
Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book - AJ007
http://online.wsj.com/articles/bill-gatess-favorite-business-book-1405088228
======
caster_cp
It's available since July 8th 2014 in Amazon... I see what you did there with
your marketing ingeniousness, Mr. WSJ || Bill Gates.

The problem is that I'm easy, all too easy, and I fall for these ploys. And
now I'm biting myself to buy the book :) Well done.

edit: what's available is a Kindle edition, that I suppose is from the same
book [http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-
Str...](http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Street-
ebook/dp/B00L1TPCKW/)

~~~
d23
And the paperback just happens to be coming out in September but can be pre-
ordered now.

Kind of annoying to me personally, since I take the advice a little less
seriously now.

~~~
chaz
Do you think he should have recommended a book that was otherwise hard to get?
I think people here, after reading this article, would have thought it
ridiculous that the book _wasn 't_ available on Amazon.

My guess is that it is legitimately was his favorite book (he's known for his
voracious reading and recommendations) and he wanted it to be read by a lot of
people. So he pitched it to the publisher and the WSJ to get it done. I don't
see what's so bad about that. I hardly think he's motivated by money or fame
right now.

~~~
DanBC
Indeed, if I got FU money there's a bunch of books I'd release as cheap sets,
with corrections and updates, in multiple languages. (Around stats and
science, mostly.)

------
nickgrosvenor
This is sort of strange (but great) because at least once at every single
Berkshire Hathaway meeting someone asks Buffett and Munger what they're
favorite books are, and I have never heard them mention this one. There is 20
years of in in-depth content about Buffett in books, articles, meetings, and
interviews. "What's your fav book" must be one of the top 5 questions he gets
and I've never heard about this book. This is great.

~~~
sliverstorm
Buffett is an investor though right? Whereas Gates built a company. The two
closely related but not the same? So it doesn't surprise me they turn to
different books.

Investors usually recommend books on security analysis, which would hardly
have been useful for Gates in the 90's.

~~~
nickgrosvenor
Actually it's a little known fact that Buffet built a company too. Yes He did
invest in other publicly traded companies, and he's also acquired quite a few
too.

You can think of those as acquisitions. It's sort of a lesser known fact that
he made the majority of his money in insurance. Before anyone else thought of
it, Buffett developed a Homeostatic operation that collected insurance
premiums and then invested that float in other companies who had a history of
spinning off large amounts of free cash flow. He'd suck off that free cash
flow and buy up more companies. All while keeping a larger and larger amount
of free cash on hand in the event that he had to pay out any large claims.

This is all easier said than done because if you price your premiums wrong you
can blow up the whole business. He priced his premiums conservatively and sold
odd insurance in the back of newspapers and trade magazines, covering things
and making policies that no one else dare take on.

There's a lot more gun slinging and pivoting in the Buffett story than you'd
read about today. He raised cash manually from groups of Doctors in the 60's
for his first investor partnership (he was 26). It was no different than a 26
year old kid going out today and raising cash for a startup. And incidentally,
he delivered. There's one story in the excellent Alice Schroeder bio about him
([http://goo.gl/nZGrIX](http://goo.gl/nZGrIX)) He was around 30 years old
living in suburban Omaha. One afternoon he casually asks his next door
neighbor if he's ever thought about how he'll pay for his children's college
then goes into a sales pitch asking him for $10,000 (in the 60's). The
neighbor declined. Can you imagine? He had hustle, and street smarts, and
swagger. That's a businessman. In fact he's one of the best businessmen. Even
Gates would tell you that.

~~~
sliverstorm
_Before anyone else thought of it, Buffett developed a Homeostatic operation
that collected insurance premiums and then invested that float in other
companies..._

That's exactly what I mean. Buffett is famous & successful for being a finance
wizard. They are both businessmen, of course, but different sorts. At least,
so it seems to me.

------
AJ007
Not available on Amazon currently, but available on Abebooks:
[http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=john+brooks...](http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=john+brooks&sts=t&tn=business+adventures)

Also on Google Books for $9.99:
[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZMPTAwAAQBAJ](http://books.google.com/books?id=ZMPTAwAAQBAJ)

~~~
graffitici
Isn't this the same book: [http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-
Classic-Str...](http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-
Street-ebook/dp/B00L1TPCKW/)

~~~
mcguire
Isn't that one linked from Gatesnotes, "The Blog of Bill Gates":

[http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Business-Adventures-Free-
Cha...](http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Business-Adventures-Free-Chapter-
Download?WT.mc_id=07_11_2014_BizBook_WallStreetJournal&WT.tsrc=WallStreetJournal)

------
frogpelt
I wonder if they went to ebay and bought up all the stray copies before they
did this marketing push.

There's one copy there and the bid is currently at $260. And the product image
is a picture of Bill Gates reading it.

EDIT: Link:
[http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=john+brooks&_osacat=0&_...](http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=john+brooks&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xbusiness+adventures+john+brooks&_nkw=business+adventures+john+brooks&_sacat=0)

~~~
chaz
You can search on completed listings. Looks like only 2 copies were listed,
both unsold. Also, it seems like a long way to get Bill Gates to write a guest
column in the WSJ to make $260 (top bid $81 now).

~~~
frogpelt
Oh, I wasn't trying to insinuate that the ebay seller was connected to the WSJ
article.

------
jessep
If you have a New Yorker subscription, you can read all of John Brooks' work
online:
[http://www.newyorker.com/search?qt=dismax&rows=10&sort=score...](http://www.newyorker.com/search?qt=dismax&rows=10&sort=score+desc&fixedDate=&query=&submit=Search&magOnly=on&bylquery=John+Brooks)

Each of these links (after a summary) to a scanned archive version of the
actual magazine, which is cool. You can see the ads and layout of the day.

Edit: I actually want to read all of them, so here's the direct links to the
original articles:

\- Fluctuations:
[http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1963-08-31#folio=034](http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1963-08-31#folio=034)

\- The Fate of the Edsel:
[http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1960-12-03#folio=198](http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1960-12-03#folio=198)

\- The Federal Incom Tax: \--Part 1:
[http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1965-04-03#folio=052](http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1965-04-03#folio=052),
\--Part 2:
[http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1965-04-10#folio=051](http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1965-04-10#folio=051)

\- A Reasonable Amount of Time:
[http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-11-09#folio=160](http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-11-09#folio=160)

\- Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox:
[http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1967-04-01#folio=046](http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1967-04-01#folio=046)

\- Making the Customers Whole:
[http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1964-11-14#folio=160](http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1964-11-14#folio=160)

\- The Impacted Philosophers:
[http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1962-05-26#folio=045](http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1962-05-26#folio=045)

\- The Last Great Corner:
[http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1959-06-06#folio=128](http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1959-06-06#folio=128)

\- A Second Sort of Life:
[http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1961-04-29#folio=045](http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1961-04-29#folio=045)

\- Stockholder Season:
[http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1966-10-08#folio=159](http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1966-10-08#folio=159)

\- One Free Bite:
[http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1964-01-11#folio=037](http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1964-01-11#folio=037)

\- In Defense of Sterling: \-- Part 1:
[http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-03-23#folio=060](http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-03-23#folio=060)
\-- Part 2:
[http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-03-30#folio=043](http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-03-30#folio=043)

~~~
HSO
And if you don't…

"Beginning July 21, the magazine’s new and archived articles will be free to
everyone, a move it hopes will attract more readers. […] The three months
during which articles will be free, a promotion that will most likely be
sponsored by a large corporation, will provide the magazine with data it plans
to use in deciding how to position and price its “metered paywall” — allowing
a certain number, or certain kinds, of free articles, but then charging its
most avid readers through a subscription plan."

[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/business/media/the-new-
yor...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/business/media/the-new-yorker-
alters-its-online-strategy.html?_r=0&pagewanted=all)

Ha, another instance of my filing system "paying off" ;-)

~~~
jasonkostempski
Would you mind describing your filing system a bit? I've been trying to work
out a better one myself.

------
lowglow
We've been adding our favorite business books here:
[https://books.techendo.com/tags/business](https://books.techendo.com/tags/business)

There's a good list and some non-traditional books for any adventurous readers
out there.

------
dumbarton
Will check out BA when I get a chance. But can't imagine it will displace what
remains my favourite "business" book of all time, the Id Software creation
yarn: Masters of Doom by David Kushner.

It was recently suggested to me that every entrepreneur should read Sir
Richard Branson's autobiography. I was dismissive having read the LRB review
of Bower's biography of "the stuntman": [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n06/david-
runciman/the-stuntman](http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n06/david-runciman/the-
stuntman).

Is "Losing My Virginity" worth a peruse? Or should we just wait for Gates
himself to deliver his memoirs?

~~~
AndrewKemendo
Though I did not glean any particular business acumen insights from it, I
thought it was very well worth the read.

It painted a portrait of Branson as a person and personality, which helps
explain his success.

------
nbouscal
Bill Gates also recommends My Years with General Motors [1], calling it
"probably the best book to read if you want to read only one book about
business." I would second that recommendation.

[1]: [http://www.amazon.com/Years-General-Motors-Alfred-
Sloan/dp/0...](http://www.amazon.com/Years-General-Motors-Alfred-
Sloan/dp/0385042353/)

~~~
dsinha
Agree, one of the best business books I have read!

------
bitwize
It's not Business @ the Speed of Thought???

~~~
mindcrime
Apparently not, but I personally am a huge fan of _Business @ The Speed Of
Thought_. Even though I'm not a huge Gates fan, and definitely not a Microsoft
fan, there's no question that Gates hit on some good stuff in that book. And
amazingly, as old as it is, I'd argue that most businesses (heck, most
organizations period) to this day have _still_ not achieved anything quite
equal to his idea of a "Digital Nervous System" (and yes, I know term didn't
originate with Gates, but he did a brilliant job of articulating and
popularizing it).

I still keep that book near my bed and re-read sections of it from time to
time. From even an avowed "Micro$oft" basher from back in the Slashdot days
when the GatesBorg image was The Thing, I have to give the devil his due -
B@TSOT is solid stuff.

------
thesumofall
And for those who missed it, there is a free chapter here:
[http://www.gatesnotes.com/media/features/books/Bill_Gates_Jo...](http://www.gatesnotes.com/media/features/books/Bill_Gates_John_Brooks_Business_Adventures_Xerox_Free_Chapter.pdf)

------
usefulcat
What is the deal with the embedded ticker symbols with popup stock info? I
suppose they're trying to drive traffic to some of their other articles, but I
can't help seeing those things as irrelevant distractions to an otherwise
interesting article.

~~~
frogpelt
Those are on pretty much every website that spends any time talking about
stocks.

------
mandeepj
> I know I'm not alone in seeing this decision as a mistake on Xerox's part. I
> was certainly determined to avoid it at Microsoft.

But they still missed on touch and social. I am not counting in tablets,
mobile because they at least tried in this space

------
sandstrom
Anyone know where I can buy the book in `epub` format? (without any DRM)

------
thewpguy
I second the recommendation. It's a good book.

------
higherpurpose
I'd be more interested in Steve Jobs' favorite business books. I know he was a
huge fan of the Innovator's Dilemma, probably because he already _naturally_
understood most of it from experience before having to read it, and he was
probably fan of other similar books too, and I'd like to know which books
those were.

I don't think Bill Gates ever understood a book like Innovator's Dilemma. Not
really.

~~~
stillsut
Check out the Innovator's Solution, the follow up.

It explains why most of the profit (ability to charge your costs plus a
premium) was dominated in the 90's by OS's, and not by the now notorious disk-
drive companies.

Gates probably understood this (how to position yourself not be disrupted) and
it's why we're all reading _his_ favorite book - which is great by the way.

~~~
dumbarton
And for the other side of the coin -- Jill Lepore's "What the Theory of
Disruptive Innovation Gets Wrong"
[http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/06/23/140623fa_fact_...](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/06/23/140623fa_fact_lepore?currentPage=all)

~~~
mtdewcmu
I haven't read Christensen's books, but the story Jill Lepore tells in that
article sounds totally credible.

Disruptive innovation is a theory of history. Given any historical event with
winners and losers, it reframes it as a contest between innovator and non-
innovator with a preordained outcome. Microsoft succeeded and Xerox failed
because PCs were the inevitable future, which Microsoft embraced and Xerox
denied. Xerox should have seen that the PC was inevitable and planned
accordingly, the theory says.

However, there is a problem when trying to apply the theory in real time, as
Lepore points out: "Disruptive innovation can reliably be seen only after the
fact." She explains the theory's circularity: "Christensen has compared the
theory of disruptive innovation to a theory of nature: the theory of
evolution. But... advocates of disruption have an affinity for circular
arguments. If an established company doesn’t disrupt, it will fail, and if it
fails it must be because it didn’t disrupt. When a startup fails, that’s a
success, since epidemic failure is a hallmark of disruptive innovation. ...
When an established company succeeds, that’s only because it hasn’t yet
failed. And, when any of these things happen, all of them are only further
evidence of disruption." It works well only in retrospect, and it can't be
disproven. Like all theories of history, it only explains things that have
already happened.

------
larrys
Separately Gates looks amazingly old in the last few years way beyond his age.
Especially in that photo. That is not the skin of a man in his late 50's.

I've speculated that he has either to much sun exposure [1], smokes (but he
doesn't?), or has some sickness that has caused him to age.

Actually when he retired from Microsoft I had thought that health might have
something to do with it. (I don't remember many cases anecdotal of successful
business people "retiring" as early as he has done. They usually continue
strong until a ripe age.)

Obviously there is no known sickness that he has spoken publicly about but
that wouldn't be that unusual.

[1] But he doesn't seem like the type that would be baking in the sun over the
course of many years and he does live in Washington State not in Florida.

Edit: It's not off topic and it's not a comment made for vanity reasons (ie
"jeez doesn't he look bad!"). The comment is made primarily because I think he
possibly has health issues and I'm curious what others think (especially those
on HN with a medical background).

~~~
biot
It's quite inappropriate to speculate on a person's private health matters in
a public forum. It's little different than being in the same room as someone,
then pointing at them and asking "What's wrong with that person's funny skin?
Is anyone a doctor here? Let's have a discussion about it!"

~~~
larrys
"It's quite inappropriate to speculate on a person's private health matters in
a public forum."

I don't agree at all. And what are you basing that on? Is there some "rules of
public forum" that has been agreed upon and accepted by the internet rule
setting committee? Is there anything in the HN faq that states this?

Even more importantly, Gates is a very public and well known person. I'm not
making comments on some unknown individual who works in marketing at some YC
company (or Microsoft for that matter). Or an HN commenter.

It's totally appropriate to speculate on his health [1] (and in fact the media
does this all the time about many well known people). That is not the same as
saying people on HN (such as yourself) might not find it inappropriate
(obviously I'm being downvoted so many people reading this particular post
don't seem to agree with me.)

Lastly, the richest or near richest man in the world doesn't need to be
protected from some anonymous person's speculation.

[1] Not the same as saying HN likes the speculation or it's appropriate for
HN. But you didn't say that. You said "health matters in a public forum".

~~~
biot
The word "forum" is a Latin word, and I'm using it in its traditional meaning
(ie: a "public venue"), not in the recent "internet message board thingy"
meaning. And I think I'll just have to disagree with you as (1) I don't
consider today's media as demonstrating exemplary values, and (2) it's not
about whether or not a wealthy/public person _needs_ protection; it's about
whether a particular activity is _right_. Obviously my value system is
different from yours in that regard.

