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The Leap: A Memoir of Love and Madness in the Internet Gold Rush
A former journalist shares his very personal and often harrowing tale of how he started his own Internet business, taking risks and enjoying the fruits of rebirth in both his personal and professional life.
295 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
45 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 8, 2018
Yes, the same Tom Ashbrook who's been hosting "On Point" for years, one of my favorite podcasts for the morning walk, and where I've learned to admire his experience, knowledge and (usually) ability to articulate both sides of an issue.
This book takes us to the mid-1990s, when the Internet was going to revolutionize the world, especially the news world, of which Ashbrook was an honored and successful member. He believed what many were saying, that in ten years there would be no more newspapers. So at the age of 40 and with three children and a mortgage, he resigned from the Boston Globe and took a chance on developing a CD / website on ... on home design and appliance purchases.
I admire beautiful homes, but shelter is shelter. Most of all, I don't find helping us find and buy fixtures or appliances as fulfilling as reporting the events of the world. Or, what sometimes was a useful reminder when I wondered about my own career, as helping protect the nation or molding young soldiers. But beautiful homes called to Ashbrook and his partner, and they embraced it with everything they had.
I won't tell you how it ended, but Ashbrook ably takes us -- he must have been keeping a diary, what with the detail and conversation in the book -- through all the twists and turns.
It took a toll on him, his family, his friends. He borrowed from everyone, including "Uncle Visa." If the project failed, or if it technically succeeded but failed to get funding, he'd lose it all. Maybe even his family.
Most appealing to me was his wife (who, sadly, passed away just last year of cancer) who stood by him in the face of her own personal loss, unable to stay home with their new baby daughter. A wife for the ages.
This is a page-turning book for all of us, especially men with a mid-life crisis not satisfied by a mistress or a sports car. Ashbrook describes the emotions of such a crisis, and that crazy half-decade before the tech boom went bust, better than I've seen it anywhere else.
While I wouldn't have gone down that path, I'm glad Ashbrook did, and then told us about it in a book we can't put down.
This book takes us to the mid-1990s, when the Internet was going to revolutionize the world, especially the news world, of which Ashbrook was an honored and successful member. He believed what many were saying, that in ten years there would be no more newspapers. So at the age of 40 and with three children and a mortgage, he resigned from the Boston Globe and took a chance on developing a CD / website on ... on home design and appliance purchases.
I admire beautiful homes, but shelter is shelter. Most of all, I don't find helping us find and buy fixtures or appliances as fulfilling as reporting the events of the world. Or, what sometimes was a useful reminder when I wondered about my own career, as helping protect the nation or molding young soldiers. But beautiful homes called to Ashbrook and his partner, and they embraced it with everything they had.
I won't tell you how it ended, but Ashbrook ably takes us -- he must have been keeping a diary, what with the detail and conversation in the book -- through all the twists and turns.
It took a toll on him, his family, his friends. He borrowed from everyone, including "Uncle Visa." If the project failed, or if it technically succeeded but failed to get funding, he'd lose it all. Maybe even his family.
Most appealing to me was his wife (who, sadly, passed away just last year of cancer) who stood by him in the face of her own personal loss, unable to stay home with their new baby daughter. A wife for the ages.
This is a page-turning book for all of us, especially men with a mid-life crisis not satisfied by a mistress or a sports car. Ashbrook describes the emotions of such a crisis, and that crazy half-decade before the tech boom went bust, better than I've seen it anywhere else.
While I wouldn't have gone down that path, I'm glad Ashbrook did, and then told us about it in a book we can't put down.
January 8, 2017
This is an in-depth memoir about a newpaper writer who left his secure job in the early 2000s to form an Internet start-up company. I could really relate because I went through a similar process with my ex-husband in Silicon Valley in 1997 and beyond.
It's a well-written book and some of it is riveting. It feels like an adventure story - will they get the funding? Will the product work? Will Tom's wife leave him? Will they go broke? Some of it is way too detailed for me and was deadly dull. But overall I enjoyed it and felt like I learned a lot about maybe writing my own memoir of those crazy years. He really captured the tone of what it was like when we all thought we were going to be Internet millionaires.
It's a well-written book and some of it is riveting. It feels like an adventure story - will they get the funding? Will the product work? Will Tom's wife leave him? Will they go broke? Some of it is way too detailed for me and was deadly dull. But overall I enjoyed it and felt like I learned a lot about maybe writing my own memoir of those crazy years. He really captured the tone of what it was like when we all thought we were going to be Internet millionaires.
March 3, 2009
The last two-thirds of this book recreate the experience of a non-obviously-successful startup in excruciating emotional detail. Reading Ashbrook's account game me incredible flashbacks to that part of my career.
Overall, I did find the book (especially the first third) much clumsier than I'd expected from Ashbrook, given his long tenure as a reporter. I almost bailed out and put the book down long before he'd made the leap. But once he'd jumped, the chance to view his scrambling through a more analytical lens was well worth it for me. I'm not sure how interesting it would be for those not seeking their own startup redemption, though, and the family scenes were often painful with wistful longing.
Overall, I did find the book (especially the first third) much clumsier than I'd expected from Ashbrook, given his long tenure as a reporter. I almost bailed out and put the book down long before he'd made the leap. But once he'd jumped, the chance to view his scrambling through a more analytical lens was well worth it for me. I'm not sure how interesting it would be for those not seeking their own startup redemption, though, and the family scenes were often painful with wistful longing.
February 20, 2012
Fantastic, frightening story of how a few friends rode out the dot com bust by self-financing their dream. They piled up huge debts, both monetary (piles of credit cards) and personal (two years of being all but absent from wife and kids), and came out the other side. Wonderfully written, the author and co-founder left a career in journalism to explore the internet frontier, but he still knows how to weave some vivid scenes. Surprisingly emotional. I really enjoyed it.
August 10, 2010
I highly recommend this book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews