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Μαθαίνω να επιπλέω: Πώς θα πετύχεις με μία start-up
Με σύμμαχο την αμεσότητα του κόμικ, οι Seth Goldman και Barry Nalebuff, συνιδρυτές της εταιρείας Honest Tea, αφηγούνται την ιστορία του πώς έστησαν μια επιχείρηση «διαφορετική», με στόχο όχι μόνο να προσφέρουν στους καταναλωτές ένα υγιεινό εναλλακτικό ρόφημα, αλλά και να διαδώσουν ένα νέο μοντέλο επιχείρησης με σεβασμό στον καταναλωτή. Γεμάτο εμπειρίες ζωής και συμβουλές για τις προκλήσεις και τα εμπόδια στον δρόμο για μια νέα πετυχημένη επιχείρηση, το βιβλίο αποτελεί πολύτιμο οδηγό και παράδειγμα για το πόσο μακριά μπορούν να οδηγήσουν ένα startup η επιμονή και η δημιουργικότητα.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
56 people are currently reading
855 people want to read
About the author
Seth Goldman
7 books4 followersSETH GOLDMAN is the president and TeaEO of Honest Tea, which now operates as an independent business unit of The Coca-Cola Company. He is an internationally recognized spokesman for mission-driven enterprise and sustainability. He appears regularly on MSNBC, CNBC, and Fox. He blogs for Inc.com, Treehugger.com, The Huffington Post, and The New York Times.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
October 13, 2013
Very enlightening. I found myself empathizing with the authors, appreciating their efforts and their mission to change the world through a small drink business. Proving that consumers care about quality. While reading I was learning from their mistakes and mentally taking notes about their strengths and ideals.
I found the graphic novel format to be a much more approachable format to tell their story. The art was well-done, and used to enhance the story with visuals, but not in any way distracting. This is not the type of book I normally read, but due to its uniqueness compared to other business books I was intrigued. This book has helped me understand the day-to-day struggles of being an entrepreneur, and the rewards that go to the ones who can overcome them.
I found the graphic novel format to be a much more approachable format to tell their story. The art was well-done, and used to enhance the story with visuals, but not in any way distracting. This is not the type of book I normally read, but due to its uniqueness compared to other business books I was intrigued. This book has helped me understand the day-to-day struggles of being an entrepreneur, and the rewards that go to the ones who can overcome them.
August 12, 2017
This was such a fun read! I cruised through it in just two short sittings. So needless to say, I really enjoyed it!
Not only did I have SO much fun reading this book, it also convinced me to go out and try Honest Tea, embarrassingly, for the first time. And I warn you... if you haven't tried the teas yet...you're going to want to! They are DELICIOUS.
Seth and Barry's story is so inspirational. I love that the book started at the very beginning so we were able to see how things transformed over time! I will admit that some of the more technical things were a bit dry to me, like the math behind their pricing and such things. But overall, I was hooked. I couldn't stop reading because I just had to know what happened next!
The artwork was lovely! It was so simple, but so intriguing. I really enjoyed the element of humor that was in both the text and the art. For example, when Barry was talking to his class about there being a hole in the market, the artwork showed him in a whirlpool, sinking. Then in the next panel, he's asking the class about bubbles, and he's floating in the air on a bubble! Next, they're talking about packaging and he's swimming in a large pile of bottles!
My favorite passage:
As a game theorist, I encourage people to truly understand the other party's perspective. When you put yourself in their position, it isn't what you would do wearing their shoes, it's what they would do wearing their shoes. No surprise, but that's much easier said than done, especially when their shoes don't fit you feet or your worldview.
Honest Tea has helped me appreciate that consumers make decisions every day that can tilt the world a little closer to the one we want, rather than the one we live in.
Not only did I have SO much fun reading this book, it also convinced me to go out and try Honest Tea, embarrassingly, for the first time. And I warn you... if you haven't tried the teas yet...you're going to want to! They are DELICIOUS.
Seth and Barry's story is so inspirational. I love that the book started at the very beginning so we were able to see how things transformed over time! I will admit that some of the more technical things were a bit dry to me, like the math behind their pricing and such things. But overall, I was hooked. I couldn't stop reading because I just had to know what happened next!
The artwork was lovely! It was so simple, but so intriguing. I really enjoyed the element of humor that was in both the text and the art. For example, when Barry was talking to his class about there being a hole in the market, the artwork showed him in a whirlpool, sinking. Then in the next panel, he's asking the class about bubbles, and he's floating in the air on a bubble! Next, they're talking about packaging and he's swimming in a large pile of bottles!
My favorite passage:
As a game theorist, I encourage people to truly understand the other party's perspective. When you put yourself in their position, it isn't what you would do wearing their shoes, it's what they would do wearing their shoes. No surprise, but that's much easier said than done, especially when their shoes don't fit you feet or your worldview.
Honest Tea has helped me appreciate that consumers make decisions every day that can tilt the world a little closer to the one we want, rather than the one we live in.
April 19, 2019
Very fun and honest read. Surprisingly, I think many of the lessons imparted by Seth & Barry from building their bottled tea company carries over to businesses of any type including software companies. Things such as dealing with investors with varied interest, potential investors who want unfavorable terms and shady motives, hustling & doing the grunt work, etc.
September 25, 2013
Honest Tea is part advertisement, part underdog story, and part business advice book. The graphic novel explains how a Yale business grad and favorite professor started an iced tea company that sells tea not loaded with sugar. As I never took a business class, I was fascinated by the logistics of their tea business. Though they were bringing in millions, they were struggling to make a profit. Their experiments, not only with tea flavors, but with packaging, labeling, and distribution, were sprinkled through the human side of the story. I related to these two entrepreneurs, and I was thankful, for once, to read a business story that didn't gloss over the difficulties. I grew somewhat tired of the continuous advertising; how delicious the tea is, how virtuous the brewers are, etc. There is also a sanctimonious kid (the son of one of the businessmen) who pops up for a few pages and basically criticizes all of the adults for not being saintly and environmental enough. I had fun imagining what my parents would have said if I'd have pulled that nonsense with them. They certainly wouldn't have been as sweet and gentle as the dad in this book! However, the sanctimonious kid serves as a stand-in for the numerous sanctimonious customers of Honest Tea, who were irate when the company sold to Coca-Cola. The authors address a lot of the criticism they'd received over the years, and I enjoyed their complex, entertaining take on the course of their business. The advertising worked, too; I think I'd like to drink their tea. I am grossed out by the sugary tea I find most places, so if I see a bottle of theirs, I'll give it a shot.
January 8, 2015
Would have much preferred a more traditional text retelling. Another "story behind the brand" book, except this time it's behind Honest Tea, a drink you may have seen in your local store, convenience shop, etc. But this is different! Why? Because it's in graphic novel form!
Eh. I have absolutely nothing against graphic novels (not a buyer but I've read various DC, Marvel ones, etc. Even read 'The Walking Dead', although I was then afraid to sleep that night). But with stories like this, I think I would have just preferred something where it is a traditional retelling with text for the ability to go into detail. Unless these pictures are actual recreations of the scenes and conversations, I'm not that interested.
It wasn't something that really held my interest, although I'd skim here and there. There are occasional breaks where it's mostly text about various lessons they've learned, tips they want to share, summaries of the story so far, etc. Again, could have been done in a text format.
Some might like the style of this, but for me I just wasn't interested. Perhaps because it's a non-fiction story I just felt the comic form just wasn't appropriate. It also ends with the sale to Coca-Cola. I understand the reasons for the sale, but I still found it depressing that this is where their stories end, although in its own way that does make sense.
Eh. I have absolutely nothing against graphic novels (not a buyer but I've read various DC, Marvel ones, etc. Even read 'The Walking Dead', although I was then afraid to sleep that night). But with stories like this, I think I would have just preferred something where it is a traditional retelling with text for the ability to go into detail. Unless these pictures are actual recreations of the scenes and conversations, I'm not that interested.
It wasn't something that really held my interest, although I'd skim here and there. There are occasional breaks where it's mostly text about various lessons they've learned, tips they want to share, summaries of the story so far, etc. Again, could have been done in a text format.
Some might like the style of this, but for me I just wasn't interested. Perhaps because it's a non-fiction story I just felt the comic form just wasn't appropriate. It also ends with the sale to Coca-Cola. I understand the reasons for the sale, but I still found it depressing that this is where their stories end, although in its own way that does make sense.
June 28, 2015
I read a lot of startup books -- some good, some really bad -- before I found this. It contains ~40 stories of what it is like to be an entrepreneur. It's probably the most honest startup book I've seen; you learn about personal crisis, thieving suppliers, employee betrayal, undeserved good luck, and just about everything else that can happen to new companies no matter how great their products are.
This is the first book I would recommend to any person who wants to start a company. There are two others: The Lean Startup and Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You've Got.
* * * * *
Note: Some people seem annoyed by the graphic-novel format. I liked it. It helped the founders turn 80-90 pages of material into a full-size book, and it gave each story time to sink in while still allowing the book to be read in two hours. I'd much rather read a 200-page graphic novel than plow through 80 pages of text about moving bottles around.
This is the first book I would recommend to any person who wants to start a company. There are two others: The Lean Startup and Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You've Got.
* * * * *
Note: Some people seem annoyed by the graphic-novel format. I liked it. It helped the founders turn 80-90 pages of material into a full-size book, and it gave each story time to sink in while still allowing the book to be read in two hours. I'd much rather read a 200-page graphic novel than plow through 80 pages of text about moving bottles around.
November 12, 2018
Barry Nalebuff and Seth Goldman, who are the cofounders of Honest Tea, tell how they created their bottled tea business and grew it into something more.
I understand what they were trying to accomplish with telling their business story in a graphic novel format but it didn't work for me.
Graphic novels are great platforms to tell stories with a lot of action, colorful figures, and fantastic backgrounds. The story of founding a business, any business, seems to take place mostly in rooms with a bunch of people in business attire. The creation of a mission statement is mainly words on a page with little to show, action-wise. That doesn't make it less important, but simply less exciting than a superhero comic.
Even the tense moments of Mission in a Bottle, like the time when a guy thought he found a piece of a male body part in one of the brands that they were renting their bottling facility out to, just didn't translate in a meaningful way to a cartoon format.
Overall, I enjoyed the business story and found it inspiring. I wish Goldman and Nalebuff had written it as a traditional book rather than a graphic novel.
I understand what they were trying to accomplish with telling their business story in a graphic novel format but it didn't work for me.
Graphic novels are great platforms to tell stories with a lot of action, colorful figures, and fantastic backgrounds. The story of founding a business, any business, seems to take place mostly in rooms with a bunch of people in business attire. The creation of a mission statement is mainly words on a page with little to show, action-wise. That doesn't make it less important, but simply less exciting than a superhero comic.
Even the tense moments of Mission in a Bottle, like the time when a guy thought he found a piece of a male body part in one of the brands that they were renting their bottling facility out to, just didn't translate in a meaningful way to a cartoon format.
Overall, I enjoyed the business story and found it inspiring. I wish Goldman and Nalebuff had written it as a traditional book rather than a graphic novel.
December 1, 2014
Honestly, took up this book after a lot of praise I heard. The best part of the book is it takes us to our childhood days kind of reading...cartoons...and thats a good idea...and probably the only good idea the book has. If you have read books on start ups and their struggles, there isnt anything significantly new in this.
December 6, 2013
A quick but insightful read for the entrepreneur at heart. Doesn't hurt that I am fan of the product, either.
Didn't think I would be a fan of the comic book-layout but it was a nice departure from your normal read.
Didn't think I would be a fan of the comic book-layout but it was a nice departure from your normal read.
January 5, 2019
An overview of the challenges in beverage industry. An easy book for aspiring entrepreneurs. This book is not giving (like any other book) a checklist to start a successful business. It's a kind of memoir of the founders and their company. we
July 26, 2017
Chronological, not particularly insightful. Not my favorite read.
February 11, 2024
3 stars
Never have I ever read a comic book that is actually a self-help guide, but also in some way a self-promoting guide.
Also, I've never had Honest Tea before (just googled it and apparently it was discontinued a few years ago?), but anyway, I didn't think this was a real life story.
The only reason why I'm bothering to review this is because it was one of the first books I picked up from my dads desk and decided that I was going to read it because it's literally a comic book. That was back when I was about 8 years old, and I kind of liked it since I understood it.
Looking at it now with a little more context, I don't like it as much, mostly because I found it a little annoying. It was just another one of those 'stories behind the brand' kind of thing, and I sort of hated it in that respect.
But I didn't hate the plot - I guess it was interesting, and I read it in one sitting, but I got kind of sick of it. But my opinion is probably different to when I first read it. An odd 10 years ago, it would have been the only self-help book I could digest.
Never have I ever read a comic book that is actually a self-help guide, but also in some way a self-promoting guide.
Also, I've never had Honest Tea before (just googled it and apparently it was discontinued a few years ago?), but anyway, I didn't think this was a real life story.
The only reason why I'm bothering to review this is because it was one of the first books I picked up from my dads desk and decided that I was going to read it because it's literally a comic book. That was back when I was about 8 years old, and I kind of liked it since I understood it.
Looking at it now with a little more context, I don't like it as much, mostly because I found it a little annoying. It was just another one of those 'stories behind the brand' kind of thing, and I sort of hated it in that respect.
But I didn't hate the plot - I guess it was interesting, and I read it in one sitting, but I got kind of sick of it. But my opinion is probably different to when I first read it. An odd 10 years ago, it would have been the only self-help book I could digest.
April 2, 2018
Just had to read this for my Innovation Tech & Strategy class and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it! Normally I don't read graphic novels and I've only been trying to get into reading business books lately so the combination of the two made me skeptical. The graphics kept me engaged and entertained and the entrepreneur/business aspects were right up my alley through my newfound knowledge from my grad program. Seth and Barry showed the good, the bad, and the ugly of starting a business and took readers on their journey with them every step of the way. It's always awesome for me to get to see and hear about tangible start-up ventures outside of the bubble of my program and reading about the harder parts was definitely important for me. 10x better than if I'd just had to read the case study-even if it took longer.
February 27, 2020
2020: A simple, fast read about the ups and downs of starting a business. I really enjoyed that Goldman & Nalebuff spoke about a lot of their failures as a business, as well as all of their successes. I mean, I’d expect nothing less from a company with “Honest” in the name, but it was still nice to see. This story is told through a graphic novel format, which worked for me, and helped to make the more complex business jargon very accessible. Would highly recommend for anyone not familiar with the world of start ups and MBAs. It also really made me crave some iced tea.
May 10, 2017
Comic story telling of Honest Tea background and journey.
Filled with nuggets of wisdom about entrepreneurship.
Some advise are pretty common such as being radically different, as per given by Peter Thiel.
Book also focuses on how they strive to be honest to their name and created a new kind of standard of doing business that focuses on sustainability.
Overall, a good and easy read. Recommended for entrepreneurs into sustainability business.
Filled with nuggets of wisdom about entrepreneurship.
Some advise are pretty common such as being radically different, as per given by Peter Thiel.
Book also focuses on how they strive to be honest to their name and created a new kind of standard of doing business that focuses on sustainability.
Overall, a good and easy read. Recommended for entrepreneurs into sustainability business.
May 12, 2019
Not since “Let my people go surfing” have I read a book as inspirational and practical about building an enduring mission-driven business. Also, the format was incredibly unifique - it was like reading a comic book or story. There’s wit, and wisdom, and incredibly practical advice for entrepreneurs. If you’re at all interested in ESG investing, social enterprises, and/or good natured CEOs definitely read this book!
September 9, 2020
This is a fun way to learn about the process of birthing a business. It makes the subject very accessible to anyone, teaching some basic business operations lessons without reading like a textbook. There is a fair amount on small business ethics and decision making as well. All from a delightfully crunchy hippie perspective. Overall, I'd recommend it to anyone who is considering starting a business, or is curious about the tea they buy at the store.
October 15, 2021
A fun and clever business tale made warm and "just a tad sweet" through the graphic novel format.
Goldman, Nalebuff, and Choi illustrate the fundamentals of starting a beverage business, getting it to profitability, and maintaining control. I'll use some of the carefully illustrated concepts of cost of goods sold, profitability, and valuation as teaching tools with my MBA students.
Sure, luck and timing played key roles. So did values and hard work.
Goldman, Nalebuff, and Choi illustrate the fundamentals of starting a beverage business, getting it to profitability, and maintaining control. I'll use some of the carefully illustrated concepts of cost of goods sold, profitability, and valuation as teaching tools with my MBA students.
Sure, luck and timing played key roles. So did values and hard work.
August 11, 2023
I read this for a junior senior level entrepreneurship class. The style of the book and the storytelling kept me oddly intrigued, more than most biographies. I likely wouldn’t have picked this up if it weren’t for class but I can also say that IF I had, I’d definitely be able to read through this in a way I cannot with most assigned readings.
June 19, 2017
Interesting and engaging concept; a cross between a comic book and a business book co-authored by the two founders on Honest Tea, one of which is one of the foremost authorities on game theory and business strategy in the world. Highly effective.
November 1, 2017
Great honest seriously insightful business (comic) book!
I highly, highly recommended this book for people who are passionate in building good business for better world. And those who just like to read good comics! :)
I highly, highly recommended this book for people who are passionate in building good business for better world. And those who just like to read good comics! :)
April 17, 2018
A fantastic look at starting a mission driven company. Really enjoyed the comic book style as well. Must read for budding entrepreneurs. Loved seeing how Seth and Barry did some really innovative financing here.
November 3, 2018
This was my first graphic adult novel, and it was excellent; I enjoyed reading about how a small business can grow and be successful.
I've recommended this book as a guide to others considering starting their own business.
I've recommended this book as a guide to others considering starting their own business.
April 18, 2020
Very fun (my first graphic) read about a company that started across the street from where I attended church. I remember the first time I saw it in local stores and how much I LOVED the taste. I liked the “story” and was afraid I was a sucker... cool stuff.
February 25, 2022
It took some getting used to due to the format, but overall I can say this is a pretty great how-to for anyone who is curious about startups. Albeit there are other business books that go into far more detail, but as a young entrepreneur I appreciated their insight and hones-tea ;)
January 14, 2023
This is a book which tells the story of the Honest Tea business from its inception to the exit. It's a great book to be read by future entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs or simple people as it contains real life lessons to be learned from. And the book is graphical - quite ingenious.
January 1, 2018
How Honest Tea got its start.
October 2, 2018
Joins the likes of Let My People Go Surfing
May 28, 2020
Thank you for sharing your story!
What a great read and what a fun and engaging way to read it. Thank you for sharing your story.
What a great read and what a fun and engaging way to read it. Thank you for sharing your story.
August 22, 2020
I have no inherent interest in business, so any guide to business is a hard sell for me. I read this for a professional book club, and I am so glad I did. The graphic novel format worked incredibly well, and there was so much more to the story here than technical advice on running a business. This book has a ton of heart and is an honest look at the ups and downs of a startup. I loved seeing Seth and Barry’s business and personal relationship develop and thrive, even as they dealt with innumerable setbacks and failures. I loved how dedicated they both were to their mission of running an ethical business. It made me want to support Honest Tea (I even ordered a case mid-read). Even for those of us who will never contemplate starting a business venture, this is an excellent read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews