The Creator's Code: The Six Essential Skills of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs
Written by Amy Wilkinson
Narrated by Cassandra Campbell
4/5
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About this audiobook
Each of us has the capacity to spot opportunities, invent products, and build businesses—even $100 million businesses.
How do some people turn ideas into enterprises that endure? Why do some people succeed when so many others fail? The Creator’s Code unlocks the six essential skills that turn small notions into big companies. This landmark book is based on 200 interviews with today’s leading entrepreneurs including the founders of LinkedIn, Chipotle, eBay, Under Armour, Tesla Motors, SpaceX, Spanx, Airbnb, PayPal, Jetblue, Gilt Groupe, Theranos, and Dropbox.
Over the course of five years, Amy Wilkinson conducted rigorous interviews and analyzed research across many different fields. From the creators of the companies ranging from Yelp to Chobani to Zipcar, she found that entrepreneurial success works in much the same way. Creators are not born with an innate ability to conceive and build $100 million enterprises. They work at it. They all share fundamental skills that can be learned, practiced, and passed on.
The Creator’s Code reveals six skills that make creators of all kinds of endeavors breakthrough. These skills aren’t rare gifts or slim chance talents. Entrepreneurship, Wilkinson demonstrates, is accessible to everyone.
Amy Wilkinson
Amy Wilkinson is a strategic adviser, entrepreneur, and lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She frequently addresses corporate, association, and university audiences on entrepreneurial leadership. She also advises startups and large corporations on innovation and business strategy. Her career spans leadership roles with McKinsey & Company and JP Morgan and as founder of a small foreign-based export company. Wilkinson has served as a White House Fellow in the Office of the United States Trade Representative and as a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Learn more about her work at AmyWilkinson.com.
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Reviews for The Creator's Code
163 ratings14 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5the best book ever, i am a founder of a few brands n this book really gives me the right input of how mindset should be. Highly recommended n thank you for sharing those valuable content with the world.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Like another reviewer, I had to turn it off after the Elizabeth Holmes part. I can’t believe she was compared to Steve Jobs. If you’re not familiar with the Holmes story, look it up. There’s a great book about it called Bad Blood by investigative journalist John Carreyrou.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It seems to be just as a collection of stories and quotes from famous entrepreneurs. I didn't feel the consistency of the content or the structure of the ideas.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5All credibility is gone when she presented Elizabeth Holmes as a successful example. I find the book superficial and cliche. Nothing is surprising and I didn't learn anything. Lack of depth.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book was an amazing way to get a perspective inside of the top of the food chain of entrepreneurs. I was hooked on with in the first chapter, thanks a lot for an amazing book!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I am not here to share negativity or hinder this book, great ideas great values ,
but the Holmes part turned me off1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Being a creator is possible. We all need this masterpiece, it's not a magic formula but it's sure an excellent prescription and as a creator, I recommend this book for all entrepreneurs and everyone seeking a happier life. Donald Meckanzy Okaragba
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I did pick up some interesting points from this listen. However, every time the female narrator changed her voice for a male quote, I winced. I found it unnecessary and distracting. I haven't heard a male narrator "doing" a female voice yet. Which is a good thing.
Also, one of the creators she featured was Elizabeth Holmes because it came out in 2015. You get to hear her say things like how Theranos would save Medicare millions a month but her mission was prevention. Fascinating!1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book will jump start your creative thinking. The stories and examples shared were excellent.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5This boooook is terrrrrrrrrrrible. To not pick it up. It is awful and boring.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A great inspirational business book filled with examples of some of the best creators in the world. I did enjoy this book but the depth of the creator storylines went a bit too far at some point and it was challenging to know which one of the six codes I was reading about.
Of course you’ll never please everyone and the other side of the coin is a bunch of “how to do this“ and not enough examples of people who have been successful or have failed. The main thing for me was there wasn’t a lot of “how“ but I do recommend this for startups and entrepreneurs with big visions - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book. The author is going through the ideas and the creation of different companies!
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5In every book is something new to learn.
In this one, didnt learnd a lot. Couldnt listen till end. - Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5This sounds like the author is just a fanboy of tech entrepreneurs and went and talked to successful entrepreneurs after they were already successful. There is a selection bias there plus falsification of history. When something works out, people tend to think they were geniuses all along, this author just buys that and in a lot of ways contradicts the idea of the book that there are skills that can be learnt.