Why am I passionate about this?

I have had the unique experience of having been a successful CEO of a global publicly traded semiconductor company, a founder and CEO of an innovative and valuable startup, and now as a teacher and scholar of entrepreneurship and innovation. I’m a Professor of the Practice at Princeton University where I teach and write about being a successful entrepreneur. My three books on the subject are: Startup Leadership: How Savvy Entrepreneurs Turn Their Ideas Into Successful Enterprises; Building on Bedrock: What Sam Walton, Walt Disney, and Other Great Self-Made Entrepreneurs Can Teach Us About Building Valuable Companies; and THE ENTREPRENEURS: The Relentless Quest for Value


I wrote

The Entrepreneurs: The Relentless Quest for Value

By Derek Lidow,

Book cover of The Entrepreneurs: The Relentless Quest for Value

What is my book about?

Entrepreneurs are among the primary shapers of our culture, yet their role in driving progress and influencing society has often…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Rework

Derek Lidow Why did I love this book?

I like Rework because it describes how common sense and entrepreneurship are inextricably linked. No hype, no jargon, the book is a collection of simple descriptions of how to deal with the realities of being an entrepreneur. The book’s chapters are two or three pages long and each one is a gem of practical insight from two entrepreneurs who started 37signals and Campfire on their own, step by step. This is very easy reading, yet every page has at least one useful insight that any entrepreneur can immediately put to use.

By Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Rework as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A radical new business book from business trailblazers Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson that offers a reappraisal of business best practice - advocating stripping everything back to bare essentials. With its straightforward language and easy-is-better approach, Rework is the perfect playbook for anyone who's ever dreamed of doing it on their own. It will COMPLETELY change your approach to work.

Every once in a while, a book comes out that changes just about everything. This is one of those books. Ignore it at your peril' -- Seth Godin, New York Times bestselling author
'Inspirational...REWORK is a minimalist manifesto that's…


Book cover of The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup

Derek Lidow Why did I love this book?

The Founder’s Dilemmas is a cult book of in-the-know entrepreneurs. This is a distillation of a famous class Noam Wasserman taught at Harvard Business School, a class that other b-schools have copied because students found it so useful. Basically, the book leads the reader to conclusions about how to handle the dilemmas faced by founders as they struggle to put together and lead their founding teams. The contents derive from how students discussed and analyzed about a dozen different Harvard case studies. Reading the book is like being in a b-school class about practical entrepreneurship without any of the stress and homework preparation.

By Noam Wasserman,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Founder's Dilemmas as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Often downplayed in the excitement of starting up a new business venture is one of the most important decisions entrepreneurs will face: should they go it alone, or bring in cofounders, hires, and investors to help build the business? More than just financial rewards are at stake. Friendships and relationships can suffer. Bad decisions at the inception of a promising venture lay the foundations for its eventual ruin. The Founder's Dilemmas is the first book to examine the early decisions by entrepreneurs that can make or break a startup and its team. Drawing on a decade of research, Noam Wasserman…


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Book cover of Secret St. Augustine: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

Secret St. Augustine By Elizabeth Randall, William Randall,

Tourists and local residents of St. Augustine will enjoy reading about the secret wonders of their ancient city that are right under their noses. Of course, that includes a few stray corpses and ghosts!

Book cover of The Soul of an Entrepreneur: Work and Life Beyond the Startup Myth

Derek Lidow Why did I love this book?

David Sax spent more than a year on the road, living with a handful of real live entrepreneurs. We get to know these people, what their days are like, what their families are like, their stresses and their joys—ultimately what it feels like to be an entrepreneur. You’ll feel like a voyeur, but you’ll ultimately empathize with what these entrepreneurs do what they do as well as the challenges they constantly face. The book is a page-turner.

By David Sax,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Soul of an Entrepreneur as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

We all know the story of the latest version of the American Dream: a young innovator drops out of college and creates the next big thing, remaking both business and culture in one fell swoop. We are told these stories constantly, always with the idea that we'll be next.But this story masks a lot about what really goes on in our economy. Most new businesses aren't tech startups; they are what we think of as ordinary: restaurants or dry cleaners or freelance writing or accounting or consulting services. And those who are starting new businesses aren't all millennials. In fact,…


Book cover of Sam Walton, Made in America: My Story

Derek Lidow Why did I love this book?

Most memoirs written by entrepreneurs are highly filtered stories about why they are so great. Sam Walton’s memoir is the most realistic, honest, and useful description of what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur, a family man, and somebody who cares about their employees and community. You cannot go wrong using Sam Walton as your role model.

By Sam Walton, John Huey,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Sam Walton, Made in America as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Meet a genuine American folk hero cut from the homespun cloth of America's heartland: Sam Walton, who parlayed a single dime store in a hardscrabble cotton town into Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world.  The undisputed merchant king of the late twentieth century, Sam never lost the common touch.  Here, finally, inimitable words.  Genuinely modest, but always sure if his ambitions and achievements.  Sam shares his thinking in a candid, straight-from-the-shoulder style.

In a story rich with anecdotes and the "rules of the road" of both Main Street and Wall Street, Sam Walton chronicles the inspiration, heart, and optimism…


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Book cover of Trial, Error, and Success: 10 Insights into Realistic Knowledge, Thinking, and Emotional Intelligence

Trial, Error, and Success By Sima Dimitrijev, PhD, Maryann Karinch,

Everything in nature evolves by trial, error, and success—from fundamental physics, through evolution in biology, to how people learn, think, and decide.

This book presents a way of thinking and realistic knowledge that our formal education shuns. Stepping beyond this ignorance, the book shows how to deal with and even…

Book cover of Americana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism

Derek Lidow Why did I love this book?

This is a book of 35 short chapters that each describe a slice of America’s development from a new country into the leader of the capitalist world… which is actually a story about entrepreneurship. Srinvasan’s style is very engaging, and the book is a page-turner. Each chapter describes the development of a market or new way of doing business, like “railroads,” “steel,” “banking,” and “advertising.” Once you’ve finished reading this book, you cannot help but marvel at what entrepreneurs have accomplished.

By Bhu Srinivasan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Americana as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An absorbing and original narrative history of American capitalism

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2017 BY THE ECONOMIST

From the days of the Mayflower and the Virginia Company, America has been a place for people to dream, invent, build, tinker, and bet the farm in pursuit of a better life. Americana takes us on a four-hundred-year journey of this spirit of innovation and ambition through a series of Next Big Things -- the inventions, techniques, and industries that drove American history forward: from the telegraph, the railroad, guns, radio, and banking to flight, suburbia, and sneakers, culminating with the Internet…


Explore my book 😀

The Entrepreneurs: The Relentless Quest for Value

By Derek Lidow,

Book cover of The Entrepreneurs: The Relentless Quest for Value

What is my book about?

Entrepreneurs are among the primary shapers of our culture, yet their role in driving progress and influencing society has often been overlooked. As far back as we can trace human history, there have been entrepreneurs. Almost five millennia ago, copper tool manufacturers set up a factory in what today is southwest Spain, profiting for hundreds of years from trade around the Mediterranean. Papyri document the diverse investments of an ancient Egyptian businessman, from grain-yielding land to flax for linen cloth. What do these figures have in common with renowned modern entrepreneurs, and how do their similarities help us achieve a deeper understanding of entrepreneurship as well as the potential for a healthier, wealthier, and more equitable and sustainable future?

Book cover of Rework
Book cover of The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup
Book cover of The Soul of an Entrepreneur: Work and Life Beyond the Startup Myth

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