Book review: Rebooting Work by Maynard Webb

Rebooting Work: Transform How You Work in the Age of Entrepreneurship
by Maynard Webb
Wiley

Tycoon Marc Andreessen once said, on starting a firm: "You only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances them both."

That statement, quoted in Rebooting Work: Transform How You Work in the Age of Entrepreneurship, underlines how fanatical entrepreneurs can be. The author, Silicon Valley "go-to guy" Maynard Webb, is in that mould. Webb is chairman of the cloud-based contact centre LiveOps, former chief operating officer of auction giant eBay, and founder of his own fiscal firm, Webb Investment Network (WIN).

In Rebooting Work, Webb identifies four working mindsets: company man, CEO of your own destiny, disenchanted employee, and aspiring entrepreneur. No prizes for guessing which "frame" he champions.

He writes: "Frame 2 - CEO of Your Own Destiny - is the sweet spot that more people need to know about, where they are not dependent on a corporation or hindered by their own frustrations. As this is where most workplaces are headed - there is no longer any job security - this is the mindset individuals need to adopt to be successful today and in the future."