Book Review: Eat People – And Other Unapologetic Rules For Game-Changing Entrepreneurs

Note: This is an old post from my old blog that I no longer maintain. I am bringing it here because: 1/ I haven’t had any new content here; and, 2/ This book is more relevant than ever before. Enjoy!

Eat People: And Other Unapologetic Rules for Game-Changing Entrepreneurs is written by Andy Kessler, the New York Times bestselling author  of “Wall Street Meat: My Narrow Escape from the Stock Market Grinder“and “Running Money“. He knows a lot about startups based on his experience from various jobs – stock analyst, investment banker, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager. “He’s heard hundreds of pitches from smooth talkers whose ventures quickly crashed and burned.”

There is a notion that this book is only for entrepreneurs or startups. Although the theme of the book is wrapped around entrepreneurship, it also addresses the need of those that are not in that bracket.

This book simply answers the question “What’s the next big thing?”. The “Unapologetic Rules” will walk you through the many elements of exactly finding that out.

How do you find the big thing? How do you find things that go up and to the right and keep going up and up and up? How do you find companies to work for or to invest in that will let you create some real wealth?

How wealth is created is not a question – Productivity creates wealth. The big question is what to do to attain the certain level of Productivity that creates wealth. This is where the controversy comes in. The message is staring us in the face. The author is simply acting as the messenger:

Get rid of humans and you probably found a rich vein of productivity and therefore wealth…That’s the goal of every economy – to increase the standard of living of its participants. If that means over a generation replacing low skill jobs with higher-skilled careers, then you are creating wealth for the entire economy.

As a mere employee (and not an entrepreneur), I find this book as a good guide to what to look out for in terms of  “career goals”. This book talks about “eating people” – job elimination. It illustrates in vivid fashion how and what jobs will be eliminated in the near future. Your clue are in the current trends in the technology today – processor chips with blazing speed, storage appliances becoming cheaper, consumer gadget becoming powerful, explosion of social networks, cloud computing, etc.

You have to figure out how to create the future yourself…figure out where productivity exists in the economy, and invest your mind or your money alongside it.

If you are an entrepreneur, startup, or business, it’s no longer enough to have your focus on your ability to scale. Your values must align with the vision of becoming a game-changer. Google is a game changer. Mark Zuckerberg has democratized communication and made our lives easier; and, thus, changed the way we communicate.

If you are a worker or an employee with low skills, it’s time to look for ways to train to upgrade your skill set. Sooner than later, unproductive jobs will be eliminated to give way to higher efficiencies in order to up the ante in productivity – and wealth. Eat people – that is what this book suggests. It means eliminating unproductive jobs – those that don’t contribute in creating the wealth.

This book has laid out the two types of job. Not Blue Collar and White Collar, as you might think. Creator and Server. There is more productivity coming from the creator than from the server. There is a great demand for productivity; hence, there’s also a great demand for the creator. The formula necessitates “wasting” on the other side of the plank – more and more servers must be eliminated to make productivity cheaper.

If you are just starting out on your career, entry to middle level, you have to read this book. This book fits best the entrepreneurs and startups. If you’re not in those group, there still a lot in store for you in this book.

Your job is in danger of being eliminated and you must be concerned about it.