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Build

An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

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Build

By: Tony Fadell
Narrated by: Roger Wayne
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Buy Now for $19.89

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Tony Fadell led the teams that created the iPod, iPhone and Nest Learning Thermostat and learned enough in 30+ years in Silicon Valley about leadership, design, startups, Apple, Google, decision-making, mentorship, devastating failure and unbelievable success to fill an encyclopedia.

So that's what this book is. An advice encyclopedia. A mentor in a box.

Written for anyone who wants to grow at work - from young grads navigating their first jobs to CEOs deciding whether to sell their companies - Build is full of personal stories, practical advice and fascinating insights into some of the most impactful products and people of the 20th century.

Each quick 5-20 page entry builds on the previous one, charting Tony's personal journey from a product designer to a leader, from a startup founder to an executive to a mentor. Tony uses examples that are instantly captivating, like the process of building the very first iPod and iPhone. Every chapter is designed to help readers with a problem they're facing right now - how to get funding for their startup, whether to quit their job or not, or just how to deal with the jerk in the next cubicle.

Tony forged his path to success alongside mentors like Steve Jobs and Bill Campbell, icons of Silicon Valley who succeeded time and time again. But Tony doesn't follow the Silicon Valley credo that you have to reinvent everything from scratch to make something great. His advice is unorthodox because it's old school. Because Tony's learned that human nature doesn't change.

You don't have to reinvent how you lead and manage - just what you make. And Tony's ready to help everyone make things worth making.

© Tony Fadell 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Business Development & Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship History & Culture Personal Development Professionals & Academics Science & Technology Self-Esteem Technology & Society Silicon Valley Business Technology Success Management

Critic Reviews

Tony Fadell has made more cool stuff than almost anyone else in the history of Silicon Valley, and in Build he tells us how. This is the most fun - and the most fascinating - memoir of curiosity and invention that I've ever read.
Malcolm Gladwell, Host of the Revisionist History podcast. Author of Outliers and Talking to Strangers.

Tony Fadell is one of the world's great experts in starting companies and creating insanely great products. He's distilled his wisdom in this book, providing wildly useful mentorship in a delightfully readable set of stories.
Walter Isaacson,
Author & Biographer of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein & Leonardo DaVinci

Tony Fadell distills his epic career into refreshingly candid, often contrarian advice that you can put into practice right away. Whether you're looking to build a great product, a creative team, a strong culture, or a meaningful career, Tony's guidance will get you thinking and rethinking.
Adam Grant,
Author of Think Again & Host of the TED podcast WorkLife

Super hacks for building a team, building a company [and] how to spot a good idea. All of the chapters are 10/10 solid gold. This book is fantastic.
Chris Evans

Tony Fadell is the legendary technologist, engineer and entrepreneur who's lived so many lives in the pressure-cooker of Silicon Valley bringing visionary ideas into existence, one after another. The chance to now share his insights, instincts and wisdom is essential reading and a precious gift for any inventor hungry to change the world.
Thomas Heatherwick,
Award Winning Designer & Founder Heatherwick Studio

Based on hard won, real life lessons as an entrepreneur, Tony Fadell's Build delivers priceless advice for any young person who wants to build something great or change the world for the better. I wish I had this book when I was 21.
Ben Horowitz,
Founding Partner, Andreessen Horowitz

A highly personal and sparky guide to building your career and creating cool stuff.
John Thornhill, Financial Times

With 30+ years of experience in Silicon Valley and 300 patents to his name, Fadell has been part of epic successes-and failures-and this book is full of stories, insights and lessons related to them
Josh Rubin,
Cool Hunting

If you're at all interested in the history of tech and the products that made it so, Build is a must-read. We've not seen anything of this scale published before, so any tech fans should snap it up'
Stuff

A Forbes Top 10 Tech Book of 2022.
All stars
Most relevant
Packed with keen, hard won insights on business, product development and doing your life’s work. Pulls no punches, but each strong opinion is backed by a bloody good story. An jam packed career’s worth of lessons.

Invaluable, opinionated, inspiring.

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Loved this. A must for product owners or founders crossing chasmsand building teams to scale.

A brilliant guide for anyone building a product

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Good insights to start ups and business
Good easy to understand knowledge of creative side of business

Great read

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Tony opens Build by pointing out that most business books contain one or two gems hidden in hundreds of pages. Instead he has flipped that equation. You'll find a hard won nugget of gold on the audio equivalent of every page or two sourced from an incredible career full of success and failure.

For me, this has come at just the right time, highlighting many blindspots I would have otherwise had to have struggled through.

He wastes no time and has organised his learnings into chronological order from a young lad in his first job to an experienced founder. It means there is actionable information no matter where you are in your career. I will be referring back to the book many times as my own company and career progresses.

If you need any final convincing, a great preview is his interview with Nilay Patel on the podcast Decoder, the episode is called How big companies kill ideas - and how to fight back.

Nothing short of a goldmine

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I can’t advise more highly for fellow founders to ditch the news and pick up this EPIC book.

This is exactly what is need led to help us build our way out of a down turn 🙏🏽 #itstimetobuild

IT’S TIME TO BUILD!

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