These are my own, rather nonstandard thoughts, so I invite feedback and/or correction.
According to my own observations, both via the media and through people I have known personally, it appears that it is rare that an entrepreneur's very first attempt at business becomes a colossal success. It is much more typical that the entrepreneur will take at least one and sometimes several tries to really break out. Some of these tries may end in abject failure.
As we all know, people are generally risk-averse to an irrational degree, and self-identify with failure to an even more irrational degree. So the personalities who "stupidly" keep trying to be entrepreneurs even after all evidence indicates that they are bad at being entrepreneurs are perversely the people who end up being astonishing successes. They are gaining experience, they are making connections, they are learning how to psychologically deal with the stresses of entrepreneurship, so over time they become gradually better. Then, boom, "miraculous" success.
We also know that endless planning in the face of uncertainty is a common human failure mode. I am not saying that reading these books is a waste of time, but I am saying that there will never be a point at which you have read enough books. Or taken enough courses. I think you just have to go out and start failing.
I am learning as much as possible about effective organizations, specifically large corporations and their respective businesses.
My goals are to start a successful business and to really develop the skills needed to be a great executive.
If any of you on LessWrong have studied this area I would greatly appreciate your input.
My current approach has been to read some highly recommended books and also to read as much as I can about how modern day CEOs and founders start and run their companies. I worry that some of this information is more for entertainment than for obtaining knowledge. I am also starting a company with a friend to try and put a lot of this information into practice.
I've also been using the "execute by default" idea, which, has helped immenseley in actually making progress and I have already felt that practicing this changes the way I approach problems, mostly for the better.
Some books I'm reading:
* Management by Peter Drucker
* The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
* The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman
* The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
* Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston
* How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Some articles I've read:
* Marc Andreesen's articles on starting a company
* Paul Graham's essays on startups
* Most things that are highly voted on on Hacker News
I have found that a lot of the information in these books is very practical, and have really raised my understanding of how large organizations work (at least intellectually). What other approaches should I be taking?
If you have any suggestions on my plan, what I'm reading, or doing, or whatever, please let me know.