Reboot by Jawwad Farid : A must read for aspiring and seasoned entrepreneurs

January 24, 2010 11:55 am 2 comments

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I am not a regular reader, I used to be but recently my span of attention and time constraints does not allow me the luxury and pleasure of going through a book in one sitting.

However my recent trip and the long 14 hour Emirates Flight plus the fact that Imran Zia had gifted me a free copy of Reboot allowed me a chance to read it.

If you are in any way been interested in startup scene in local IT and Tech Industry you must have come across Jawwad Farid. His blog http://blog.alchemya.com/ has been my first web page daily for some years now. His company Alchemya more than a successful venture is a place that teaches you how you can grow a family instead of a company. He is one of those person that if you convince him that you are in for the long run he will make sure you succeed some time at the cost of his own time and credibility, there are few like him and we do need more.

There are three types of people I come across, those who have been in job for long amounts of time and want to startup on their own but have not taken te plunge due to fear of failure, those who have taken the plunge and are in their initial days (read very initial days) of defining them selves struggling to make the payroll and operational costs and ones who have survived the initial months and now look around for new risks to take.

This book caters to all three categories, the best thing about it is that its not a narration or fiction, Jawwad has laid across all original emails and how his venture unfolded and then crashed what are the reasons. If you belong to any of the categories listed before you some how feel that he is telling your story and that is what’s so good about it, its not his story its yours you relate to the chapters and within a couple of chapters into reading you start visualizing your story analyzing your mistakes or good decisions and bye the time you reach the end you really have gone through a roller coaster ride of discovering your self and your life in a completely third person perspective.

It doesn’t give you a formula for success but it does takes you through the scary road of what if I fail, and will it be as bad as it seems or will it be ok, what you risk to lose and what are the things that you can never lose even if you try. How soon can you identify if your idea is working or you are delaying the failure, a lot of these questions are answered not be a yes no formulae but a a story which is weaved by him and his experience and you just learn from it.

So if you have a startup plan on having one or just aspire to be one some day do read the book you will love it.

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2 Comments

  • I guess its the same book previously named “Blue Screen of Death” and was available free online. I’ve that copy if anybody is interested :)

  • Dear Qazi

    Thank you very much for posting such a great review about Reboot. This morning after a really long time did Google search looking for the CIO interview and found your review. Very much appreciated.

    As Fahim said, Reboot is the second edition of BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) and is now available both in print and in electronic form.

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