Reviews

Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good… Read It!

Monday afternoon, I returned home from work to discover Sarah Lacy ’s new book Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good awaiting retrieval in my mailbox…it is the first package I’ve gotten at my new apartment so I was naturally pretty excited right off the bat. But I did not yet realize the emotional catapult I had discovered in my correspondence repository.

I started reading almost immediately upon getting inside and found myself unable to break away as I cooked, ate dinner and then neglected my latest Netflix delivery. Her book is billed as a look at the emergence of the Web 2.0 culture, successes and trends that have emerged in this renaissance of online entrepreneurial madness that has people reflecting on the first internet bubble of the late 1990s. Through telling the stories of some of the high-profile startup idea makers and risk takers, Sarah presents the true underlying cause of the Web 2.0 resurgence: the tenacity and spirit of the people that believe in an idea and refuse to color inside the lines. You do not have to read too far into the book before you realize that Sarah’s strength is not in discussing the financial, economic and theoretical causes or repercussions of the first bubble, but rather in the creation of almost mythical character stories surrounding the leaders profiled in this book.

As she retells the trials and triumphs of internet and startup giants such as Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen and Max Levchin, you find yourself sucked into their world. It feels a little bit like re-watching an epic movie where you know the heroes all succeed and get the girl in the end, but your heart still beats in tempo with the drama of each scene. Even though you know that PayPal, facebook and Digg all win in the end, you still find yourself pulling for them at the low points in their stories and you silently cheer at their victories. But the best part is beyond the bird’s eye view of the company; it comes in the character flaws and traits that make every one of these startup wunderkids who they are. Sarah manages to pry into the elusive Zuckerberg, unravel the intricate Levchin and humanize the epic Thiel. At times, her insights seem perhaps presumptuous and at others hyperbolic but she engages you with a glimpse at the collective wizards behind the curtain and you cannot help but draw a motivation and sense of awe from the pages.

I must admit, some months ago when I first read the synopsis of Sarah’s book, I was more than a little bit skeptical. It was right after the firestorm surrounding her… well… I will say: ’somewhat controversial’ interview with Mark Zuckerberg at the keynote of the SXSW Interactive festival in Austin, TX. I was pretty critical of the interview at the time and I still think that there were more than a few moments that could have been handled differently…but I’m pretty sure that everyone has moved on since then and realized that no one would ever have gotten any more information out of Mark.

No matter my opinion at the time, I must say that Sarah has far exceeded my expectations in her book with her ability to take enigmatic characters and make them seem more than a little bit human by the end.

At the end of the day, if you are at all interested in the beginnings of the new giants of Silicone Valley Silicon Valley (see below for edit. -ac) or in aspiring to success, I highly recommend Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good . I devoured it cover to cover in less than 24 hours…and it only took me that long because they make me work sometimes at my job. At the end, it was really all I could do to keep myself from selling all my belongings, packing my iMac and setting up shop in Southern California; I think the main reason I decided against it was that I don’t know anyone with an empty couch in the area…

Oh, as a disclaimer : Sarah sent me her book for free but it was only as a result of TechCrunch selecting me from a pool of commenters on one of the blog’s comments. TechCrunch selected the winners, not Sarah…I of course attribute my splendid wordsmithery!

Oh yeah, one last thing: The only thing awry in her book was at the bottom of page 109, danah boyd ’s name is capitalized…which might be the only time I have ever seen it that way but I’m guessing that was an editor somewhere along the line. Unless you actually read academic journal articles or follow danah’s blog, you would really never have any idea. Sometimes just little things nag at me. But just go get the book already!

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