Surfboard
The Surfboard is Dan Kieran's account of a week he spent in Cornwall building a seven-foot surfboard, even though he had never surfed a day in his life. He did this at a time when he felt he had reached his personal and professional limits: he needed to find a way to break through.
Interspersed with the story of making the board – the intricate craft he had to learn, and the clarity of mind that came with that challenge – are the reflections on the obstacles, rewards and realisations he encountered while starting and running a successful business.
This startlingly honest book is a finely crafted meditation on the importance of making things for their own sake and pushing beyond our preconceived limitations.
Dan Kieran, described as a 'true disruptor' by Richard Branson, is the co-founder and CEO of Unbound.com, the award-winning crowdfunding publishing platform that brings authors and readers together, and the publisher of this book. He is the author of twelve books, including the Sunday Times bestseller Crap Towns (the first viral internet phenomenon to turn into a bestselling book), The Idle Traveller (the bestselling Slow Travel: Die Kunst des Reisens in Germany) and Three Men in a Float (the story of his journey across England in a 1957 electric milk float). A travel writer for the Guardian, The Times, the Telegraph and Die Zeit, he also gives talks and workshops on raising money, entrepreneurship and how to have ideas.
@dan_kieran