Do Cool Sh*t: Quit Your Day Job, Start Your Own Business, and Live Happily Ever After
By Miki Agrawal
3.5/5
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About this ebook
An inspiring, irreverent manifesto for those seeking to blaze their own path to entrepreneurship and find fulfillment and happiness through bold action and big ideas.
With zero experience and no capital, Miki Agrawal opened WILD, a farm-to-table pizzeria in New York City and Las Vegas, partnered up in a children's multimedia company called Super Sprowtz, and launched a patented high-tech underwear business called THINX.
Miki, a successful serial social entrepreneur and angel investor, pulls back the curtain to reveal how you can live out loud, honor your hunches, and leave nothing on the table. Start your business on a shoestring budget, nail your brainstorming sessions and product testing, and get free press coverage—all while living your best life.
Whether you’re a recent college graduate trying to find your way in the world, or a professional with a dead-end job and big dreams, Do Cool Sh*t will make you open your eyes, laugh out loud, and shout, "I can do that!"
Do Cool Sh*t features a foreword by Tony Hsieh, the founder and CEO of Zappos.
Miki Agrawal
Miki Agrawal was named one of Forbes 2013 "Millennials on a Mission" and was the recipient of a 2013 Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award. A Cornell University graduate, she is the founder of the highly acclaimed farm-to-table pizza restaurant WILD; THINX, a sustainable underwear company for women; and a partner in Super Sprowtz, a children's multimedia company that fosters healthy eating. Miki lives in New York City.
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Reviews for Do Cool Sh*t
59 ratings14 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great motivational book that reminds you to be bold, brave and optimistic about the things you want in life
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I left after reading first three chapters. The writer didn’t have anything motivational to tell, just her life story and how things worked in her favour without doing much
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A MUST READ to any and every young and aspiring person, even some oldies might enjoy it too .. this book will change your views on life, business and above all, entrepreneurship.
Not to mention that it's highly addictive and enjoyable.
Will definitely be re-reading it in the future again. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A great blend of autobiography and business, clearly describing how to apply the messages to your own entrepreneurial ideas
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5So this was a good book, with valid takeaways. I felt that Miki gave examples of what had happened to her as solid lesson points. I didn't think it was pretentious, the parts that were not valid or pertinent to me were skipped. So all in all, I might be coming back to this book in the future. It'll help me with refreshing the points she makes.
Some points were good, although the whole book was not filled with absolute pearls of wisdom. And neither did I expect it to be. I skipped the end, to be quite frank. I didn't pick up the book to read about my diet and exercise and the rest of the book seemed quite boring post that. So I skipped that part. In a way, the book was great without it. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I enjoyed this book, it was very inspiring and entertaining.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5the greatest book I have read so far
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Insightful and a page turner of a read.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5There's something wrong with this book layout... It is completely unreadable!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5A very boring and useless read. It is about the writer, her journey on how she got started. TLDR: She got lucky and doesnt have anythng useful to tell us.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Honestly, I didn't finish the book. I got about halfway through it before I grew tired of reading an autobiography of someone I had never heard of. To make it worse, I felt the author was simply using this book as an excuse to write about how successful she was at everything she did. I don't want to read about someone who had varying degrees of success at everything, I want to read a book from someone that had nothing to lose and found a winning formula to turn themselves around. I don't want to read a book about someone who obnoxiously forced their ideas on people, I want to read about someone had the intelligence and skills necessary to be successful. All this book has taught me is I can be successful...if I'm obnoxious and intrusive and were lucky enough to have a privileged upbringing that prevents me from having any respect for authority.
5 people found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I was unimpressed with this book. The intro seemed promising; a start-up business book that wasn't dry and dull. But it just turned out to be the author relating stories from her life demonstrating how she was successful, most of which are totally unattainable unless you live in a big city. There isn't much to actually act on or plan, and the tips she gives are very obvious.
Not the inspiring book I was hoping it would be!3 people found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Pros:
* Some parts of the book are inspiring. The author has, indeed, done some cool sh*t.
* Good insight into human psychology and how to communicate effectively. Some of these ideas are obvious, but it's easy to forget them in certain contexts, such as in an email or when asking for a favor. Examples:
** All relationships must be mutually beneficial.
** When convincing someone, make sure to talk about "we", not "I". Present a "shared" vision for the future.
** Everyone wants to be heard, so always give people an opportunity to share something about themselves.
** Avoid small talk. Instead of asking about the weather, ask people about their dreams, their vision, and what excites them.
** If you make people feel like experts, they will go out of their way to help you.
** Always try to make people laugh.
** Always smile.
** People love free food.
Cons:
* The book has a tendency to sound a little too much like an infomercial crossed with a self-help seminar.
* Occasionally, the book crosses the line from inspiring to self-promotional.
* A few chapters are a bit hand wavy and naive, such as the one on exercise and diet.
Some good quotes:
Business plans don't raise dollars, people do.
Hire slow, fire fast. I can’t stress that enough. No one has ever said that they fired somebody too soon.
We achieve being through doing. The notion that your most authentic self will come through simply by doing the things you love absolutely captivated me. It means that you will simply be exactly who you want to be when you start acting that way. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I didn’t finish this book. I picked it up looking for advice on entrepreneurial pursuits, which makes up the about 75% of the book. But then I skimmed the chapter about how to stay fit and healthy (I’m already quite fit) and gave up during the chapter about how to find love (I’m happily married). While I find the entrepreneurial advice interesting and helpful, I didn’t love the general life advice. The story of the author’s success is quite interesting. The author is a natural extrovert who seems to have excelled by putting herself in front of the people she needs to and not being afraid to ask for what she wants. That’s totally admirable, but not something everyone can do. The biggest piece of advice I pulled from the author’s experience was the brainstorming party of business people to give feedback on her idea, because that’s something I could see myself doing that I wouldn’t have thought of before. As opposed to the boxes full of IVs distributed to local media, which I could not see myself doing. I really think this book would work better as a memoir rather than an advice book full of “quick tips.” The author’s experience is so idiosyncratic, that all of these tips could only apply to an extrovert opening a healthy comfort food store in NYC with no experience except years of athleticism, Wall Street brokering, and film production. If I was just reading details of the author’s life, I could have gleaned my own lessons learned and applied them to my life. But the “quick tip” sections made me feel like I was trying to shove my experience and goals into the author’s mold. I would recommend this book for single extroverts who entertain a vast array of hobbies with a dream to open a retail or restaurant business in a major urban area. For everyone else, take this with a grain of salt. That is to say, pull what you can out of it, and otherwise enjoy the story.
1 person found this helpful