Dave Jilk and Brad Feld
The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche
ISBN: 978-1-5445-2140-4
I never had the chance to take a philosophy class in college. When I wasn’t in class, I was producing media in the Communication Studies building, creating something in the chemistry lab, working at the hospital, or community building with a local non-profit. You can’t do everything in four years, so I’ve spent time since then trying to fill in the gaps. A lot of philosophy just involves reading – lots and lots of reading both the text and what’s hidden between the lines. Sometimes it helps to read interpretations of work before you dive into the work itself, so things seem a bit more familiar and make a bit more sense.
If you’ve been following this blog and this review series for a while, you know that I’m a big fan of Brad Feld and his writing, and I’ve reviewed a number of his books over the years. When he writes something new, I immediately add it to my reading list. Last year, I saw that he teamed with Dave Jilk to write The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche – a departure from his usual books focused more on startup topics. I then saw that he was going to discuss the book during Denver Startup Week, so I decided to take the leap and read the book before that event last October, as I thought it would be interesting to see how Feld and Jilk were able to connect philosophy with entrepreneurship.
The sections of Nietzsche’s work covered fit into five categories: strategy, culture, free spirits, leadership, and tactics. I really appreciated the authors bridging the gaps between the categories and within the categories through examples from their careers and through narratives from other entrepreneurs and creators. They did a great job “translating” Nietzsche’s words into something more modern and useful for the readers of today, while allowing the reader to examine the original quotes from Nietzsche himself.
While the chapters are only a few pages each, the book isn’t designed to be consumed in one or two sittings – the title is The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche because the reader should intend to tackle one chapter per week, in order to allow for reflection and thought. If I hadn’t wanted to power through the book in order to have read it before the Denver Startup Week event, I probably would have only read one or two chapters per week, in order to pick a theme or two for the week and do some deep internal discovery. Some chapters even could use more than one week of study to truly appreciate the connection between philosophy and business.
My favorite section of the five was the Leadership section, specifically the chapters on leading gently and gratitude and integrity. Before I dove head-first into the world of entrepreneurship several years ago, I didn’t have much experience in leadership beyond a handful of committees on which I’d served in college and graduate school. When I started participating in Startup Weekends, for whatever reason, I tended to gravitate toward the project manager role, helping guide teams on which I participated through the weekend. At the beginning, I found that my style of leadership didn’t play well with others at times, mostly because I was going about being a leader too harshly. Merely showing gratitude toward the rest of the team, and striking a more gentle, encouraging tone, seemed to help move the team along better than just delegating and demanding work be done.
Overall, 8/10, would recommend to entrepreneurs and others looking for a bit of motivation and needing a bit of guidance through an issue. This book is not designed to answer questions – it’s meant to make you think a bit harder about yourself, your career or business, and your life’s purpose. For someone like myself, not terribly well-versed in philosophy and not familiar with the majority of the work of modern philosophers, this was a nice introduction to that field, and a great way to connect thought with action.