It isn’t hard to find a book written by successful entrepreneurs who share their stories of success and the principles anyone can follow to achieve their dreams. But it is incredibly hard to find a book that gives you the full picture of how they did it from day one, along with all the nitty gritty details that budding entrepreneurs and business professionals always wonder about. Undaunted by Kara Goldin, the founder of Hint, is one of those rare exceptions.

I love reading books by successful professionals and business moguls. It’s always fascinating and inspiring how, in many cases, they went from an idea to an empire.

Wow, how did they do it?

Unfortunately, more often than not they gloss over all of that and instead, relate pearls of wisdom they’ve picked up along their way. While that is certainly nice, it’s frustrating when they don’t give you the “how.” Certainly, a playbook isn’t required, but there’s got to be more than “I had an idea, I put a video on YouTube, and next thing you know I’m a millionaire.”

Moving on and upward, I want to share with you this common frustration because Undaunted is not one of those empty-promise books. It’s very dense with wisdom. While you’ll begin the book by journeying along with Goldin in her formative years, you’ll soon understand why she shares her hunger for learning and an authentic, and very bold, approach to networking. These are the foundations of her success. From there you’ll see how she relied on her valuable network for mentorship and guidance and to help her understand the methodology of building a successful business. But as much as her network supported her, the real success lay in trial, error, grit, determination and quite a bit of “kitchen science experimentation.”

Goldin shares that her mission for writing this book is to encourage those who have ideas but are stalled because of their doubts. Discouraged by naysayers, many entrepreneurs quit before they even get going. Goldin shares how she’s faced the same adversaries and real setbacks, but also found renewed fuel in books, research, and building a network of people that believe in her.  Undaunted also includes life lessons that are relevant in successful leadership, and yes, building a thriving business, including the importance of kindness, recognition, self-awareness and promoting a healthy culture.

I could go on and on about the applicable strategies outlined in Undaunted that are so rarely outlined for business dreamers and doers. But I would be remiss if I didn’t state how approachable Goldin is in her prose and personality. I would hazard to guess that if you, or I, chose to reach out and ask for advice, she would answer the call. Now that is the kind of ‘real’ leader who builds trust, while offering inspiration to anyone who believes they can truly make a difference in the world.

Image Courtesy Harper Collins Leadership