Designing Your Life PDF Download

Author: Bill Burnett
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 110187533X
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • At last, a book that shows you how to build—design—a life you can thrive in, at any age or stage • “Life has questions. They have answers.” —The New York Times Designers create worlds and solve problems using design thinking. Look around your office or home—at the tablet or smartphone you may be holding or the chair you are sitting in. Everything in our lives was designed by someone. And every design starts with a problem that a designer or team of designers seeks to solve. In this book, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise.

Author: Tom Eisenmann
Publisher: Currency
ISBN: 0593137027
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. “Whether you’re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment, Why Startups Fail is essential reading.”—Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. • Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder’s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. • False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to “fail fast” and to “launch before you’re ready,” founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. • False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. • Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to “get big fast,” hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. • Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. • Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success.

Author: Gregg Fairbrothers
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
ISBN: 0071763457
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
Turn Your Great Idea into a Thriving Business! “A guide that sets first-time entrepreneurs’ feet in the right direction.” Geoffrey Moore, author, Crossing the Chasm “There are many books on entrepreneurship, but this is one of the few that will convert individuals to entrepreneurs.” Desh Deshpande, founder, Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, MIT; chairman, A123 Systems; cochair, National Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship About the Book: Are you among the many Americans who dream of starting a business but think you don’t know how? Help has arrived . . . For generations, Dartmouth College and the Tuck School of Business have influenced and driven global entrepreneurship. Dartmouth firsts include the world petroleum industry, technological breakthroughs like artificial intelligence and BASIC computer language, as well as popular products, such as the Nerf football and the game Crainium. Today a key resource for the Dartmouth Community is the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network (DEN), which helps anyone from undergraduates to faculty to alumni get their ideas off the ground and into the marketplace. In From Idea to Success, entrepreneur, professor, and DEN founder Gregg Fairbrothers takes you step by proven step through the DEN approach, showing you how to apply the same principles to make your vision a reality. If you have an idea—any idea—from major technology innovations, to consumer products or services, to social enterprises, From Idea to Success shows you how to bring it to fruition. This A to Z guide based on the startup experiences of literally hundreds of entrepreneurs makes the process simple as possible by breaking it down into three distinct parts: Step 1: Focusing and Refining Your Idea Define your goals, pinpoint your market, protect your idea, manage the risks in your undertaking Step 2: Business Planning Best Practices Create a business plan, build your team, learn about the competition, raise finances, get the important legal issues right the first time Step 3: Managing Your Company Build your negotiating, selling, and decision-making skills; manage your finances; correct your course; manage the transition to a healthy, growing business Building a vibrant company based on your own creativity and hard work is one of the most fulfilling human enterprises there is. With this book and your own experience you can think and act like a successful entrepreneur from the very start.

Author: James Clear
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735211299
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
The #1 New York Times bestseller. Over 20 million copies sold! Translated into 60+ languages! Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights. Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field. Learn how to: make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy); overcome a lack of motivation and willpower; design your environment to make success easier; get back on track when you fall off course; ...and much more. Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.

Author: Bishwapriya Sanyal
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262304791
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
Leading theorists and practitioners trace the evolution of key ideas in urban and regional planning over the last hundred years Over the past hundred years of urbanization and suburbanization, four key themes have shaped urban and regional planning in both theory and practice: livability, territoriality, governance, and reflective professional practice. Planning Ideas That Matter charts the trajectories of these powerful planning ideas in an increasingly interconnected world. The contributors, leading theorists and practitioners, discuss livability in terms of such issues as urban density, land use, and the relationship between the built environment and natural systems; examine levels of territorial organization, drawing on literature on regionalism, metropolitanism, and territorial competition; describe the ways planning connects to policy making and implementation in a variety of political contexts; and consider how planners conceive of their work and learn from practice. Throughout, the emphasis is on how individuals and institutions—including government, business, professional organizations, and universities—have framed planning problems and ideas. The focus is less on techniques and programs than on the underlying concepts that have animated professional discourse over the years. The book is recommended for classroom use, as a reference for scholars and practitioners, and as a history of planning for those interested in the development of the field.

Author: Walter Grant
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
The one thing investors seek when funding new ideas - here's what to do if you want to turn your business into the next Apple. Having a great idea isn't enough to launch a multi-million-dollar business. Let's face it, investors don't put money in ideas. They need concrete evidence that they'll get return on their investment, and a good business plan gives them such information. Do you have a hard time figuring out how to get a business plan down on paper? Are you tired and confused by all the business jargon, just wanting a straightforward how-to guide outlining exactly what you need to do? Business plans are the heart and soul of a successful company - they give you focus and operational clarity that can kick major mistakes to the curb. No matter how good your business idea is, you will need a plan to create a solid foundation before going on the market or trying to get investors on board. Did you know that even science says you need a business plan to make your startup a success? One study found out that companies with a business plan grow 30% faster than competitors! In addition, startups with a business plan achieve more sustainable success in the long run. So, what's the secret to writing a business plan like a seasoned pro or a Fortune 500 company CEO? It's not something you'll learn in business school, as experience shows a completely different side of running a business. For best results, you need to learn from someone who's already been there and who has conquered the almighty business plan. In How to Write a Winning Business Plan, you will discover: What a business model canvas is and 4 reasons why you should be using it How a great idea dies in the absence of good organization and the one thing to do about it 9 business plan building blocks to put organizational specifics in place Surefire ways to overcome financial conundrums and secure the investment needed to help your business thrive Ways in which successful CEOs mitigate business startup risks A bulletproof technique to write a killer value proposition Tactics for pinpointing the right customers and reaching them through the power of marketing A comprehensive guide to understand your business model in a structured way How to analyze the competition if you want to benefit from some competitive advantage And much more. Most guides focusing on business plan creation are rather vague, abstract, and non-specific. By relying on those, you'll never put together a tailored strategic document that will set you up for success from day one. The methodology you'll find in How to Write a Winning Business Plan is derived from reality and analysis of the best corporate organizational approaches out there. It doesn't matter what field you operate in or how big you want to grow. This methodology is the way to understand your business better, putting together realistic expectations and goals for the future. If you want to learn the secrets to writing a winning business plan, then scroll up and click "Add to Cart" now.

Author: Grant P. Wiggins
Publisher: ASCD
ISBN: 1416600353
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.

Author: Lena Ramfelt
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0857085654
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Transform your business idea into a high potential venture Big, bright and brilliant, Gear Up is an engaging and practical workbook for anyone looking to pursue a fresh business opportunity or grow an existing one. Developed at Harvard Business School and Stanford University, it's a bootcamp with clear, easy-to-follow steps to test your business idea, assess its potential and make it work! Based on a revolutionary 9-component framework, Gear Up offers entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, innovative executives and business students a toolkit to bring their ideas to life and transform them into high potential ventures. Gear Up offers a useable business tool for assessing the needs of a business idea and helps you create a plan of action to promote business success. By working through the chapters of the book, you get to create a winning strategy based on recommendations tried and tested by executives around the world. Gear Up offers: - A step by step guide to help you build a foundation for your business opportunity - Solid business framework formulated from entrepreneurs, academics and real life experience - A highly practical workbook with visual, full-colour design and compelling layout Gear Up also comes with educators' support materials available at gearupventures.com PowerPoint presentations with teaching notes Online course materials Course Schedule Evaluation Forms Certificate for students who complete the course Coming soon! - An innovative, interactive digital toolkit Gear Up Virtual Toolkit (powered by You Noodle): A digital platform where participants can present their enterprise idea, work through the framework, answering questions and get real-time feedback from their facilitator/educator. The tool will even generate a ready-made PowerPoint presentation at the end of the process! Gear Up Mobile App (powered by We Chat): This app allows students to answer questions from their lecturers or vote in real-time from their phones within the classroom. The app promotes student engagement and class participation.

Author: Eric Ries
Publisher: Crown Currency
ISBN: 0307887898
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business. The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.

Author: Steve Blank
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780989200509
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
The bestselling classic that launched 10,000 startups and new corporate ventures - The Four Steps to the Epiphany is one of the most influential and practical business books of all time. The Four Steps to the Epiphany launched the Lean Startup approach to new ventures. It was the first book to offer that startups are not smaller versions of large companies and that new ventures are different than existing ones. Startups search for business models while existing companies execute them. The book offers the practical and proven four-step Customer Development process for search and offers insight into what makes some startups successful and leaves others selling off their furniture. Rather than blindly execute a plan, The Four Steps helps uncover flaws in product and business plans and correct them before they become costly. Rapid iteration, customer feedback, testing your assumptions are all explained in this book. Packed with concrete examples of what to do, how to do it and when to do it, the book will leave you with new skills to organize sales, marketing and your business for success. If your organization is starting a new venture, and you're thinking how to successfully organize sales, marketing and business development you need The Four Steps to the Epiphany. Essential reading for anyone starting something new.