Introduction
GuruBook editor Jonathan Løw is a Danish entrepreneur and co-founder of four startups. He has been named one of Denmark’s 100 most talented leaders and has won a number of startup awards. In addition to being an entrepreneur, Jonathan Løw is the former Head of Marketing at the KaosPilots, investor at Accelerace, and Head of Online at Bog & idé. His previous book, Listen Louder, made it to the top of the bestseller lists in 2015. For more information, speaking engagements, and so on, please check out www.listenlouder.dk.
gu•ru (gur' ü, gü' rü, also gə rü'), n.
: a teacher or mentor whom you trust.
: a person who has great experience or knowledge within a particular area .
Ideas
As human beings, we have always been fascinated by ideas. The ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle spoke about ideas as something that structured the world and made it understandable for human consciousness. After the Greeks came the Latin Father Augustine, among others; he raised ideas to be a form of thinking in the mind of God.
Inspired by English empiricists such as Locke, Berkeley, and Hume, today we regard ideas as part of the human cognition. Ideas are something we humans get all the time— no matter whether we’ re at the office, in the bath, at a football match, or washing up. As ideas are an integral part of being human, generating ideas is something we all have in common. In fact, our brains can’ t do otherwise.
Ideas can be magical in the sense that we can dream of great and epic changes in the world if only our apparently brilliant idea can be turned into reality. In this way, an idea embodies something beautiful and childish.
On the other hand, one of the points in The GuruBook is that we cultivate thinking about good ideas far too much, while we cultivate the craft of transforming the ideas into reality far too little.
In future, the world will not exist on the basis of good ideas but on the talented craftsmen— entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders— who, together with their competent teams, have the ability to move ideas out of the thought process and into reality.
Ideas are thus valueless in the sense that they do not make a difference by themselves. But their visionary and potentially transformative character can still function today as a fantastic incentive and motivator— such as when the authors of the international bestseller BOLD introduced the idea that tomorrow’ s billionaires are those whose inventions and businesses also help a billion people.
The change-making ideas of the present are thus those which, although based on great thinking, require less action to turn those ideas into reality. Today, it is the experiments, the prototypes, and the actions that help us test the durability and effects of an idea, and subsequently, the cleverest entrepreneurs, businesses, and public institutions that, through their commitment and resources, can make ideas change the world in practice. That is innovation and enterprise.
The GuruBook is in itself one example of such an entrepreneurial process. The book started with a stream of thought during an evening meal back in November 2015. I can remember thinking something like, “ Imagine if one could gather all the thoughts from the world’ s most inspirational leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators in one book in order to share them. Imagine if this could inspire others to be even better at turning the best ideas into reality.”
The GuruBook is the materialization of that idea.
But perhaps it isn’ t really. For as the work progressed and I had to choose contributors, and the articles/interviews were received in due course from all corners of the world— from Shanghai to Silicon Valley— I realized that I wasn’ t aiming at pointing out the cleverest or the most prestigious entrepreneurs and leaders.
The GuruBook is not a hit list or an ultimate statement about who is “ world leader” in their field. Rather, it’ s almost turned into a sort of “ turning myself inside out” project— a desire to present the reader with the voices that I’ ve found to be the most exciting, inspiring, and challenging to listen to in recent years.
Ability to listen
The GuruBook is first and foremost about listening. Although I have been a serial entrepreneur and have tried to start a number of businesses, have worked with innovation in both large and small organizations, and have been a leader in several organizations, I do not imagine in any way that I have all the answers in these exciting but also complex areas.
I believe that the ability to listen is one of the most important characteristics for future entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders. This ability to listen, and the curiosity that is inherent in it, may be the factor that gives you an advantage over the competition. Consider, for example, the English mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton, who, like millions of others, saw an apple fall from a tree. The difference was that Newton asked why .
As a result of my own curiosity and desire to listen more, it was obvious that I should invite the people who, in my eyes, have generated inspiring and pioneering ideas, organizations, and results, to share their thoughts and knowledge with the readers of The GuruBook .
This book’ s gurus have been asked to talk/write about what they’ re enthusiastic about. That means that you, dear reader, can look forward to becoming more knowledgeable about
• How to start a business without an idea
• Why some ideas succeed while others fail
• How to demystify the task of scaling up a startup as an entrepreneur
• How you can be enterprising, no matter what phase your organization is in
• How to create an innovative culture
• Why simple questions lead to the greatest innovations
• What we can learn from the world’ s leading innovators
• Why businesses and local authorities aren’ t startups, and what both can learn from each other
• How to become authentic as a leader
• Why authentic leadership is a strength
• Why there’ s an entrepreneur in every successful leader
• Why the ability to listen is all-important, whether you’ re an entrepreneur or a leader
The contents of The GuruBook have weight and value because the articles and/or interviews are with people who for years have perfected their ability to listen and have consistently become better at understanding their customers, partners, and colleagues. Through thousands of meetings, sales calls, customer service responses, innovation processes, brainstorms, mail dialogues, LinkedIn discussions, and so on, they have listened and then acted on what they heard. These are the insights that The GuruBook contains.
I fundamentally believe the future belongs to the curious. The future belongs to the entrepreneurs, innovators, leaders, and passionate souls who are not only capable of “ listening more intently” to the world about them but who also have the ability to act on the input they get.
Authenticity and gurus
The GuruBook is made up of three pillars or major themes, if you like: entrepreneurship , innovation , and authentic leadership . Each of these three themes could be unfolded in numerous guru books on their own. As editor, therefore, I harbor no illusions that this book can touch on all aspects of three so broad and important concepts.
In the same way, the work in choosing the book’ s gurus has rather resembled the task facing a national football coach: to put together a team based on personal convictions, values, and attitudes without knowing for sure that the choices are the correct ones— just as I have been aware from the outset that the readers will have many strong and clear opinions about the team of gurus chosen.
There have also been many comments about the title of the book, so let me explain it with two short points:
I chose the title because I mean it!
It’ s not just in Hinduism that the word guru has a religious and solemn meaning. In itself, the word means “ teacher” or “ mentor.” And that is precisely what the contributors to The GuruBook represent: wisdom and experience that is worth sharing with you, dear reader.
I chose the title because it sounds good!
Can’ t we agree that The Expert Book sounds neither as catchy nor as sexy as The GuruBook ? So you shouldn’ t take the title more seriously than that.
Finally, discussions about gender politics and other demographics may soon arise when one tries to make up a guru team: Is the gender distribution fair? What about the age variation? The geographic spread? The ideological starting point?
I must put my cards on the table and say that I haven’ t thought along these lines. My most important criterion has been that I consider all the gurus in the book to be authentic, and authentic leadership therefore became the third main theme and pillar in The GuruBook .
Authentic in the way that they also act out their values in practice. Authentic in the sense that you can feel the person inside them when you speak with them. Authentic in the way that they dare to stand for something and remain true to their values— even when they come under financial or other pressure.
Action
I hope that The GuruBook is a book you’ ll listen to but also a book that you’ ll use as a background for your actions.
I haven’ t conceived the book as something to be read slavishly from start to finish in quest of a single truth or solution. On the other hand, I’ ll be happy if you leaf back and forth through the many contributions and if some texts make you put the book down and start something because you feel inspired. It is conceived to reach you where you are now. You may find some of the contributions banal, but these same texts could be a revelation to another reader. I hope— and I believe— that you’ ll perhaps get a clearer view of a problem that you’ re dealing with in your everyday work as an entrepreneur, as a leader, and not least as a human being.
That’ s the difference between knowledge and learning. The GuruBook gives you knowledge and visions in the form of its contributions. The subsequent learning— how this knowledge is converted into practice (the craft)— is something you’ re responsible for.
I would love to hear from you about how you’ ve chosen to use the gurus’ guidance and experience and my tools in your concrete everyday reality. If you wish, you are more than welcome to share your experiences with me. You can write to me at [email protected] or connect via LinkedIn.
Enjoy the book…
Jonathan Lø
w— editor and creator of The GuruBook