Smart People Should Build Things: How to Restore Our Culture of Achievement, Build a Path for Entrepreneurs, and Create New Jobs in America by Andrew Yang (PDF)

Description

Andrew Yang, the founder of Venture for America, offers a unique solution to our country’s economic and social problems—our smart people should be building things. Smart People Should Build Things offers a stark picture of the current culture and a revolutionary model that will redirect a generation of ambitious young people to the critical job of innovating and building new businesses.As the Founder and CEO of Venture for America, Andrew Yang places top college graduates in start-ups for two years in emerging U.S. cities to generate job growth and train the next generation of entrepreneurs. He knows firsthand how our current view of education is broken. Many college graduates aspire to finance, consulting, law school, grad school, or medical school out of a vague desire for additional status and progress rather than from a genuine passion or fit.In Smart People Should Build Things, this self-described “recovering lawyer” and entrepreneur weaves together a compelling narrative of success stories (including his own), offering observations about the flow of talent in the United States and explanations of why current trends are leading to economic distress and cultural decline. He also presents recommendations for both policy makers and job seekers to make entrepreneurship more realistic and achievable.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Yang’s pitch for entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to more structured careers is enticing.” (Publishers Weekly) From the Back Cover We’ve got a problem—our most talented and educated young people aren’t building things. They’re not starting or joining innovative companies that are addressing crises in education, energy, or transportation. Meanwhile, in recovering cities such as Detroit, New Orleans, and Baltimore, promising startups and growth companies representing the next generation of job creation are desperate to attract the talent they need to expand and thrive.Imagine if the same people who are currently heading to Wall Street were instead joining startups and early-stage companies throughout the United States. How long would it take before they positively impacted job creation and economic competitiveness? Knowing firsthand why the current vision of education and career paths isn’t functioning properly, Andrew Yang has set out to fix this problem. As the founder and CEO of Venture for America, he places top college graduates in startups for two years in emerging U.S. cities to generate job growth and train a new generation of entrepreneurs. In Smart People Should Build Things, this self-described “recovering lawyer” and entrepreneur has woven together a compelling narrative of success stories (including his own), offering observations about the flow of talent in the United States, and explaining why current trends are leading to economic distress and cultural decline. He also presents recommendations for both policy makers and job seekers that will make entrepreneurship more realistic and attainable. The country needs teams of committed builders to create value and restore the culture, and Smart People Should Build Things is about how we can get there. About the Author Andrew Yang is the founder and CEO of Venture for America, a national nonprofit that is regarded as one of the country’s leading social innovation organizations. He has worked in startups and early-stage growth companies as a founder or executive for more than twelve years, including as the CEO of a national education company that was acquired by Kaplan. Yang was named a Champion of Change by the White House and one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business.” He lives in New York City. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐For someone coming from Lexington High School- where more than 90% of the class goes to a four year college, I hadn’t met any of the qualifications that allows an 18 year old to get on the pathway to a successful career with a lot of upward mobility. Everything we were supposed to do- study hard, get good grades, get into a top 50 school, and then work in consulting, and then apply to business/law school and then get a great job, was not an option for me. I did not have a choice.But because of these lack of choices, I had to build my own career on my own terms. And now at 30, when I pick up a book by Andrew Yang— Smart People Should Build Things, I feel like by default, I made the right choice- That maybe those who don’t excel at high school, and don’t get into the top school, have some advantages.To make his argument, Andrew Yang discusses his own trajectory. It started with a successful high school career that led to being accepted to Brown University, and then he went to law school, and then to a traditional NYC firm. He obviously had to work very hard, but as he discusses, he didn’t have to think much about his choices.While the traditional path works well for many, others are miserable, and don’t know any alternative. Yang writes: “many apply to law school, grad school or even medical school because of a vague notion of status and progress rather than genuine desire or natural fit.” If they decide to venture from the traditional path, and fail, instead of trying again, they go back to the default. While there is a surplus of the professional class, there’s a huge gap in other sectors that are not being met.But as many successful entrepreneurs know, there are many roadblocks, failures, and learning opportunities that hopefully lead to new problems to solve that find better market fit. Yang writes-Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIN, and others have pointed out, remarkable careers are unlikely to advance in a straightforward, linear fashion.”There’s an unwinding road, but those many different experiences lead to a different path.What makes someone take a winding path? There’s usually something that makes them different. They don’t fit into the normal construct of what society deems successful, and when they are cast aside, they have to figure something else out. It’s not a choice, but a survival technique.As Yang points out, the professional class provides an incredibly safe opportunity for the upper middle class to stay up middle class. “What’s interesting is that many of the people I meet who are young, highly educated, and from good families are among the most risk averse.” These are the people that should be taking the most risk, and leaving opportunities for those who grew up in poverty to fit into those positions. Yang argues that the children of the professional classes should be taking business risks, which will free up more space for a segment of the population to see upward mobility.Our higher education system is supposed to support, for example, a student from a lower income class, and help them get into the middle or wealth class. But only 10% of people born into poverty, get into a higher income class than their parents. If a student who grew up poor, and wants to take a management consulting job after graduating from Harvard, there should be no argument against that. The problem is when the people who need to be taking the risk, to grow the economy, refuse to risk a few years of low salaries, to ‘build’ a business that will create a lot more jobs.

⭐In my Amazon review of the Great Courses lectures on The Great Debate: Advocates and Opponents of the American Constitution, I wrote, “In a way, the Federalists were innovators and the country was a startup that offered something new.” The Founders might also be described as entrepreneurs.The following passages from Andrew Yang’s book are also applicable to nation building.WE THE PEOPLE“There is a common and persistent belief out there that entrepreneurship is about creativity, that it’s about having a good idea. But it’s not, really. Entrepreneurship isn’t about creativity. It’s about organization building—which, in turn, is about people.” (p. 63)BROUGHT FORTH, . . . A NEW NATION, . . .”We delivered a service that customers liked more than what was otherwise available. They sought us out and rewarded us with their business. We hired more people, grew, and kept improving. This process—a new company filling a need and flourishing as a result—is an example of value creation.” (p. 98)A REPUBLIC, IF YOU CAN KEEP IT“We need to restore the culture of achievement to include value creation, risk and reward, and the common good . . . If we succeed in this, our best and brightest will build the engines of future economic growth. If we don’t, our talent will continue to heed purely market-based incentives, our economy will likely continue to underperform, and our culture will become more and more bifurcated.” (p. 110)Smart People Should Build Things is a joy to read because Andrew Yang actually knows and builds things; he writes from experience. Whether building a company or country, it’s about building up people.

⭐This is a wonderful and deep book about the state of education, job markets, and creativity in the USA. I highly recommend that it be placed in the hands of every freshman before entering high school. Read it. Design a similar idea at that level. Yang comments that 22 – year olds are wired differently from the way they were in 1994. It’s nowhere even close to the wiring in 1975. We need younger people learning and taking on responsibilities at every level of life in this country. Our government needs their energy, their creativity, and their insights. Experience may help with mentoring, however we need to get out of the way and let citizens who are 45 and younger take responsibility for our future. It will be a wise President who recognizes this, surrounds her/ himself with these younger citizens and gives them space to grow as leaders. It will also be a wise president who brings Yang on board in the Cabinet of the Administration.

⭐Very good book. Gave me insights about the author who I remembered seeing in debates in previous presidential election. While I don’t agree with everything he stands for, the ideas in this book are very good and I admire his dedication to what he believes.

⭐This book outlines superbly how the smartest graduates are being funnelled into corporate careers which supress their entrepreneurial instincts. Rather than just lament the status quo or simply suggest solutions, Yang demonstrates how his most important start-up, Venture for America is tackling this issue by providing graduates with an alternative route into start-up and an entrepreneurial career. For students in the UK see New Entrepreneurs Foundation for a similar UK organisation.

⭐Great read into how institutions incentiviseSmart graduates to stick with the tired and trodden path when they are much better suited in a start up. Does get a little boring near the end though

⭐This is a great assessment of what is the problem plaguing modern economies.We have made our education systems such that it doesn’t prepare our brightest towards an entrepreneurial path where they solve problems and provide services which in turn create jobs, instead we just funnel them forward through more and more education without orientation in life.The end product is that they are done with higher education and clueless about their future and eventually join big consultancies and financial firms which allow them to pay off their debt collected during their education.We need our smart people to build things, build companies around those things and services and create jobs outside the financial centers where new jobs are urgently needed to improve the people and the country.

⭐This is a book for university students, recent grads, and most importantly their parents. Andrew Yang’s perspective on how “top grads” are all being funnelled to service industries rather than getting their hands dirty creating value at small and medium size businesses is profound and points out a major error with post-secondary education and new graduate employment. His insights on why students should work at start-ups outside of major American economic hubs is an action plan to balance out the skill set of recent American grads leading to a new generation of entrepreneurs that will build value for the foreseeable future.

⭐A really good read. Interesting perspective on how our economy works and what really creates value.

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