culture as a foundation. “Your brand is your culture.”

This is a great book to learn and it’s quite funny too. Highly recommended.