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How I Built This

The Unexpected Paths to Success From the World's Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs

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How I Built This

By: Guy Raz
Narrated by: Guy Raz
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About this listen

The #1 Wall Street Journal Business Book Bestseller & Top 10 New York Times Bestseller.

Based on the highly acclaimed NPR podcast, How I Built This with Guy Raz, his book offers priceless insights and inspiration from the world’s top entrepreneurs on how to start, launch and build a successful venture.

Great ideas often come from a simple spark: a football player on the New Zealand national team notices all the unused wool his country produces and figures out a way to turn them into shoes (Allbirds). A former Buddhist monk decides the very best way to spread his mindfulness teachings is by launching an app (Headspace). A sandwich cart vendor finds a way to reuse leftover pita bread and turns it into a multi-million dollar business (Stacy’s Pita Chips).

Award-winning podcast creator Guy Raz has interviewed more than 200 highly successful innovators from across the world, from the founders of Five Guys, Airbnb and Bumble to James Dyson and Reed Hastings of Netflix, to uncover amazing true stories like these. In How I Built This, he shares tips for every entrepreneur’s journey: from the early days of formulating your idea, to raising money and recruiting employees, to finding your market and, finally, to paying yourself a real salary. This is a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of starting their own business or wondered how trail-blazing go-getters made their own dreams a reality.

'A must read for anyone who wants to start a business, grow a business, or be inspired by those who do' – Adam Grant, author of Originals

'These stories of founders and their companies are told with the same energy and openness it takes to be an entrepreneur' – Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup

'Guy Raz is supremely himself in this guide for aspiring entrepreneurs: brilliantly perceptive, incessantly curious, infectiously energetic and above all, a master storyteller' - Angela Duckworth, author of Grit

Business Development & Entrepreneurship Career Success Entrepreneurship

Critic Reviews

A must-read for anyone who wants to start a business, grow a business, or be inspired by those who do. (Adam Grant, author of Originals)
Guy Raz is supremely himself in this guide for aspiring entrepreneurs: brilliantly perceptive, incessantly curious, infectiously energetic and above all, a master storyteller. (Angela Duckworth, author of Grit)
If only this book would have come out years ago, building my business would have been so much simpler. At least we have it now! (Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why)
An indispensable guide for anyone eager to challenge the status quo in pursuit of some new and better version of the world. Highly recommended. (Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and co-author of Blitzscaling)
Anyone who reads How I Built This will have an incredible advantage. Guy provides the compass, the map and the headlamp you need to navigate the wilderness of entrepreneurship (Joe Gebbia, entrepreneur and co-founder of Airbnb)
Guy Raz has an extraordinary talent for not only unearthing the most powerful ideas in any story, but also translating those ideas into wisdom accessible for everyone (Chris Anderson, head of TED)
Truly remarkable stories . . . about truly remarkable people. Guy Raz captures their stories on the page to incredible effect. (Jennifer Hyman, CEO and founder of Rent the Runway)
This book is all about inspiration – told with blood, sweat, and tears. You’ll come away refreshed. And ready to hit the ground running (Mark Cuban, entrepreneur, 'shark' on Shark Tank, and proprietor of the Dallas Mavericks)
Through stories of passion, audacity and courage, Guy weaves together a shared business-building experience that’s both inspiring and real. (Lara Merriken, founder of LÄRABAR)
A love letter to the idea of possibility . . . This book explores all the discrete nooks and crannies of an entrepreneur’s voyage through success and failure (Alli Webb, Drybar founder)
If you’re determined to reach for your dream, read this book (Barbara Corcoran, founder of The Corcoran Group and ‘shark' on Shark Tank)
What’s so remarkable about Guy’s book is not so much that all these individuals saw their dreams come true, but that as their stories of overcoming frustrations and hurdles unfold, you end up cheering for them to succeed (Tony Hsieh, author of Delivering Happiness and CEO of Zappos.com)
If you enjoy the How I Built This podcast, you’ll love this book. You'll identify with the ups, downs, and pivots that make up the proverbial roller coaster ride of entrepreneurs (Stacy Madison, founder of Stacy’s Pita Chips and BeBOLD Bars)
Guy is clearly a person who is tapped into this community of entrepreneurs and shares stories of relevance to our community. Now, more than ever, entrepreneurs and small businesses need a curator of stories and Guy is that ‘guy’ (Lisa Price, founder of Carol’s Daughter)
All stars
Most relevant
I loved the way each story unfolds in this book. I also like the fact the author read the audible copy and he is a great presenter.

Great stories and very well read

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As a big fan of Guy Raz’s podcast, I wondered if this book would offer more than what I had already absorbed and learnt on his amazing interviews. It sure did! I’ve finished feeling so inspired and equipped with so much more knowledge to keep building my own business. Thank you Guy!

Buy this book!

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This book is an offshoot if his famous podcast. But his books is laid out in a nice easy to listen format. I loved the topics that were chosen, from starting a company to the problems cofounders have, selling companies.
It's not easy starting companies but the amount of in depth examples are very suitable.

Amazing

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An easy listen! I highly recommend this book for all people at whatever stage of their entrprenurial journey. Guy has outdone himself with this one.

Grateful for this book and all lessons within.

A must listen for ALL :)

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anyone considering or who has started on the entrepreneur journey, this book is inspirational and will teach you important steps to increase your likelihood of success.

great book for the startup world

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