Bold: How to Go Big, Make Bank, and Better the World

Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler have brought us one of the most provocative business books of the past five years. Their best-selling "BOLD" follows on the heels of their best -selling "Abundance: The Future is Brighter Than You Think." In "BOLD," the authors have created a how-to manual (and "manifesto") for those who are "stuck" and not using the gifts they have been given. And for those who understand the potent emerging forces at the "intersection of ultimate human performance and exponential technology," and want to leverage them to make a positive impact on the world, while becoming the best they can be.Part one focuses on the exponential technologies which are disrupting today's Fortune 500 companies and enabling upstart entrepreneurs to go from "I've got a new idea" to "I run a billion-dollar company." These technologies - networks, sensors, robotics, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, genomics, digital medicine, nanotechnology - are growing exponentially and are showing up in all aspects of our lives, threatening large innovation-resistant institutions, companies, and organizations.They continue by dissecting the demise of Kodak, while exploring exponential thinking and the six "D's" critical to success in today's chaotic world:1. Digitized to deceptive to disruptive2. D monetize3. D materialize4. DemocratizedDaimandis and Kotler boldly state that 40% of today's top companies will no longer exist in 10 years. Something John Chambers, retiring CEO of Cisco, said at this year's Global Economic Forum.This group will be comprised of those who ignored these emerging forces and continued to think linearly like Kodak. They will experience the "final D's":1. Distraught2. Depressed3. Departed.Part two of "BOLD" focuses on the psychology of the bold and provides detailed advice and lessons ("billionaire wisdom") from technology gurus such as Larry Page, Elon musk, Sir Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos. (I often wonder why lists like these do not include people like Rupert Murdock, who changed the media globally, and Bill Gates (gone and forgotten?).These people think differently. They have inserted themselves into the equation and have taken advantage of technologies already producing exponential growth. To get this mindset, the authors tell us to think about "scale."What is meant by "scale"?...leverage technology then think big, thinking globally. The concept of scale is part of today's conversation in Silicon Valley as investors want to be invested in "unicorns" - the Ubers, AirBnB - which have scaled quickly to become companies valued in the billions of dollars. To help us move in this direction, Daimandis and Kotler provide a mental toolkit which highlights the need and how to think at scale to achieve great things. This is the path for raising "one's game" to greatness.In part three, the authors give great detail on using crowdsourcing (with multiple links) to build and scale with very little money and how to use crowdfunding to raise billions. Information on the five technologies that will "change the world" - networks and sensors, infinite computing, artificial intelligence, robotics, and synthetic biology - are covered at a high level which most people will be able to grasp. Highlights include:* Entrepreneurs no longer have to layout scarce cash for expensive equipment, spend months to install, configure, and program that equipment, worry about what happens when they need to scale up that equipment, or worry about what happens when it breaks down or becomes obsolete.* We're entering an epic period of global innovation were high performance computing is abundant, reliable, and affordable.* Artificial intelligence is another technology transitioning from deceptive to disruptive (the Garter Hype Curve which is explained in part one) and about to become ubiquitous in our daily lives.* Robotics is the fastest growing industry in the world and is poised to become the largest in the next decade. We now have accelerators and even dedicated venture capital firms.* Synthetic biology is built around the idea that DNA is essentially software and can be reprogrammed. It is nature's original code that can be swapped out for new, human-written code. Synthetic biology is essentially genetic engineering gone digital. This will lead to new fuels, foods, medicines, construction materials, clothing fibers, and even new organisms. DNA is no more than a four letter code.There is much more to this book. It is loaded with insight and usable easy-to-follow steps for making great things happen in your life. I have recommended this book to well over a hundred people. All have told me they could not put it down. It will inspire and will serve as a handy reference when you choose to go out and make your dent in the world.The authors believe that expanded use of these exponential technologies as they become accessible and less expensive, in conjunction with crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, will create an eco-system where we can solve some of the greatest challenges the world is facing today.

"Bold" is one of the most thought-provoking business books I've read in a long time. Most of us know how the information age and the internet has up-ended the industrial age, and I think I'm savvy to the implications and opportunities, but I learned several valuable tools that I previously did not know even existed.The book opens with a lesson, and this sentence I highlighted: "Thus, on April 9, 2012, just three months after Kodak filed for bankruptcy, Instagram and its 13 employees were bought by Facebook for $1 billion."How does that happen. Kodak was obviously positioned to lead on digital photography; they even had developed some of the early technology. But they lacked vision, they had hubris, they worried about losing all that film and chemical business. They did not see the forest for the trees. We see that now. But most do not see it still happening today. Jeff Bezos had the vision for Amazon. It wasn't about books long-term; it was about everything. Today, look at Amazon and look at the long-dethroned Sears catalog. The difference is taught and/or reinforced in this book. Co-Author Diamandis is currently executive chairman of Planetary Resources, a company planning to mine asteroids for precious metals. Sound crazy to you? As Diamandis said in an interview, "Listen, the day before something is truly a breakthrough, it's a crazy idea." No doubt the folks in the executive suite of companies like Barnes and Noble thought selling books on the internet was a crazy, outlandish idea.Why didn't Hilton or Marriott think of AirBnB? Besides vision, "Bold" goes into the 6Ds -- from democratize to deceptive, each a step in the evolution of an industry that the established businesses -- that is, their leaders -- miss. A particular telling graphic in the book shows how $900,000 worth of equipment/application can now be accessed in your smart phone, much of it for free. This is the 3rd D, Demonetization.Of course, a big part of formula is that "linear companies" (like Kodak) "with lots of employees and lots of physical processes and facilities" is being impacted by "exponential companies" (like Instagram) with their "use of networks or automation and/or its leveraging of the crowd. The rest of the book focuses on how to build the later, with some tools/exponential technologies, and examples of people using them. For example, Quirky and Kickstarter. If you can't figure out how to build a business after learning about all of these resources, you may just not have the vision yourself.The book can be dry in parts. Like many tech-focused people, the authors like to use dry technical jargon (the 6 Ds come to mind); or when they say creativity is "recombinatory." I prefer how James Altucher says it: "idea sex" -- combining two or more things to create a new thing/business. Because of the dry language it took me longer than usual to finish it. But I'm glad I did.

Amazing book, inspiring for anyone with a bold dream to go big and impact the world.

Me ha encantado, está muy bien estructurado y escrito. Fue muy revelador para mi. Buenísimo para los emprendedores que quieren asegurar que su negocio crezca y perdure

Futuristic issues discussed with a lot of research. A must read.

Es un libro muy inspirador. Las herramientas que ofrece son relativamente sencillas, pero más que eso, contribuye a generar cierta "mentalidad exponencial" que es lo mejor del libro. Lo recomiendo sobre todo para personas que quieren iniciar sus proyectos emprendedores.

Another „WOW“ book written by the duo Diamandis / Kotler on the topic mtp (massive transformative purpose). Both authors encourage us (as described in three parts of the book covering „bold technology“, „bold mindset“ and „bold crowd“) to find our MTP by thinking not only „outside the box“, but stop limiting our thoughts and ideas by (conventions & other) frontiers.The ever increasing speed of new technologies (in exponential ways) give powerful tools to make your ideas come true, feats which were limited to the rich and powerful (e.g. royalty in the past, then governments or multinational companies) can now be done by individuals or small groups, as described in the first part. The middle section explains how to develop a mindset to set the scene for our world changer, do not to get stopped by failures or limits („think bold“), the final part is describing how to use the power of the „online crowd“ by presenting how to successfully build your own community which supports your ideas.In general, the enthusiasm is field and the idea of helping people finding their MTP resp. purpose in changing the world is really jumping on you while experiencing this wonderful book. To summarize resp. simplify look for an important challenge which has significant impact to the world, hold on to your ideas, find like minded people to support and go on making the world a better one. The book has a significant notes section, the authors are hosting several websites on the topic, however, some urls have changed (see „abundance.digital“ instead of „abundancehub.com“), the ways to connect to the authors are multiple ones. Great read, which took me basically one weekend to finish, can recommend this book for all you are still looking "that special something to prove" or for those who are interested in world changing or improvement.