It’s been a very relaxing weekend. I spent most of my time plopped on the couch reading Eric Sink on the Business of the Software. The book is really just a collection of blog posts on Eric Sink’s blog but I enjoy holding a book rather than a laptop when reading for long periods of time. After reading countless technical books/blogs, it was extremely refreshing to read something like Sink’s book.

The book is split into four parts: entrepreneurship, people, marketing, and sales. The section that covers entrepreneurship reminds me of Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start. The section on people covers the kind of people you want to work with and hire, which reminds me of Joel Spolsky’s recently released Smart and Gets Things Done. The section on marketing is what really made me enjoy this book. After reading Eric’s book, I have a newfound appreciation and a deeper understanding of the dark science known as marketing. He breaks it down and explains it from a developer’s perspective. The sales section is not surprising about how to get a potential customer to give you money for your software.

The book has a lot of insight into becoming ISV (Indepedent Software Vendor), more specifically a microISV. I think all software developers have pondered the what-ifs and wouldn’t-it-be-cool of starting their own software company. Very few make the jump. I would like to change that statistic.

I finished reading Founders At Work by Jessica Livingston a few days ago. What a great read. For those who have ever thought of starting their own tech company or enjoy hearing about how great things come out of startups, this is a must read.

The book gives such deep insight into the inner workings of the minds behind of these companies. I’m inspired by what some of these people have built and in many cases, without any outside investment. It’s interesting to see that most of the founders had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they started. The startup mind set is so different from Corporate America’s. These founders had passion for technology and their products. It’s very refreshing to see how you can create a company without money being the main focus. Passion drives great companies.

I can’t really think of any job better than waking up in the morning and being able to say, “Today, I’m going to go build something that’s going to change the world.”