Worthless, Impossible and Stupid: How Contrarian Entrepreneurs Create and Capture Extraordinary Value

Introducing the global mind-set changing the way we do business.

In this fascinating book, global entrepreneurship expert Daniel Isenberg presents a completely novel way to approach business building--with the insights and lessons learned from a worldwide cast of entrepreneurial characters. Not bound by a western, Silicon Valley stereotype, this group of courageous and energetic doers has created a global and diverse mix of companies destined to become tomorrow's leading organizations.

Worthless, Impossible, and Stupid is about how enterprising individuals from around the world see hidden value in situations where others do not, use that perception to develop products and services that people initially don't think they want, and ultimately go on to realize extraordinary value for themselves, their customers, and society as a whole. What these business builders have in common is a contrarian mind-set that allows them to create opportunities and succeed where others see nothing. Amazingly, this process repeats itself in one form or another countless times a day all over the world.

From Albuquerque to Islamabad, you will travel with Isenberg to discover unusual yet practical insights that you can use in your own business. Meet the founders of Grameenphone in Bangladesh, PACIV in Puerto Rico, Sea to Table in New York, Actavis in Iceland, Studio Moderna in Slovenia, Hartwell Metals in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, Given Imaging in Israel, WildChina in China, and many others. You'll be moved by the stories of these plucky start-ups--many of them fueled by adversity and, more often than not, by necessity.

Great stories, stunning successes, crushing failures--they're all here. What can we, in the East and West, learn from them? What can you learn--and what will these entrepreneurial stories, so compellingly told, inspire you to do?

Let this book open doors for you where you once saw only walls. If you've ever felt the urge to turn a glimmer of an idea into something extraordinary, these stories are for you.


Author: Daniel Isenberg
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Published: 07/09/2013
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 10.10h x 6.30w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781422186985


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 04/22/2013
Booklist 07/01/2013 pg. 22
Choice 10/01/2013

About the Author
Daniel Isenberg--entrepreneur, professor, investor, speaker, and policy adviser--is founding executive director of the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School. Isenberg taught for eleven years at Harvard Business School and has published dozens of HBS cases on entrepreneurial ventures around the world. He is a frequent participant at Davos and speaker at Global Entrepreneurship Week and the G20 Youth Entrepreneurship Summit, and has been quoted widely in the media.