“Without Their Permission” by Alexis Ohanian (Book Review)

If you have not read it yet, you must have at least heard about this book. Alexis is the founder of Reddit, an advisor to Hipmunk, an investor in 60+ startups and a YCombinator alumni. He’s famous and so are the stories in the book. You get to learn a little bit about entrepreneurial struggles, genius ideas, hard work, internet freedom and much more. Overall, it’s a good book.

The essence is to convince you that on the internet, you don’t need anybody permission to do what you want. All you need is to have a goal, a vision, an idea, and then you can make it a reality. Whether it’s the front page of the internet created by two college kids, or a YouTube show by a guy who would normally not have a slightest chance at hosting a show, or a war against internet censorship; anything is possible.

One part though, I don’t know if you would like it — the book is honest. There are no hyperbolas, no hidden agendas, no celebrity-like teachings. What you get instead are some stories about cool people and projects and Alexis’s opinions. That’s all.

For anyone who wants to a startup, or is doing one now, this is a good honest book that will remind you of all the good that can be created in the world when your company succeeds. “Without Their Permission” is also a reminder that the first step is to do something that people love.

Go get the book, read it, then do something awesome!

p.s. You can borrow my book, as long as you let someone else borrow it after you. (I want to give this a try)