Business Book Summaries

START by Jon Acuff Summary

startSTART by Jon Acuff Summary
Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, Do Work that Matters

As people work through different stages of their lives, they are bound to ask themselves the question, “How did I get here?” Inevitably, they will consider the dreams that have fallen to the wayside as the years passed by, and they will wonder if it’s too late. Their lives until that point, by their own definition, have been simply average – this will be the moment when they can decide to make their lives awesome.

​In the book Start, by Jon Acuff, he details the five stages that one must go through to achieve “awesome” – learning, editing, mastering, harvesting, and guiding – which have all been accelerated by a set of factors in the technological age. Technological progress makes change possible on a much faster scale. Also, opportunities are available to anyone. No matter a person’s age or choices thus far in life, it is never too late to return to the creativity and dreams he or she had as a child. People have only one choice to make, and that is to start.

​He argues that in order to start, you have to be a Starter. This means you need to be flexible, brave, realistic, and above all, hard-working. If awesome was easy, everyone would be doing it; however, awesome means you need to be ready for a lot of surprises along the way. You must be honest with yourself and your situation so you can turn any present issues into a steady foundation upon which you can build your dreams.

Four common “roadblocks,” or issues, will stand in your way on your path to awesome. You will have a tendency to try and find your purpose. Instead, live with purpose – this will help you start the path to awesome today instead of waiting until you find your purpose tomorrow. Also, you will also want to find shortcuts on the path to awesome. However, you must advance through all five steps, and while these processes can be accelerated, they cannot be skipped. All you can do is start earlier, work harder and smarter, and stand on the shoulders of those who have come before you.

Next, you’ll have to avoid the entitlement trap, which occurs when people feel entitled to be an expert immediately. However, demanding successes that you haven’t worked for will only keep you trapped in the earlier stages of the path to awesome. Finally, you must ignore the doubtful, fearful inner voices that will make you question your path to awesome.

Once you’ve decided that you are, in fact, a Starter, learning is the first step in your path to awesome. This means taking time to learn about yourself and deciding what’s important to you. Once you’ve discovered your passions, you must take time aside every day to work on your dreams, while being realistic about how much you can get done.

​The next step is editing, in which you will take some time to prune all of your ideas and dreams down to the ones that mean the most to you. This does not necessarily mean choosing the most profitable dreams, but choosing the dreams that will give you the most joy. Separating these “diamond” ideas from the “rocks” in your life may not be easy. If you can’t narrow your ideas down, start working through them one by one. When an idea turns out not to be awesome, edit it and move on to the next thing.

​After you’ve set your heart and mind on a certain path, you must master and fight for that goal. This includes volunteering your skills, taking a part-time job, and being led by experts who can teach you how to continue on your path to awesome. At this point, it is crucial that you accept constructive criticism and learn from it, while ignoring the hateful doubts of those who don’t agree with your dreams.

​In the harvesting stage, as you begin to gain success from your hard work, make sure that you avoid laziness, entitlement, and arrogance. These vices are a one-way shortcut back to average. In order to stay on your path to awesome, you have to make sure that your dream does not have a negative effect on the people closest to you. Also, you have to pay special attention to helping others with their dreams. This will segue into the final step of “guiding.”

​Finally, once you’ve reached the final step of your path to awesome, you’re going to have to start all over again. You’ll want to prevent yesterday’s successes from defining you today by helping others better their own lives. Awesome tends to go viral, and by helping others, you’ll be back in the learning stage with a brand new journey to begin.

100-business-books

Click here to download the full summary of this book as well as 100+ others.
Business Book Summaries