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A review by danibeliveau
Boss Life: Surviving My Own Small Business by Paul Downs
4.0
An absolutely indispensable insight into the day-to-day concerns of a small business owner. I appreciate the author's candor and willingness to describe not only his successes, but his failures. Seeing the cashflow ebb and flow was incredibly useful.
However, in choosing to not share any lessons for the reader (explicitly, anyway), it is challenging to tease out which beliefs/practices the author endorses and which he has since learned to do differently - though he seems self-aware enough to demonstrate the interpersonal and economical effects of his decisions. Similarly, the way he describes some of his current and former employees is very revealing of his personality and, in particular, why he slogged through mediocrity for so long: he was almost comically unapproachable, self-absorbed, stuck in his ways (if I had to read about AdWords one more time I was going to scream), and wondered why his people never brought him new ideas or went the extra mile. I wanted to reach into the book and say, my guy! It's you! You're the problem!
I really enjoyed this book, appreciate that it was written, and hope the author and his business are doing well. I hope he is continuing to receive mentorship on leadership specifically. This book would have been a five-star read if he had demonstrated or articulated a little more accountability about being, frankly, an asshole, and maybe had a little more respect for low-wage workers who kept his shop going as best they could with shockingly little guidance.
However, in choosing to not share any lessons for the reader (explicitly, anyway), it is challenging to tease out which beliefs/practices the author endorses and which he has since learned to do differently - though he seems self-aware enough to demonstrate the interpersonal and economical effects of his decisions. Similarly, the way he describes some of his current and former employees is very revealing of his personality and, in particular, why he slogged through mediocrity for so long: he was almost comically unapproachable, self-absorbed, stuck in his ways (if I had to read about AdWords one more time I was going to scream), and wondered why his people never brought him new ideas or went the extra mile. I wanted to reach into the book and say, my guy! It's you! You're the problem!
I really enjoyed this book, appreciate that it was written, and hope the author and his business are doing well. I hope he is continuing to receive mentorship on leadership specifically. This book would have been a five-star read if he had demonstrated or articulated a little more accountability about being, frankly, an asshole, and maybe had a little more respect for low-wage workers who kept his shop going as best they could with shockingly little guidance.