Book by Toms Shoes’ founder tries to ‘start something’

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If you’re a fan of the Toms Shoes brand, you might want to check out my review of ‘Start Something That Matters,’ a new book by the footwear company’s founder Blake Mycoskie, which appears in today’s Los Angeles Times.

Although the main thrust of the book is to lay out Mycoskie’s guidelines for starting a business with a meaningful -- i.e. charitable -- component (or grafting such a component onto an already existing business), the book -- which is a very fast-reading 189 pages -- is worth reading even if that’s not on your immediate to-do list, since it not only lays out how the early history of the company, but also answers Toms-related questions big (what inspired him, what some of the early, costly mistakes were) and small (like where the name ‘Toms Shoes’ came from).

‘Start Something That Matters,’ by Blake Mycoskie ($22, Spiegel & Grau, 2011)

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-- Adam Tschorn