October 2019
Beginner
400 pages
7h 56m
English
Content preview from The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
August 25Unfinished Parts
The tops of mountains are among the unfinished parts of the globe, whither it is a slight insult to the gods to climb and pry into their secrets, and try their effect on our humanity. Only the daring and insolent, perchance, go there.
Henry David Thoreau—The Maine Woods (1864)
While writing The Maine Woods, a work Thoreau would not finish before his death, he hiked up a mountain in Maine called Ktaadn (Katahdin), which today also marks the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail in Baxter State Park.
While this passage honors the indigenous ideology that the god Pomola, said to live on Ktaadn, would punish those who climbed, it's also serves as a marvelous metaphor for the self-reliant entrepreneur.
We are after the unfinished parts of the globe, and though there may be risks in gaining such heights, we are just daring and insolent enough to go there.
Do you really care what people think? Do you need permission to act boldly? Are you okay outside the cherished comfort zone? Are you fine being bad at something in order to get good at something? Can you say yes even if you're not sure how? Do you break a few rules and enjoy it?
On tops of mountains, as everywhere to hopeful souls, it is always morning.
Thoreau, Walden
Challenge Question
- Where is one place you can get far outside your comfort zone today?
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.