The BOLD Book that Influenced Us
Around the time Neeraj and I started Bluzelle, I found out about the new book by Peter Diamandis and Steve Kotler called Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact The World. As a quick refresher, Diamandis is a serial entrepreneur most well known for the X Prize. Kotler is an author and journalist who I first came across when reading his book Rise of the Supermen. We were embarking on a new journey with not only a startup but one that’s working with breakthrough technology. So with that title and those authors, it was an immediate Kindle purchase.
The main thesis of the book is that there are a number of exponential technologies that will shape the world for the next fifty years. These technologies will give the world not the 10x returns as before but 100x. With that type of pace, virtually anything is possible. We’ll leave it for you to discover which these technologies are. The author’s didn’t include Blockchain at that time as it may have been new for them. But we knew Blockchain is one of them and the lessons from this book are valuable.
One major section of the book is what they call the Six D’s of exponential technologies: Digitization, Deception, Disruption, Demonetization, Dematerialization, Democratization. Where we are as a business and technology we paid extra attention to deception and disruption. For the first, here is what Steve Kotler says.
“These technologies get introduced and it takes a while for them to get up to speed, right. And there’s all this hype in the beginning and they fall into this deceptive period and people kind of dismiss them. 3D printing was in that deceptive period for a very, very long time. Robotics, AI, all these things. But all of the technologies that we’re talking about in Bold are now moving out of that deceptive period.”
With Blockchain, let’s call out the elephant in the room. There is a lot of hype for the past 18 months. When we read the book, both Neeraj and I expected this and waited for it. As news kept building we kept our nose to the ground and focused on the work. We knew that as we push through, the disruption stage would come. And the businesses that had real customers, real products and managed their cash flows would emerge as the survivors and winners. This story had been told multiple times before. So when people bring up blockchain “hype” to us, we aren’t fazed at all. If you are pursuing an exponential goal then this is just part of the journey.
If you are currently active in a bold idea or are thinking about one then pick up this book. Multiple references are made to Bold entrepreneurs like Larry Page & Sergey Bin, Elon Musk, Richard Branson and more. Working with exponential technologies is exciting but also frustrating. Bold will help you get your ideas together and is a source to return to again and again. (Especially in those frustrating times).
— — —
Want more useful book recommendations? Sign up to our newsletter now!
