Scan barcode
niniane's review against another edition
2.0
Entertaining stories about cycling and finding his life partner.
The author tries to paint himself as a risk taking, off the beaten road, maverick who cares about social causes. He says the way to do this is... maintaining 100% ownership, so that no one else has any stock or can make money when the company value goes up.
He acknowledges this comes off as "greedy and selfish" but then brushes that off. The next few pages, he talks about how he wants to leave hundreds of millions of dollars to his kids.
In another book, his wife complained about how he left her with their newborn while he went on a 2-week sport adventure overseas.
So it is another book of a founder who wants to keep all the control and money, but paint himself as a noble guy. But the cycling parts are interesting.
The author tries to paint himself as a risk taking, off the beaten road, maverick who cares about social causes. He says the way to do this is... maintaining 100% ownership, so that no one else has any stock or can make money when the company value goes up.
He acknowledges this comes off as "greedy and selfish" but then brushes that off. The next few pages, he talks about how he wants to leave hundreds of millions of dollars to his kids.
In another book, his wife complained about how he left her with their newborn while he went on a 2-week sport adventure overseas.
So it is another book of a founder who wants to keep all the control and money, but paint himself as a noble guy. But the cycling parts are interesting.
amymo73's review against another edition
4.0
This is the story of Gary Erickson and his journey with Clif Bar. It starts with Gary walking away from selling the company for a lot of money and turns into a hodgepodge story (perhaps eclectic is a better word) of business, bike riding, climbing and personal integrity. While he does talk about the negative, about how his company (and he) lost its way, it's not an in-depth read. And he repeats himself. A lot. Perhaps by design because it drives home the central message of the book -- that it's important to stay true to your values and life philosophy, that sometimes the best way to succeed in life is to follow your gut rather than a cookie-cutter approach, that being all-in yourself is often the best way to keep your vision. He motivated and inspired me to create my own vision as a starting point, then develop ways to enhance and stay true to it. His "white road" vs. "red road" (entrepreneurial vs. traditional) analogy can be tweaked not just for any business but for any life plan. And his approach to business and employee relations makes me wish Clif Bar was located in WNY and I had a marketable skill to work there.
katieisallbooked's review against another edition
5.0
I really enjoyed listening to this on audio. I LOVE Clif bars and learned a lot about the company's principles that made me love them even more. The author could have turned the entire book into a "look at me" ego-fest, but it was quite the opposite. He gave kudos to everyone around him who helped to build the company into what it is today.
More...