Bold by Peter Diamandis is a fantastic book on the mindset of an entrepreneur. It’s aggressively optimistic, inspiring and the perfect read for any budding entrepreneur who wants to change the world.

Bullet Summary

• Many disruptive technologies start relatively unnoticed as they “brew” for a while before hitting suddenly
• This is the best time ever for you to take opportunities and change the world
• Go for Moonshots: huge goals are better at motivating you and better at changing the world

Full Summary

Part One – Bold Technology

In part one Peter Diamandis discussed the trends in technologies which are changing the world.

I found particularly interesting the 6 Ds of exponentials, analyzing how digital revolutions work.

Deception
The first period of digitization goes unnoticed. It’s because when a trend starts, even if it grows exponentially, it still won’t impact lives.

Disruption
As the trend approaches a critical mass and starts having some visible effect… It will then quickly grow from “visible effect” to “disruption” at lightining speed as it keeps growing exponentially.

Demonetization
As a business becomes digital, money matters less. Peter Diamandis talks about Kodak: film quickly became useless with Megapixels.

Dematerialization
Anything that becomes digitalized, also becomes dematerialized.

Democratization
As prices tumble and technology is more and more accessible to the masses, a democratization of opportunities takes place.

The Hype Cycle

Peter Diamandis talks about the Hype Cycle, which postulates that people tend to over-hype and overestimate the impact of a new technology only to be disappointed when said technology takes longer than expected to deliver the hyped up results.
We then have another sort of “negative hype”, where people are too pessimistic about the new technology.
Peter than says that for entrepreneurs it’s critical to understand when a technology is exiting its trough and starts rising up the enlightenment curve.

Disruptive Technologies

Peter then delves into 3D printing, robotics, AI, Internet Of Things and the land of opportunities that the Internet is going to be.

He gives an overview of the huge changes in optimistic, contagiously upbeat fashion. The content is not disruptive, to stay on topic, and it changes so quickly that going into the details is not worth it and I invite you to read the book for it.
However, the overarching message is this: the world is changing, is changing fast and deep, and it’s an opportunity feast for us all.

Part Two – Bold Mindset

Bold by Peter Diamandis dedicates the second part looking for what gives us an hedge mentally.

He mentions that setting goals makes us more productive, and that big goals outperform small and medium ones. Goals are best when they align the desired outcomes with the individual values.

Peter Diamandis then talks about Google, Moonshots -huge goals between audacious project and science fiction-, 10x and motivation -where he recaps Drive by Daniel Pink-.

Google’s Eight Innovation Principles

1. Focus on the User.
2. Share Everything: In a hyperconnected world it’s critical to be open, allow people to help you innovate, and build on each other’s ideas.
3. Look for Ideas Everywhere: 
4. Think Big but Start Small: you can start a company on day one that affects a small group, but aim to positively impact a billion people within a decade.
5. Never Fail to Fail: Fail frequently, fail fast, and fail forward.
6. Spark with Imagination, Fuel with Data.
7. Be a Platform: the most successful companies -AirBnb, Uber, Instagram- are all platforms
8. Have a Mission That Matters: perhaps most important, does your company have a massively transformative purpose? Passion is key to progress

Flow

There are triggers or preconditions to help us achieve flow:

• High pressure work: we have to be willing to take risks;
• Environment rich in novelty, uncertainty and complexity
• Clear goals: it’s a shortcut to the now. You know what you’re aiming at, so you can focus on the task
• Immediate feedback: another shortcut to the now
• Challenge to skills ratio: complex enough not to be boring, easy enough we can solve it
• (groups) Familiarity: for groups, everyone being on the same page
• (groups) Blending ego: no social climbers elbowing for the limelight
• Autonomy and Mastery (Intrinsic Motivators)
• (groups) Additive interactions: adding value to each other rather than confronting each other
• Thinking differently

The skunk methodology relies heavily on flow state to reach outcomes quickly.

Peter’s rules

Some of the Peter’s rules I liked most:

1. If anything can go wrong, fix it! (To hell with Murphy!)
2. When given a choice—take both!
3. Multiple projects lead to multiple successes.
4. Start at the top, then work your way up.
5. Do it by the book . . . but be the author!
6. When forced to compromise, ask for more.
7. If you can’t win, change the rules.
8. If you can’t change the rules, then ignore them.
9. No simply means begin one level higher.
10. Don’t walk when you can run.
11. When in doubt: THINK!
12. Patience is a virtue, but persistence to the point of success is a blessing.
13. The faster you move, the slower time passes, the longer you live.
14. The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself!
15. You get what you incentivize.
16. If you think it is impossible, then it is for you.
17. An expert is someone who can tell you exactly how something can’t be done.
18. The day before something is a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea.
19. If it was easy, it would have been done already.
20. Without a target you’ll miss it every time.
21. Fail early, fail often, fail forward
22. If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.
23. The world’s most precious resource is the persistent and passionate human mind.
24. Bureaucracy is an obstacle to be conquered with persistence, confidence, and a bulldozer when necessary.

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos & Richard Branson

Bold by Peter Diamandis then goes on to analyze the exploits and different styles of Musk, Bezos and Branson.

What I love the most about this section is the differentiation between missionary and mercenary. Missionary is someone who loves the product and the customers, the mercenary is money-driven. Long term, usually the missionary makes more money than the mercenary.

Part Three – Bold Crowd

Bold by Peter Diamandis goes into the power of crowd funding and community building and community power.

CONS

Symposium-style
I was surprised to find Bold takes a lot of time to discuss the current state of affairs of different technologies and current services. Luckily Peter Diamandis can do it well and lightly, and manages to add value, but on the other hand I think it was too long. And 10 years from now this book will be 70% outdated.

Review

While the symposium parts in which Peter Diamandis reviews the current state of technology and the next disruptors will not age well, he narrates it with an incredibly optimistic and upbeat style which really makes you think “this world is ours for the taking”.

In a way, the biggest gift of Bold is Peter Diamandis’ mindset, which is:

• Positivity
• Opportunities mindset (as opposed to threats)
• Moonshot thinking

Get Bold on Amazon.