How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World's Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs

by Guy Raz

it is structured to follow the path we took as we traced their entrepreneurial hero’s journeys from the call to found their businesses (part I),

through the tests and trials of their growth phases (part II),

finally to their destination as the mature, global brands we kn...

Each chapter explores a discrete moment that nearly every founder faces in the life of their business—from coming up with an idea to getting their story straight;

all of them have done their homework—about their product, their business, their customers, their industry as a whole—and

and it has imbued them with a deep confidence in the viability of their ideas.

Someone goes looking for something that they are sure already exists—a

only to discover that it is nowhere to be found.

they learn that they are not the only one who has been looking for this thing and has come up empty-handed.

the absence of this thing evolves from a minor inconvenience in their life to a real-world problem that, in their estimation, needs to be solved.

And they have an idea for how ...

their lack of subject matter expertise or institutional knowledge or industry experience was never a deterrent to them.

“The first few weeks were just like our intense version of market research,” Jen recalled, “which basically meant we went shopping every single day. We went to every department store. We went to every luggage store. We made these Google maps of different luggage stores around New York and compared all the experiences and all the prices. We kept very meticulous notes on what was out there.”

At the same time, they researched and visited factories

they had to narrow the universe of potential features from what could go into their luggage to what should go into it.

they had to figure out how people actually used their luggage—on

over the next few months, they talked to nearly 800 people and a...

“We would talk to them about travel and ask them all these open-ended questions,”

would go on to iterate and improve on the luggage several more times after the first version, like any smart creator does.

invaluable. It was the first concrete step they took in a multipart process that helped them refine their design, home in on what really mattered, and leave out all the stuff that wasn’t going to move the needle.

That is exactly what research is supposed to accomplish.

All the market research Jen and Steph accumulated—all

it was to build a foundation of knowledge on which they could leverage their creative instincts and their professional judgment,

to truly innovate and deliver what dissatisfied luggage customers like them really needed.

It’s deep work and repetition that sear the fundamentals into your muscle memory.

Each of these features, along with the $225 price tag and direct-to-consumer delivery, was deliberately selected as part of a product marketing strategy that was developed from all their research but not defined or decided by it.

this is a model for creativity,

It is a playbook for innovation, no matter who you are or what you want to build.

But they are fantastic examples of founders who did their homework to fill in the gaps in their understanding,

They relied on research to teach them how to build a plane—which

which gave them the confidence to lean on their instincts and trust their creative visions when it came time to decide exactly what kind of plane they wanted to build and fly.

You need a partner whose skill set complements yours.

Someone who not only shares your vision but elevates it and holds you accountable to it; who does what you cannot; who thinks and sees things in a way you don’t; whose strengths compensate for your weaknesses, and vice versa.

“Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprang up.”*

You can never discount the importance of luck—even dumb luck—in the success of any new idea.

And it is the people part of that equation that is most interesting to me

Away is a prime example of how doing your research opens any industry to the inexperienced and uninitiated if they have a good idea,

Method shows that finding the right partner can unlock any good idea, no matter how arcane or esoteric or beyo...

“My best business decisions really have to do with picking people,” Bill Gates

somebody who you totally trust, who’s totally committed, who shares your vision and yet has a little bit different set of skills, and also acts as a check on you—and

I don’t think it would have happened without Woz and I don’t think it would have happened without me.”

“I’ve had a partner like that, Charlie Munger, for a lot of years, and it does for me exactly what Bill is talking about.”

A commitment to a preexisting relationship that was proof, by virtue of its very existence, that each partner could trust the other to have their best interests at heart.

“Starting a startup is too hard for one person. Even if you could do all the work yourself, you need colleagues to brainstorm with, to talk you out of stupid decisions, and to cheer you up when things go

wrong . . . The low points in a startup are so low that few could bear them alone.”

They help you survive as well.

P&G advertising tends to focus on utility and effectiveness.

It focuses on what the products can do for you,

So, what if you don’t have a billion-dollar ad budget? Or any ad budget at all? Or you just want to spend less and be similarly effective in reaching your target consumers?

Telling your story is a more cost-effective