Killing It!: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Head Without Losing Your Heart by Sheryl O’Loughlin.

3/5 rating. 269 pages.

Book #34 of 2021. Read April 23, 2021.

With the title being my favorite, and most-used phrase, I definitely had to give this entrepreneurship book a read.

Sheryl uses her experience in a few different start-ups (Clif Bar, Plum, and REBBL) to talk all about being an entrepreneur. Having once had aspirations of starting my own company, I think her advice seems to be a great mixture of the optimism, and benefits of being an entrepreneur, mixed with the right amount of reality and humility for the difficulties that come with it.

I appreciated that Sheryl realizes how much of ourselves we put into our work and how important it is to be authentic in what you are trying to build. She has great talks of aligning your values with the company and its goals for measuring success. Her talk of the need to realize that it will take pre-planning, as well as a good amount of willpower to hold to a reasonable amount of hours and energy put into a start-up is really refreshing. Americans work way too much already, but if you look at many entrepreneurs, they are completely consumed by their businesses. This is understandable, and there are times when this might be necessary, but the importance of having your life grounded in non-work aspects cannot be overstated.

If you are looking to start your own company, or even if you are looking to join a start-up this is definitely a worthwhile book to read.

Quotes:

“Intensity and obsession are two sides of the same coin, and entrepreneurs are particularly susceptible to confusing the two.”

“Love belongs in everything we do.”

“Starting and growing a company is so all-consuming and takes such herculean effort that without a wild, passionate love to start with and an ongoing, endearing love thereafter, the entrepreneur will quit.”

“But most important, because life is too short not to do what you love. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: love belongs in everything we do.”

“Being authentic at work helped bring realness to the relationship and richness to our brands.”

“Hey, what is this really all about?”

“The things that you get congratulated on, they have no idea that you’re rotting from the inside. If you’re driving an Aston Martin and last year you were driving a Mercedes, they don’t care that your life is in turmoil. It’s a powerful drug. People don’t tell you to get out. Most of them are striving for what you’ve got. They’re climbing a ladder and they have no idea what’s at the top.”

“It takes courage to love what you do, because it hurts so much when you fail.”

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