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beezinda 's review for:
Black Founder: The Hidden Power of Being an Outsider
by Stacy Spikes
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Read for a work bookclub, so this may not be a book I naturally would have been pulled to. 2 stars for finishing it, but very close to a dnf at a few points in the novel. Maybe 1.5
This book fails on a few levels for me. I don't view Spikes as an outsider, and he doesn't give any novel insights to the power of being an outsider. Most importantly, it's a lackluster memoir. It doesn't offer a truly venerable portrait of self reflection. It reads like a detailed Wikipedia article - emotionally removed from the subject. It's off-putting.
It doesn't offer any personal revelation, and it doesn't offer any unique entrepreneurial perspective. Have a mentor, see things through, run, mediate, religion. Perserve through tough times.
The chapters don't align thematically. I could understand if the chapters amalgamated to prove a greater point, but all I'm left with is a few sentences every third chapter of the most generic advice that may not even be relevant. Maybe I'm age-ist, but his story is so genx. I genuinely don't think his career is replicable. I know people will say it's not about replication; it's about the process, but what process? Falling upward?
I get so irrationally mad. How are you an outsider. Because he's black? The one time in the book he mentions race....it's pandering. It reads like a great first draft it lacks emotional weight and/or industry relevance. It's sad because there is something here, but you have to do so much independent analysis and critical thinking to get some kernel of anything...it feels like panning for gold on the moon.
Reading this book is a tedious exercise in hopes for something worthwhile that ultimately leaves you empty-handed. But you can mine the intro chapter for 🔥 Motivation Monday quotes on Facebook. I digress.
This book fails on a few levels for me. I don't view Spikes as an outsider, and he doesn't give any novel insights to the power of being an outsider. Most importantly, it's a lackluster memoir. It doesn't offer a truly venerable portrait of self reflection. It reads like a detailed Wikipedia article - emotionally removed from the subject. It's off-putting.
It doesn't offer any personal revelation, and it doesn't offer any unique entrepreneurial perspective. Have a mentor, see things through, run, mediate, religion. Perserve through tough times.
The chapters don't align thematically. I could understand if the chapters amalgamated to prove a greater point, but all I'm left with is a few sentences every third chapter of the most generic advice that may not even be relevant. Maybe I'm age-ist, but his story is so genx. I genuinely don't think his career is replicable. I know people will say it's not about replication; it's about the process, but what process? Falling upward?
I get so irrationally mad. How are you an outsider. Because he's black? The one time in the book he mentions race....it's pandering. It reads like a great first draft it lacks emotional weight and/or industry relevance. It's sad because there is something here, but you have to do so much independent analysis and critical thinking to get some kernel of anything...it feels like panning for gold on the moon.
Reading this book is a tedious exercise in hopes for something worthwhile that ultimately leaves you empty-handed. But you can mine the intro chapter for 🔥 Motivation Monday quotes on Facebook. I digress.
Content Warnings
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Racism, Pandemic/Epidemic