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9 reviews for:
Raising the Bar: Integrity and Passion in Life and Business: The Story of Clif Bar Inc.
Gary Erickson
3.8 AVERAGE
9 reviews for:
Raising the Bar: Integrity and Passion in Life and Business: The Story of Clif Bar Inc.
Gary Erickson
3.8 AVERAGE
Recommend for those interested in Clif and in sustainable and thoughtful tips/insights into the tough decisions involved in starting, running and stepping away from a company.
Read this for class. I commend his dedication to keeping his company sustainable and quality. Listened to this on audible and he's somehow the slowest talker ever. He kinda gives me the ick but I don't know why. It's a pretty dry book, but not bad if you're interested in business.
The company that Gary Erickson has built and maintained is amazing. I think I'd like to work there. Gary and Clif Bar Inc. have an incredible attitude about work, sports, the planet, and life.
The book that Gary Erickson has written is not very good at all. I only survived because of the company it portrays. This book is repetitive. It kills all the best anecdotes by putting any sense of mystery into these weird red subheads. Sometimes it tries too hard to make analogies. Then it repeats some more. The Clif Bar label appears in some modified form no less than 10 times. The first label is a curiosity, the label that explains the company's finances is annoying.
At least the leading is large...
The book that Gary Erickson has written is not very good at all. I only survived because of the company it portrays. This book is repetitive. It kills all the best anecdotes by putting any sense of mystery into these weird red subheads. Sometimes it tries too hard to make analogies. Then it repeats some more. The Clif Bar label appears in some modified form no less than 10 times. The first label is a curiosity, the label that explains the company's finances is annoying.
At least the leading is large...
What a great book with a great story. I learned so much about Gary, Clif Bars and business. Gary is physically active throughout his entire life and career with Clif, a very promising outlook for those thinking physical well being has to be set aside when pursuing business goals. I also learned how important Jazz is to making business choices.
This has been an inspiring book to read and learn from.
This has been an inspiring book to read and learn from.
Entertaining stories about cycling and finding his life partner.
The author tries to paint himself as a risk taking, off the beaten road, maverick who cares about social causes. He says the way to do this is... maintaining 100% ownership, so that no one else has any stock or can make money when the company value goes up.
He acknowledges this comes off as "greedy and selfish" but then brushes that off. The next few pages, he talks about how he wants to leave hundreds of millions of dollars to his kids.
In another book, his wife complained about how he left her with their newborn while he went on a 2-week sport adventure overseas.
So it is another book of a founder who wants to keep all the control and money, but paint himself as a noble guy. But the cycling parts are interesting.
The author tries to paint himself as a risk taking, off the beaten road, maverick who cares about social causes. He says the way to do this is... maintaining 100% ownership, so that no one else has any stock or can make money when the company value goes up.
He acknowledges this comes off as "greedy and selfish" but then brushes that off. The next few pages, he talks about how he wants to leave hundreds of millions of dollars to his kids.
In another book, his wife complained about how he left her with their newborn while he went on a 2-week sport adventure overseas.
So it is another book of a founder who wants to keep all the control and money, but paint himself as a noble guy. But the cycling parts are interesting.
This is the story of Gary Erickson and his journey with Clif Bar. It starts with Gary walking away from selling the company for a lot of money and turns into a hodgepodge story (perhaps eclectic is a better word) of business, bike riding, climbing and personal integrity. While he does talk about the negative, about how his company (and he) lost its way, it's not an in-depth read. And he repeats himself. A lot. Perhaps by design because it drives home the central message of the book -- that it's important to stay true to your values and life philosophy, that sometimes the best way to succeed in life is to follow your gut rather than a cookie-cutter approach, that being all-in yourself is often the best way to keep your vision. He motivated and inspired me to create my own vision as a starting point, then develop ways to enhance and stay true to it. His "white road" vs. "red road" (entrepreneurial vs. traditional) analogy can be tweaked not just for any business but for any life plan. And his approach to business and employee relations makes me wish Clif Bar was located in WNY and I had a marketable skill to work there.
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
I really enjoyed listening to this on audio. I LOVE Clif bars and learned a lot about the company's principles that made me love them even more. The author could have turned the entire book into a "look at me" ego-fest, but it was quite the opposite. He gave kudos to everyone around him who helped to build the company into what it is today.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced