The up side of down
"For readers of Drive, Outliers, and Daring Greatly, a counterintuitive, paradigm-shifting new take on what makes people and companies succeed Most new products fail. So do most small businesses. And most of us, if we are honest, have experienced a major setback in our personal or professional lives. So what determines who will bounce back and follow up with a home run? If you want to succeed in business and in life, Megan McArdle argues in this hugely thought-provoking book, you have to learn how to harness the power of failure. McArdle has been one of our most popular business bloggers for more than a decade, covering the rise and fall of some the world's top companies and challenging us to think differently about how we live, learn, and work. Drawing on cutting-edge research in science, psychology, economics, and business, and taking insights from turnaround experts, emergency room doctors, venture capitalists, child psychologists, bankruptcy judges, and mountaineers, McArdle argues that America is unique in its willingness to let people and companies fail, but also in its determination to let them pick up after the fall. Failure is how people and businesses learn. So how do you reinvent yourself when you are down? Dynamic and punchy, McArdle teaches us how to recognize mistakes early to channel setbacks into future success. The Up Side of Down marks the emergence of an author with her thumb on the pulse whose book just might change the way you lead your life"
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What Hacker News says
- The only thing I would add to this (great, positive) advice is that you may want to read McArdle's masterpiece on rebounding, The Up Side of Down.[1] She was in a terrible (long-term) unemployment situation, followed by underemployment; she took the lessons she learned, added some others she found later, and wrote this (very helpful and practical) book.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Up-Side-Down-Failing-Success/dp/01431...
- > This is a mess because Hanjin's top management was in denial about the possibility of bankruptcy. Just like the typical startup.
Just like pretty much anybody. Everyone keeps hoping against hope, everyone is afraid to show weakness, and nobody likes to tell the boss no. Typically the staff knows for months that the end is nigh until some minor event precipitates the final undeniable crisis.
Megan McArdle has some interesting things to say about this in her book "The Up Side of Down." Chapter 5 is about handling crises (in general) and the GM failure (in particular).
"Wagoner [the head of GM] seemed to believe that by not admitting GM might declare bankruptcy, he could somehow keep it from happening. What he thought would take place when the company ran out of cash is not clear. Nor is it clear why his executives and his board of directors nodded and said 'Yes, Rick' rather than insisting that he confront reality. Instead, they helped him sustain his delusion by formulating a mad plan to merge with Chrysler, as if strapping together two nearly bankrupt auto firms would somehow make both of them solvent."
https://www.amazon.com/Up-Side-Down-Failing-Success/dp/01431...
