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(More customer reviews)A funny thing happened when I started my first company. After 6 months of hard work, we asked each other why we joined the venture. It was a particularly relevant question in 1999 because talent was extremely scarce and this team was top-notch. The answer seemed obvious to me: we all joined to build something great and change the world.
But that wasn't the answer most provided. The primary reason people joined the venture was my enthusiasm.
If had Stone Soup in my hands a decade ago I would have understood exactly why. Our company was a boiling pot of water in the center of the village and I had added the first two ingredients for Stone Soup, the recipe for innovation:
One generous portion of belief
One or more enthusiastic catalysts
Like an aroma that drifts through a village from a boiling cauldron, these first two ingredients were enough to attract them.
And, with the benefit of a decade of reflection, I also understand why my own shortcomings, and the world at large ultimately lead to the venture's downfall: we were missing a few other critical ingredients like "A triple dose of reality", and "One well defined context, communicated well."
Stone Soup isn't for the "quick buck" entrepreneurs or investors who view innovation as numbers in a spreadsheet. It is for people who are committed, through ups and downs, to figuring out the recipe from making something from nothing. It is for those of us who are trying to understand how innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity fit into our lives and relationships.
In the book we experience the life of Ruby who - not unlike Bill Liao - is a true renaissance person with the skills and passion to change the world. At each new challenge, victory, and tragedy of Ruby's life the author slowly builds the ingredients of Stone Soup. In the process he also relates his own experiences of a lifetime of innovation. At the book's conclusion, he ties the story together and provides specific advice for anyone trying to build something new. It is simple without being simplistic.
At times while reading Stone Soup I felt like I was sitting with Bill drinking a cup of tea, getting advice about my life and ambitions. I could almost picture Bill asking me questions, listening intently without judgement to my answers and letting me come to my own conclusions about what I need to do to achieve my goals.
I hope that Bill Liao continues to write because Stone Soup left me hungry for me more advice on setting goals, listening, or the other necessary skills discussed in the book.
Stone Soup is feast best savored for moments when you have time to reflect about your life and what you want to do to change the world. So grab a copy for you next airplane flight or quiet Saturday morning and join the rest of us who are planning on following Bill's lead of driving innovation in this century.
Bon appetite!
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On a cold night a storyteller who knew the limitless power of words visited a famine-Stricken village and, finding no fireside for a fable, began boiling a stone in a big pot in sight of everyone. One by one the curious villagers were encouraged to join in the feast of Stone Soup and one by one they believed in and contributed to the feast that inevitably resulted. Once both stories and soup had been devoured it was agreed that in future, in tough times, a stone and a story were a marvellous way to bring people together.Stone Soup is a modern fable about business, community, entrepreneurship and sharing. Mixing a traditional folktale with telling the story of one woman's journey through life, it contains tasty morsels of wisdom on work, team-building, leadership and courage.This book will nourish the soul of managers, entrepreneurs, community leaders, activists and educators by giving you the fortitude to lead fearlessly in the face of apparently insurmountable obstacles and foster true innovation within your community, group or organisation.Social networking pioneer, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Bill Liao, is the co-founder of the social network service XING (www.xing.com). He is also CEO of Finaxis AG, a privately held company in the financial services industry. Among his philanthropic endeavors is his participation as an investor and volunteer in The Hunger Project in Uganda, New York and Mexico. Bill is also a regular attendee at the TED conferences and also the World Economic Forum New Champions conference. In 2007, Liao founded Neo (www.neo.org), a non-profit social networking site where people can make a personal commitment for the future of the earth. Neo was set up to provide a forum for people to make a personal commitment for the future of the earth in the form of a Declaration of Global Citizenship.
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