Books
Understanding first principles is the way to succeed in any domain.
A business, however, combines domains — like accounting, customer service, and IT — which makes it a system. So you need systems-level thinking to understand your work in context and spot the biggest opportunities.
What makes this difficult is that every business exists within an environment beyond our control that is inherently unpredictable. So we must learn to think probabilistically, especially when we're innovating or starting new businesses.
Together, these three ways of thinking — first principles, systems, and probabilities — give you a complete set of lenses through which to make decisions. That's my realization after more work than I care to admit. And I've written a book on each.
Mastering Uncertainty: How Great Founders, Entrepreneurs, and Business Leaders Thrive in an Unpredictable World
Mastering Uncertainty reveals the shortcomings of conventional business thinking and the advantages of developing a 'probabilistic' mindset that turns uncertainty from a source of fear into an incredible and exciting advantage.
It offers superbly practical advice on everything from how to handle setbacks and expand your network, to how to spot business opportunities and shape them into successful, growing businesses. Above all, it shows how to think and operate like a great entrepreneur.
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The Grid: The Master Model Behind Business Success
The grid is a simple framework that shows all the factors that determine your business success on a single page.
It provides you with the mental scaffolding to: evaluate and refine product and service ideas, reduce risk by considering the broader impact of decisions, identify the root causes of business challenges and collaborate more effectively across teams.
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The Ten Principles Behind Great Customer Experiences
This book covers ten principles you can use to make real-world improvements to your customers' experiences, whatever your business does and whoever you are. It remains the only book on customer experience to win a major book award, and is still described by many as the definitive book on the subject.
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