ML178: Rob Fitzpatrick on Writing Useful Books, The Secrets of Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Disrupting the Publishing Industry
Rob Fitzpatrick is an entrepreneur and the author of Write Useful Books, which outlines a process for creating more reliably successful nonfiction.
He is best known for his book The Mom Test on customer development for introverted techies and has also written The Workshop Survival Guide, on education design.
The common thread between all of his work is making things people want. Whether we’re talking about a non-fiction book, a workshop or a software business, the mistake almost everyone makes is staying in their head and making something people don’t want.
Rob's philosophy starts with talking to people, listening to them and figuring out what their problem actually is. The next step is building a simple prototype as a solution and if that works, you’re probably onto something.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Rob’s 4-part system for writing useful books that uses the principles of product testing
- The common mistakes to avoid in getting and implementing feedback from beta readers
- The business lessons Rob has learned from a decade and a half of entrepreneurship
We also cover the publishing industry and Rob’s plans to disrupt it. This episode will give you a system for writing great non fiction that solves readers' problems and give you an insights into running an entrepreneurial career in a sustainable way.
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