The Best Books for Building a Startup Career
When I landed my first startup job, I felt like I knew nothing. Actually, some days I felt like I knew less than nothing.
I was nineteen years old, and my previous working experience consisted of tutoring homeschooled kids and picking apples for a living. I had no idea what a quarter was, let alone a KPI. I was excited and I was hungry and I had no clue what I was doing.
I realized (much later) that it wasn’t just me. One of the most frustrating things when you’re starting your career is all the stuff you don’t know. You’re young, and you’re excited, and you have all the time in the world — all advantages — but there are some pretty big disadvantages that come with the territory. The biggest two are a lack of experience and a lack of knowledge. The latter, in part, is a symptom of the former.
When you haven’t had experience yet, how are you supposed to have acquired knowledge?
The answer: by reading.
To be an effective player in the startup world, there’s a lot you have to be good at. Some of the most important:
- understanding how startups work in the first place (pretty obvious, but as I quickly discovered, it’s a whole different world)
- knowing how to articulate and sell ideas really, really well
