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jbrooks1978's review against another edition
5.0
This was an interesting read on skills needed to be an entrepreneur through life lessons. This is a great reminder how our elders taught us things but may have spelled it out directly for us. Good read!
ebonyutley's review against another edition
2.0
I was disappointed in Who Owns the Ice House? And I didn’t want to be. I’d heard so much good about this book and its inspirational potential, but it’s too much akin to the grit/pull yourself up from your bootstraps discourses. The core entrepreneurial mindset lessons from the first author’s Uncle Cleve (who owned an ice house) are: choice, opportunity, action, knowledge, wealth, brand, community, and persistence. Basically, they’re summed by be positive and be productive. Sure, these are excellent qualities for any human to have, but to me that doesn’t encompass an entrepreneurial mindset. If someone saves their money and doesn’t go to the juke joint (super important repeated lessons from Uncle Cleve), that doesn’t mean they have what it takes to be an entrepreneur.
There are no tips here on ideation, customer segments, market fit, mental health, mastermind groups, or risk. I know these weren’t the terms used in the 50s, but the concepts persist and they are absent here. There are no specific suggestions for how to build resilience. There is one explicit instance of racial discrimination and the rest is a gloss as if social factors are not equally if not more influential in how a black person emerges as an entrepreneur. The authors acknowledge racism and then say it doesn’t matter if you work hard enough. That’s not fair to all the folks who are being actively oppressed and whose entrepreneurial endeavors were actively crushed not by fair competition but unfair systemic racism. I just can’t get with the feel good entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship will take everything you have and then some if you’re not prepared especially if you’re a black person in America. No disrespect to Uncle Cleve, but for me, the most interesting parts of his story were omitted. What exactly happened to his first business? How did he get the idea to start an ice house? How did he fund it? What challenges did he have to overcome? Who were the people that supported him when he wanted to quit? How did he deal with competition? What happened to his businesses? All the real talk is absent here and overlaid with a poor dad, save your money, and work hard mentality that really doesn’t fly anymore.
If you’re lazy, Who Owns the Ice House? might guilt then inspire you. But if you’ve been grinding for years and the doors have yet to open, there’s nothing for you here. No amount of keep working harder is going to take you to the next level. You’ve got to find another book for that.
There are no tips here on ideation, customer segments, market fit, mental health, mastermind groups, or risk. I know these weren’t the terms used in the 50s, but the concepts persist and they are absent here. There are no specific suggestions for how to build resilience. There is one explicit instance of racial discrimination and the rest is a gloss as if social factors are not equally if not more influential in how a black person emerges as an entrepreneur. The authors acknowledge racism and then say it doesn’t matter if you work hard enough. That’s not fair to all the folks who are being actively oppressed and whose entrepreneurial endeavors were actively crushed not by fair competition but unfair systemic racism. I just can’t get with the feel good entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship will take everything you have and then some if you’re not prepared especially if you’re a black person in America. No disrespect to Uncle Cleve, but for me, the most interesting parts of his story were omitted. What exactly happened to his first business? How did he get the idea to start an ice house? How did he fund it? What challenges did he have to overcome? Who were the people that supported him when he wanted to quit? How did he deal with competition? What happened to his businesses? All the real talk is absent here and overlaid with a poor dad, save your money, and work hard mentality that really doesn’t fly anymore.
If you’re lazy, Who Owns the Ice House? might guilt then inspire you. But if you’ve been grinding for years and the doors have yet to open, there’s nothing for you here. No amount of keep working harder is going to take you to the next level. You’ve got to find another book for that.
ttbaby159's review against another edition
3.0
This book was really good. I remember reading it and learning a lot from the experience of Clifton Taulbert's story. Overall, I'd give this book a 3.3/5!
whenyoursadreadabook's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
0.5
bearunderthecypresses's review against another edition
3.0
Read this book for an Entrepreneurial Mindset Training pilot course ahead of my fellow business librarian's grant curriculum she is helping facilitate. I have admittedly limited entrepreneurial zeal outside of wanting to own a brewery and an independent press, and I was still left feeling hopeful about how something like starting a business could be accomplished by the end of the book. The stories Clifton shares and all he learned from his Uncle Cleve's living example also laid bare what examples my family members set for me, good and bad. I hope and think I have, thankfully, carried on with more of the good than the bad: Be helpful whenever you can, Have fun, and Don't be an asshole were the basic tenets of my family. Pretty distilled and comprehensive if you ask me. Well done to Uncle Cleve. I cheer on your spirit indefinitely, sir.
pkoby's review
1.0
Poorly written, child-like descriptions of memory. Disjointed. The eight life lessons are fine, but I bet I could find eight stories from my life to apply those chapter headings to. This book is a bloated pamphlet.
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