This image is the cover for the book Building on Bedrock

Building on Bedrock

One of Fast Company’s Best Business Books of the Year: A new foundational guide to entrepreneurial success from the author of Startup Leadership.

Here’s an astounding fact: Over half the working population will try their hand at being an entrepreneur during their working career. They may be motivated by a desire for fortune or fame, by a longing for freedom and control over their lives; by the urge to innovate and create jobs. But how can you know whether being an entrepreneur will end as a dream come true or a nightmare from which you cannot wake?

Building on Bedrock helps answer that question. Based on research and revealed through the stories of American entrepreneurs Sam Walton, Walt Disney, Estee Lauder, Ray Kroc, and others, Building on Bedrock will help you understand the elements most essential to taking the entrepreneurial leap and making a company last. Was it luck, talent, passion, charm, a rich uncle, or something else that was the key to this person’s success? Which might be the key to your success? What you learn may surprise you.

“These days, entrepreneurship is often synonymous with tech startups and venture funding. But that's not the reality for a lot of business owners. CEO, entrepreneur, and business professor Derek Lidow gets into the heart of what it really takes to build a long-lasting business…and how to know whether you are suited to the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship.”—Fast Company, 7 best business books of 2018

“Flat out, the best book on entrepreneurship I have ever read.” —Roger Martin, author of Creating Great Choices

Derek Lidow

Derek Lidow is one of the few New York Stock Exchange CEOs who left to start new companies from scratch?with unequivocal success. Lidow was CEO of International Rectifier, a $2 billion publicly held semiconductor company, before leaving to found iSuppli, a leading market research firm, which he sold for $100 million in 2010 to the global information leader IHS. Today, Lidow is giving back by teaching at Princeton University where he launched its campus-wide “design thinking” curriculum. He also works with Princeton’s aspiring entrepreneurs and their young companies. Lidow has long demonstrated a rare ability to operate successfully in corporate, entrepreneurial, and academic environments. His novel contributions to research and analysis have forever improved companies as diverse as Sony, Samsung, Philips, Goldman Sachs and IBM. He has advised many of the world’s governments and largest companies. And he continues to drive innovation in research through ongoing projects with a number of partners. Lidow is a frequent contributor to publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, and Entrepreneur. He is also a media commentator whose coverage includes The New York Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Forbes, The Economist, Nikkei, Reuters, and Taipei Times. Lidow’s degrees come from Princeton and Stanford where he earned a PhD in applied physics as a Hertz Foundation Fellow. He is based in New York City and Princeton, NJ. DerekLidow.com

Diversion Books