Was Angry Birds really an overnight sensation? What does Steve finishing a half marathon have to do with Angry Birds? In this episode, we tie those two together with a really heavy wheel that makes great businesses spin.

Show Notes

How Rovio Made Angry Birds a Winner from a 2011 article Wired magazine about Rovio. They have not done so well in that last few months, and we’ll see what the movie does. I’m not optimistic about it. They continue to want to be the next Disney, but fail to adopt the Disney story of telling great stories first. They recycle the same one over and over again.

Meb for Mortals A “how I do it” type book written after Meb won the Boston Marathon about how to run well.

Good to Great – Jim Collins and his colleagues processed a mass of data to find out why some companies are better than others. A very data driven look at what makes major publicly owned corporations great, but translates easily to what you need to do and think to be a successful creative indie. Here’s a summary of the book from Collins’ website. The theme of endurance sports does run through the book, or more precisely swim, run and bike through the Book. Jim Collins’ wife is 1985 World Champion Ironman Triathlete Joanne Ernst.

The War of Art – Steven Pressfield’s masterpiece isn’t his fiction. It’s this book hands down. He calls persistence “Turning Pro.” You’ll hear more about this book in episode 5.

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