Birth of a Unicorn: Six Basic Steps to Success By Heather Wilde

'Birth of a Unicorn: Six Basic Steps to Success,' by Heather Wilde is a blend of two beautiful worlds: memoir and self-help guide.

Wilde and her husband, Leon are two of the foundational members of a team that is responsible for Evernote, a note-taking app that has become wildly successful in recent years, and now has a user base of over 200 million people worldwide. But how did they do it? How does anyone take an idea in their head and turn it into a billion-dollar company?

Well, before Evernote, Wilde already had some experience with this, having worked on teams at several other successful start ups, including a security company called Corestreet, that worked with the government.

In order to figure out the steps that lead to Wilde's success, you must read this book and really pay attention, not just to her story but to her advice. I really enjoyed every tidbit of wisdom in this book, because it seemed like it was coming from a good place and a really smart person who was very experienced with this industry.

At the end of the book, there is an 'assessment' or a little quiz that helps you determine what things matter most to you in life and how you can help fulfill those needs to manage your life. This is all part of Wilde's emphasis in the book of balancing your work life and personal life in harmony, and how to make sure that one doesn't take too much from the other. definitely something I personally need to work on! Personal life and self-care are essential to becoming a success in any industry that you choose and Wilde's understanding of that really makes this book something special.

I can see myself thinking about this one for a long time and referring back to it. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good, inspiring read!
Hardcover I was given a copy of this book in order to facilitate my review. All opinions are my own.

Take the Journey with Heather Wilde and Find Out What Birth of a Unicorn is All About...

When I first read about Heather Wilde’s ‘Birth of a Unicorn’, I was excited. I have always enjoyed books that share the author’s experience with success. But what I enjoyed the most is how Heather told her story.

Every bit of her book makes you feel like you are traveling her journey right there with her. Heather shares the ups and downs of what it took her to get where she is now.

Heather’s ‘Six Basic Steps to Success’ are woven in during her stories of how she and Leon started in Massachusetts, moved to California, and later ended up out of the country. (something that they had wanted to do for years). Hardcover Honestly, I never wanted this book to end! Heather Wilde's insights in 'Birth of a Unicorn: Six Basic Steps to Success,' were like a breath of fresh air.

In a sense, this book is both a memoir and a self-help book. Wilde uses stories about her success and sometimes, her failures in order to teach you lessons about life, marriage, and business in an engaging and stimulating way. And this woman certainly knows a lot about all of those things. Apart from being one of the first members of the tech start up for the app Evernote, Wilde was also on the team at a company that worked with the government to provide security options and at one of the very first online gaming companies back in the early 2000's.

If anyone can talk openly about their experience with startups, it is her and she lays it all out in this memoir. But it wasn't just the information about the business world that made me enjoy this book. Wilde also talks very candidly about her personal life, including her marriage struggles and her experiences with anxiety and depression.

These relatable parts of her story really elevated the memoir as a whole for me and reminded me that just because someone has claimed a lot of success in their professional life doesn't mean that their personal life is perfect or that they have always been that successful. It really put the life of a tech start up entrepreneur into perspective for me.

Wilde has charisma and a talent for writing, both of which make this book something special. I really enjoyed her inclusion of the assessment about what you value most in life at the end of the book. I took it and learned a lot about myself in the process!
Hardcover “Our careful planning and preparation gave us the certainty needed for us to live our uncertain lifestyle. People talk about having charmed lives, being in the right place at the right time, and luck. In our case, luck had nothing to do with it...”

This book contains pretty much all of the advice that you could ever want or need on becoming a productive, creative and successful person. Heather Wilde started out the new millennium in kind of a slump. After her husband, an airplane pilot narrowly missed being caught in the fray during the terrorist attack on 9/11, Wilde began to suffer from depression and anxiety surrounding her husband's job.

As this time, Wilde herself worked for an online gaming start up that soon went under financially. Between this and struggles with her marriage over the fact that her husband no longer wanted to live in Boston, Wilde faced quite a few years of difficulty. But, after moving away from Boston and working on her marriage, Wilde began shopping around for other jobs in the tech industry and ended up working for a few different start-ups where she developed somewhat of a reputation for making them successful.

In the tech world, a 'unicorn' is the nickname for any company that makes over a billion dollars, and this is what happened with Wilde's latest endeavor, Evernote. Evernote is a note-taking app that initially started out with only a small user base. With Wilde's careful and smart influence, the company now has over 200 million users and has become incredibly successful. So many tech start ups discover that a 'unicorn' is hard to find, but Wilde seems to be adept at finding and nurturing them in their infancy.

I loved this book and I loved the advice and memorable quotes that Wilde had to dish out.
Hardcover Despite what you might think from the title, this is not a fantasy book about Unicorns. In fact, this is a book about very real advice and keys to unlocking your potential in ways that you might not have expected.

The title, 'Birth of a Unicorn: Six Basic Steps To Success' actually comes from the word that is used to describe a start-up company that makes over a Billion dollars: a Unicorn. Because it is very, very rare. But, not so rare that it is impossible. Heather Wilde has had this type of success, herself and this book, which is part memoir, part self-help guide, is the story of her success.

The book begins in 2001, when Wilde was living with her husband, Leon in Boston. Leon, at the time was working as pilot and narrowly avoided being caught up in the terrorist attacks of September 11th. After this narrow miss, Heather Wilde experienced a lot of anxiety and depression stemming from the fear that she went through that day. For a while, she struggled to get back to work, something I'm sure that many of us have dealt with in various ways over the past year.

After overcoming this set back, Wilde went on to work on the founding teams behind a lot of successful start-up companies. One of these companies, Evernote went from being an app with only a few thousand users to one with over 200 million. Tech start-ups are the thing on everyone's mind these days. So many people have ideas that they think would make a good app but no knowledge about how to implement that idea into an actual company. In this book, Wilde offers advice not just on that, but also on depression, anxiety, marriage and life in general.

I found this book fascinating and I think you will, too!
Hardcover

Free read ç eBook, PDF or Kindle ePUB ó Heather Wilde

In this book, you'll find the true story behind one of Silicon Valley's famous companies on its rise to the top. Peek behind the curtain as you see the highs and lows from an insider perspective, on the roller coaster that is the startup life. What emerges is a lasting friendship, a billion-dollar company, and an understandable framework of success for you to replicate.


You'll learn:
● How to find the balance between your career and personal life.
● Why emotional awareness and critical thinking are as important as specialized knowledge.
● How to identify the real skills you need to build a Unicorn team. Birth of a Unicorn: Six Basic Steps to Success

Most of us remember exactly where we were when we found out about the terrorist attacks that took place on September 11th 2001. Whether you were at work, school or somewhere else, if you are over a certain age you probably remember exactly where you where when you heard what was happening. But not many people can say that they experienced the same fear and panic that Heather Wilde did that day.

You see, Heather's husband was, at that time, working as a pilot. That day, his flight plan had him soaring above the Twin Towers at exactly the time that they were first struck. Of course, upon learning the news of the terrorist attacks, Heather instantly panicked.

Because many communication lines were down that day, she spent most of the day attempting to get in touch with her husband before finally learning that he was safe and that his plane had been grounded. The relief that Heather felt soon changed to anxiety about her husband continuing to work as a pilot which eventually became depression.

Despite her husband leaving his job, Heather's depression remained and began to impact her work. However, after managing to climb out of this dark place, Heather went on to see great success in the tech start up industry which seems to be her calling. It is this journey about overcoming mental illness and marriage issues to go on to join a very successful start up called Evernote that Heather writes about in this memoir.

I found this book very inspiring and motivating. Heather Wilde is a very hard-working woman and it's obvious that she is most comfortable when she is creating something, whether it be a tech start up or otherwise. There is just no stopping her from creating new and exciting worlds!
Hardcover The idea behind the title for this book, 'Birth Of A Unicorn,' is that, in the tech start up industry, a 'Unicorn' is the moniker for any start up that reaches a value of $1 Billion. Heather Wilde has a lot of experience with 'unicorns' and a lot of experience with tech start up businesses in general.

Starting out working at one of the first online game companies in existence, Wilde went on to become one of the founding members of a security company called Corestreet. However, Wilde's husband, Leon soon tired of living in the cold, urban setting of Boston and the couple decided to move to Mexico.

Such a big move, to a place that she was unfamiliar with, was daunting all by itself, but even more concerning was the fact that Wilde and her husband would be living on a sailboat and sailing around the country. For many people, this would probably be the end of their career, but Wilde clearly loves the tech start up industry so much that she continued to look for new opportunities even while living in a place that was not very conducive to them.

However, she and her husband learned to live the laptop lifestyle and ended up being some of the first people to be brought on to a team for an app called Evernote, which is today an incredibly successful note-taking app. Wilde credits a lot of her success in the industry to careful preparation and planning and does not like to attribute anything to luck, an outlook that I admire in anyone writing a book like this.

This story is both a memoir and a self-help guide and one that I highly recommend picking up as your first opportunity. As the title states, this book is a unicorn in the publishing world! A joy to read and inspirational, too!
Hardcover *Reviewed for Netgalley*

With a title like 'Birth of a Unicorn' and 20 years inspiring business leaders to 'improve their communication, their organisation, and their execution'; I went into this guide with high expectations.

The opening chapter looked at the reality of life, the depressive spirals and sacrifices the author and her husband made along the way to their success. It's rapid-paced, more like a bullet-pointed list of anecdotes than a 'narrative', but it shows the audience who Heather Wilde is at her core. And how important her business is to her, and why. Which is important. Every entrepreneur I've ever met has a story, some struggle or reason that they get out of bed in the morning and go to work, and the reason is never 'because they want to.' Which makes BOAU relatable in the first instance, and informative in the second.

This looks at the principal of Uncertainty, and whilst I was expecting a more 'upbeat' style of writing (mainly from the title) what I got was an informative, interesting and inherently personal depiction of a business journey. I prefer business guides with something more actionable, but for those looking to motivate themselves, or even to understand that they're not alone in an industry that can feel isolating at times, this book hits the spot for that. Hardcover Building a life of success and happiness

Las Vegas, Nevada author Heather Wilde is the Certified Technology Officer of ROCeteer, a coach, a motivational speaker, a non-profit director, and oversees the development of software platforms in the US, Asia and the Middle East. Her works appear in Important periodicals while she also writes books – from children’s books (MORGANS CHRISTMAS WISH), to business advice: FUNDAMENTALS OF EVERNOTE, GROWTH HACKING 101, and now BIRTH OF A UNICORN. She enjoys the moniker ‘Unicorn Whisperer’ as she focuses on entrepreneurs, helping them to improve their communication, organization, and execution. Her background experience is in the gaming industry, aviation, healthcare and education and has received many significant awards for her accomplishments – and influences!

Among her significant accomplishments is her work at Evernote, a note-taking app that Heather built from a couple of thousand users to in excess of 225 million users, making Evernote the world’s most used note-taking app. It is that journey that this book shares – and from that well-related story the steps toward creating a startup company as well as guidance for ways to make an impact by positive changing life to embrace personal passions and purpose. While those words may seem like PR humbug, reading this superb book will convince every reader of their validity.

As Heather opens her book, she states, ‘Many fear the uncertainty of the future. The constant anxiety that many people feel is often rooted in fear: fear of the unknown. Not many people are willing to go or even take the first step on a path without knowing where they go or even how they will get there. Obtaining success and being happy is more comfortable to talk about than it is to achieve, for achieving those goals requires a journey…We need to get to that place where we can learn to accept all kinds of ambiguities and recognize that acceptance is a vital step in growth. Learning to accept uncertainty is the only logical thing we can do to enjoy life. The core of my coaching methods rests on six basic needs for humanity: uncertainty, significance, love/connection, growth, contribution, and certainty.’

Exploring each of Heather’s six needs opens the door to inspirational changes in attitude and vision and success. Proffered in one of the most supportive guides available today, this book is not only a fine guide for us all: it also makes the perfect gift for young people on the verge of discovering life’s possibilities! Highly recommended. Hardcover In the fall of 2001, two planes flew into the Twin Towers in New York City and the world was forever changed. I think everyone who was alive that day has a story about where they were when they discovered the news, but not many stories are as harrowing as Heather Wilde's.
You see, Wilde just happened to have a husband who was a pilot, and this husband just happened to be flying over Manhattan's air space at exactly 8:45 that morning. Thankfully, Wilde's husband was safe as his plane had been grounded that morning, but experiencing the shock and anxiety that came with spending most of the day thinking that her husband might be dead had an extremely negative effect on her.
She began to suffer from depression and her husband, Leon soon had to leave his job as Wilde suffered from anxiety, thinking that something terrible was going to happen to him. Though this was the type of setback that might completely devastate most of us, this was only the beginning of Wilde's strange and interesting journey that included several moves across country and different jobs all of which contributed to her overall view on life.
This is mainly an advice book, as Wilde dishes out wisdom in every chapter to go along with her theme of taking risks in life and not letting your anxiety control you. It is also a memoir.
These days, I think most of us are pretty ruled by our worries so this is exactly the kind of book that is greatly needed right now. In the end, Wilde ended up working for an up and coming app called Evernote that she managed to expand from only a few thousand users to over 200 million users worldwide, proving that success can come from all sorts of new places and opportunities! Hardcover