The Creator's Code

The Six Essential Skills of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs

By: Amy Wilkinson, Amy Wilkinson - introduction

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Based on in-depth interviews with more than 200 leading entrepreneurs, a business executive and senior fellow at Harvard's Center for Public Leadership identifies the six essential disciplines needed to transform your ideas into real-world successes, whether you're an innovative manager or an aspiring entrepreneur.

How do some people turn ideas into enterprises that endure? Startup founders and business leaders young and old are taking advantage of the new, fast-paced, interconnected world and turning small notions into big business. But why do some people succeed when so many others fail? Now, Amy Wilkinson is the first to develop a comprehensive theory that explains how these new iconoclasts gain traction to achieve lasting results.

Wilkinson conducted rigorous, lengthy interviews with today's most dynamic entrepreneurs including the founders of eBay, AirBnB, Yelp, LinkedIn, Chipotle, Spanx, Zipcar, Jetblue, PayPal, Gilt Groupe, and Revolution Foods, among others. The Creator's Code shows how these entrepreneurial creators built their companies. It delves into the belief of Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and Solar City, that "people are too self-limiting", reveals how AirBnB founder Joe Gebbia overcame obstacles to reach what he calls "Ramen Profitability", explains Stella & Dot founder Jessica Herrin's dictum that "there are no jobs on the unicorn farm", and shows how "Maryland's sweatiest football player", Kevin Plank, turned his somewhat comical problem into Under Armour, a $2 billion global sports brand.

The men and women you'll meet in this audiobook prove that entrepreneurship is accessible to everyone, and that by practicing six disciplines you can produce unexpected, creative, and wildly meaningful results.

©2015 Amy Wilkinson. All rights reserved. (P)2015 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Incredible

This book is highly recommended for anyone with an entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial mind. Great stories and examples!

great book

I really enjoyed it. It contains really excellent insights. And, it allowed me to see what it really takes to make it!

Not original but useful

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Creator's Code?

It does not add anything original to the research, but the stories are inspiring.

What aspect of Cassandra Campbell’s performance would you have changed?

The cadence of the constant Howard Cosell imitation is extremely grating. Not sure I can finish listening.

decent book

I found the parts about how people have started popular businesses 6o be interesting. Good read...I did zone out a bit, a little bored at points but then it caught my attention again.

Great book!

Very well done. Interesting and informative all the way through. I've already recommended it to multiple friends.

Super book for all business people.

Super book for all business people. Every Creator interviewed was awesome and something to learn.

Interesting but not great

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The content was interesting but not great.. interesting stories of how various entrepreneurs got the idea to start their business.. but there really isn't "code" in this book (not that I expected there to be.. I don't think such thing can really be extracted into a "code", or written down, other than anecdotally, which this book perhaps did to a degree).

Would you recommend The Creator's Code to your friends? Why or why not?

Probably not. It wasn't a book that I "could not put down" (or in this case, "stop playing"), but rather one of the "well, I'm going to see how it ends now that I've started it".

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

I thought the "different voice" she did for the quotes from various interviewees was strange, distracting. This was not a fictional book, but it quoted interviews with Elon Musk and many other well-known and not-so-well-known entrepreneurs. So.. I kept wondering if she's trying to approximate the interviewees' voices (probably not since the voice was the same for all interviewee quotes, regardless of whether the interviewee was a male or a female.. which was another thing about the 'voice' that I found distracting).

Could you see The Creator's Code being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

A documentary, maybe, with interviews with many of the interviewed entrepreneurs. However, it would have to have a different structure than the book.

Extremely inspiring!!

This information sparks courage, creativity, and inspiration....and action.
Everyone can benefit greatly from it, if they desire...and I'd say especially those who are scared off by the societal belief that you have to be an expert in an area or have an expensive education in order to create something of value in our world.

amazing.

the author does a great job explaining the importance of six simple skills to help make the most of your own talents. She invites you to challenge your own perceptions while giving you the tools to do so.

A wonderful read and perfectly inspirational

With so many titles out there it's hard to find a book that is truly inspirational and targeted to creatives entrepreneurship. A must read!