The Power of Many: Values for Success in Business and in Life

I went through this book quickly. It was easy to read- it's very interesting, with lots on fascinating information about how eBay worked during her 10 year tenure there. However, I did go in it expecting to learn some really insightful business principles, and in that sense, it didn't really deliver. Her biggest lessons were pretty simple- "be authentic," "be frugal," "have a bias for action." Most of it was basically common sense, and she could be pretty repetitive pushing those points. Despite how I felt the book fell flat in explaining some fundamental business principles, the stories of her time at eBay still make it worth the read.

From the moment Ms. Whitman tells the board of E-Bay "I Meg to Differ," this reader was hooked, and loved every word of this very personal look into the passions and pecadilloes of the Silicon Valley set. The book bounced back and forth nicely from anecdotes of Ms. Whitman's climb in the business world to personal stories about her journey to "find herself." Whitman's harrowing accounts of her compulsive shoplifting were fascinating, as was her ultimate conversion from Latter Day Saints to "American Paganism." And now, as she is propelled into the world of politics, Ms. Whitman has come up with some very intriguing ideas to present to the voters, such as replacing the current monetary system with an array of seasonal fruits. Though her personal habits are definitely on the quirky side (she showers only on Mondays, collects human hair, and sleeps upside down), Ms. Whitman is a force to be reckoned with, and quite possibly, California's next governor.

I really enjoyed Meg Whitman's book and think she makes a lot of great points about what makes a successful leader and work enviroment. She does a good job of not only discussing good decisions she made, but also bad decisions and what she learned from each decision.

Although I am sure Meg Whitman wrote this book in part for political reasons I read it for the same reasons I read other leadership books...to remind me of the fundamental truths and hopefully pick up some new perspectives. This book did not disappoint! This book does a great job of mixing in personal and business stories to illustrate some key leadership points. Her description of the growth and challenges of eBay was compelling. She shares what worked for her as well as admitting to mistakes. This was refreshing. She also points out where she does not agree with the traditional mindset or popular thought. For example she states "Trying is important. But trying is not the same as achieving success. I diverge from the philosophers and poets here; to me, success is not about the quality of your experience in striving for your goal. To me, the journey is not the reward. The journey can be fantastic; my journey at eBay was fantastic. But what matters is whether or not you accomplish your mission." I had eight pages of highlights in my Kindle. Here are 16 of the excerpts I found particularly important. 1. "When it comes to new product development or certain kinds of marketing where parameters are fluid, I very deliberately do not ask people to be perfect. In fact, I'm more inclined to say that in these realms perfect is the enemy of good enough...If we wait to try to anticipate all the problems in advance, the cost of that delay will be too high. We will learn much faster from trying it out." 2. "You can make a big goal feel small by breaking it down, but you can't make a small goal feel big." 3. "Never be afraid to borrow a good idea. Pay for it by giving credit. In fact, share credit as liberally as you can...Too many business people have an unquenchable thirst for credit, or an ego problem that prevents them from reaching out in a sincere and effective way to people who can help them." 4. "It was a strong reminder that it isn't enough to ask questions and listen carefully to the answers if you don't ask the right questions." 5. "The way I usually put it is the price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake. You do not have to be perfect to be an effective leader, but you cannot be timid." 6. "I usually learned lessons from failures that would become valuable in my later successes." 7. "The process of letting go of yesterday's pet projects and activities can be difficult. But if you can't do that, you can't scale. You can't take refuge in the comfortable and familiar; you have to grow with the job...another aspect to managing scale through your team is to periodically taking responsibilities away from talented people and bringing in the right people from outside the organization." 8. "When you are inventing something from the ground up, a bias toward action and an understanding of how to use iteration to learn more, faster, is crucial." 9. "The difference between a competent executive an

Meg Whitman became the president and CEO of eBay when it had 30 employees and grew it to a company with more than 15,000 and eight billion dollars in annual revenue. Throughout her career with eBay, the Walt Disney Company, and Dreamworks SKG Meg Whitman has proven that a woman can do anything! Her aim to become the first female governor of California won't be easy, Whitman is certainly more impressive in person than on camera, but she is poised to win! I strongly recommend "The Power of Many" along with Mitt Romney's "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness!"