Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality

Making Ideas Happen

If you care about your art, your job or your market, you really have no choice but to read this book

Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow and Linchpin

Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard. This book helps you with the hard part

Guy Kawasaki, former Apple guru and author of The Art of the Start

This book is like a Swiss Army knife for ideas

Ji Lee, Creative Director at Google Creative Lab

This is a book about execution, and when it comes to going from an idea to a real business, execution is everything

John Battelle, co-founder of WIRED and BoingBoing

If your creative team or organization struggles to implement their best ideas, or if you find that your own creative projects languish unfinished, you need Making Ideas Happen

Teresa Amabile, Director of Research, Harvard Business School

There are techniques in this book that can turn disorganised creative prima donnas into organised creative prima donnas

Chuck Porter, co-chairman, Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Belsky offers an illustrated map to get to the destination of your great ideas

Scott Thomas, Design Director, Obama Presidential Campaign

Scott Belsky is the founder and CEO of Behance, the software and design company dedicated to enhancing productivity in the creative community. He oversees a social networking site used by more than 30,000 creative professionals from around the world. He has consulted for media and Fortune 500 companies, including GE and Hewlett-Packard. In 2010 he was included in Fast Company's '100 Most Creative People in Business' list. Prior to founding Behance he helped grow the Pine Street Leadership Initiative at Goldman Sachs; he received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Thomas Edison famously said that genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. Every day new solutions, revolutionary cures, and artistic breakthroughs are conceived and squandered by smart people. Along with the gift of creativity come the obstacles to making ideas happen: lack of organisation, lack of accountability and a lack of community support. 
 
Scott Belsky has interviewsed hundreds of the most productive creative people and teams in the world, revealing one common trait: a carefully trained capacity for executing ideas. Implementing your ideas is a skill that can be taught, and Belsky distills the core principles in this book. 
 
While many of us obsess about discovering great new ideas, Belsky shows why it is better to develop the capacity to make ideas happen - using old-fashioned passion and perspiration. Making Ideas Happen reveals the practical yet counterintuitive techniques of 'serial creatives' - those few who make their visions a reality.

Scott Belsky

This is required reading for founders. Experienced entrepreneurs all know this period Scott refers to as 'the messy middle' and a few of us have worked our way out of it, but this is the first time I've seen an expert-both as a founder and as an investor-break down in such detail just how to endure, optimize, and make it through.

cofounder of Initialized Capital and Reddit

Scott Belsky is a master of generous work worth doing. The Messy Middle will help you see that you have more control than you dare to admit, and the ability to make a difference if you care enough.

Building a lasting business is 1 percent idea and 99 percent resilience. The Messy Middle details the unglamorous but essential lessons every founder needs to learn.

Starting a new venture is like jumping off a cliff and sewing a parachute on the way down. This book is the parachute.

cofounder and chief product officer, Airbnb

Having been through the ups and downs of the messy middle many times, it's critical to understand the challenges ahead. This insightful book empowers you to approach them head-on. Belsky's powerful tool kit, based on hard-earned experiences, is an essential guide to building a compelling product, revolutionizing an organization, or growing your leader-ship abilities.

inventor of the iPod, coinventor of the iPhone,  founder and former CEO of Nest, principal at Future Shape

Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture

Silicon Valley is full of start-up success stories; every day stories emerge of a new company with the potential for a billion-dollar valuation and plans for global domination. 
 
But what can we really learn from these stories? How many of these start-ups are genuinely successful in the long term? When nine out of ten start-ups end in spectacular burnout, how can we ensure our own success story? 
 
While most books and press focus on the more sensational moments of creation and conclusion, The Messy Middle argues that the real key to success is how you navigate the ups-and-downs after initial investment is secured. It will give you all the insights you need to build and optimize your team, improve your product and develop your own capacity to lead. Building on seven years' of meticulous research with entrepreneurs, small agencies, start-ups and billion-dollar companies, Scott Belsky offers indispensable lessons on how to endure and thrive in the long term.

The Messy Middle

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Scott Belsky

Praise for The Messy Middle

This is required reading for founders. Experienced entrepreneurs all know this period Scott refers to as 'the messy middle' and a few of us have worked our way out of it, but this is the first time I've seen an expe ...

Scott Belsky is a master of generous work worth doing. The Messy Middle will help you see that you have more control than you dare to admit, and the ability to make a difference if you care enough.

Building a lasting business is 1 percent idea and 99 percent resilience. The Messy Middle details the unglamorous but essential lessons every founder needs to learn.

This is required reading for founders. Experienced entrepreneurs all know this period Scott refers to as 'the messy middle' and a few of us have worked our way out of it, but this is the first time I've seen an expe ...

Scott Belsky is a master of generous work worth doing. The Messy Middle will help you see that you have more control than you dare to admit, and the ability to make a difference if you care enough.

Building a lasting business is 1 percent idea and 99 percent resilience. The Messy Middle details the unglamorous but essential lessons every founder needs to learn.

This is required reading for founders. Experienced entrepreneurs all know this period Scott refers to as 'the messy middle' and a few of us have worked our way out of it, but this is the first time I've seen an expe ...

Scott Belsky is a master of generous work worth doing. The Messy Middle will help you see that you have more control than you dare to admit, and the ability to make a difference if you care enough.

Building a lasting business is 1 percent idea and 99 percent resilience. The Messy Middle details the unglamorous but essential lessons every founder needs to learn.

Books by Scott Belsky

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