"The hard thing about hard things: Building a business when there are no easy answers." by Ben Horowitz.
Great book that goes into great detail on the highs and lows of starting a business and how to run it. Pretty much cemented the idea that I will never start a business.
Link below:
https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0...
Ben Horowitz wrote a decent book about the endless difficulties of start-ups and business in general [1]. It's not so much strictly failure-learn focused (eg learning from the results of a failed start-up), as it is challenge-overcome focused (eg working your way through the never ending beating that is doing a start-up).
>>"I also recall somebody (pg?) saying something to the effect of "the most important thing in founding a startup is managing your own emotional state". "
Horowitz in "the hard thing about hard things" has a chapter called "the most difficult CEO skill". Starts with:
"By far the most difficult skill I learned as CEO was the ability to manage my own psychology."
Great book that goes into great detail on the highs and lows of starting a business and how to run it. Pretty much cemented the idea that I will never start a business.
Link below: https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0...
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0...
Horowitz in "the hard thing about hard things" has a chapter called "the most difficult CEO skill". Starts with:
"By far the most difficult skill I learned as CEO was the ability to manage my own psychology."
Something about the Ninety-ninety rule seems appropriate here:
https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Silicon-Adventure-Jerry-Kapla...
This history of Go computing.
and Ben Horowitz The hard thing about hard things.
https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0...
Both do a very good job of bringing the reader into the chaotic environment that occurs when startups are in trouble and both have a very similar message. When startups get in trouble having very powerful investors and mentors can make a huge difference.
Uber has some very influential backers. See:
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/uber/investors
If/When times get tough, they have people who have a vested interest in seeing them succeed. People who can get them talking to the correct people at the car manufacturers to convince them to use Uber's platform over an internally created one.
If self driving laws drag on many years before they are settled then Uber may be fucked in the end but there isn't any reason why they can't be a cash printing machine over the next 10- 20 years while self driving cars replace humans.
As to car companies cutting out uber, there is this.....
http://qz.com/688003/ubers-self-driving-cars-are-on-the-road...
The book is not focused on failures, but it's full of really good advices on what to do when a company is moving into disaster.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Hard-Thing-About-Things/dp/0062273...