Get Your Venture Backed With Persuasive Data Viz

Download Get Your Venture Backed With Persuasive Data Viz full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Get Your Venture Backed With Persuasive Data Viz ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Get Your Venture Backed with Persuasive Data Viz

Author : Scott Berinato
Publisher : Harvard Business Press
ISBN 13 : 1633697320
Total Pages : 689 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (336 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Get Your Venture Backed with Persuasive Data Viz by : Scott Berinato

Download or read book Get Your Venture Backed with Persuasive Data Viz written by Scott Berinato and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 689 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communicating your idea in a clear, compelling, and persuasive manner is critical when trying to launch a new venture. This Harvard Business Review collection brings together two popular books to help you craft your story, design better visualizations, impress your audience, and turn your idea into reality. Understanding and using data viz to persuade is a must-have skill for anyone in business today--especially if you're launching a new venture. In Good Charts, dataviz maven Scott Berinato provides an essential guide to how visualization works. Berinato lays out a system for thinking visually and building better charts through a process of talking, sketching, and prototyping. How do you launch the venture of your dreams? In Get Backed, entrepreneurs Evan Baehr and Evan Loomis argue that it's not just about securing startup funding. It's about building the right relationships, crafting a compelling story, and creating the perfect pitch deck. Filled with proven tips, exercises, and templates, this book shows the process for how to successfully communicate your vision. Good Charts will help you turn plain, uninspiring charts that merely present information into smart, effective visualizations that powerfully convey ideas. Get Backed will show you exactly what it takes to get funded and will give you the tools to launch a new venture. Together, these books will help you bring your idea to life.

Get Backed

Author : Evan Baehr
Publisher : Harvard Business Review Press
ISBN 13 : 1633690733
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (336 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Get Backed by : Evan Baehr

Download or read book Get Backed written by Evan Baehr and published by Harvard Business Review Press. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Anyone who comes to pitch on Shark Tank should read this book first!” —Barbara Corcoran, ABC's Shark Tank “I have seen literally thousands of companies trying to raise capital and know that a great pitch deck is critical. This book gives you the playbook for creating yours.” —Naval Ravikant, cofounder and CEO, AngelList “I raised twice the amount of money I set out to in a mere five weeks. I’m naming my firstborn child after the Evans.” —Slava Menn, cofounder and CEO, Fortified Bicycle HOW DO YOU LAUNCH THE VENTURE OF YOUR DREAMS? Get Backed isn’t just about startup fundraising. It’s a handbook for anyone who has an idea and needs to build relationships to get it off the ground. Over the last 3 years, entrepreneurs Evan Loomis and Evan Baehr have raised $45 million for their own ventures, including the second largest round on the fundraising platform AngelList. In Get Backed, they show you exactly what they and dozens of others did to raise money—even the mistakes they made—while sharing the secrets of the world’s best storytellers, fundraisers, and startup accelerators. They’ll also teach you how to use “the friendship loop”, a step-by-step process that can be used to initiate and build relationships with anyone, from investors to potential cofounders. And, most of all, they’ll help you create a pitch deck, building on the real-life examples of 15 ventures that have raised over $150 million. What’s in the book? • The original pitch decks and fundraising strategies of 15 ventures that raised over $150 million • Email scripts that will get you a meeting with angel investors, venture capitalists, and potential board members • Pitching exercises developed by startup talent beds like Stanford University’s d.school and Techstars • A breakdown of the 10 essential pitch deck slides, how to create them, and what questions you should answer with each • An overview of the 5 main funding sources for startups, the pros and cons of each, and who the big players are • A crash-course in visual and presentation design that will make any deck beautiful • Templates for 4 stories every entrepreneur should know how to tell • The story of one entrepreneur who showed up in Silicon Valley with no network and six months later had investments from Fred Anderson, Bono, and Peter Thiel Get Backed will show you exactly what it takes to get funded and will give you the tools to make any idea a reality.

Funded

Author : Katherine Hague
Publisher : "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN 13 : 1491940239
Total Pages : 173 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (919 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Funded by : Katherine Hague

Download or read book Funded written by Katherine Hague and published by "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". This book was released on 2016-09-21 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The venture capital world is often intimidating and hard to navigate, even for the most seasoned entrepreneurs. But it doesn’t have to be. Entrepreneurs who run effective fundraising processes don’t do it by accident. With this book, you’ll learn what it takes to successfully raise a round of funding for your company. Author Katherine Hague explains how the venture capital industry works, and walks you through each step necessary to plan, execute, and optimize your own fundraising round. Packed full of exercises, checklists, and templates, this book guides you through the process from start to finish. It’s ideal for entrepreneurs raising later rounds of capital, as well as those just starting out. Gain an understanding of core venture capital concepts and standards Learn how to develop and hone an investor pitch Come away with a plan to hit the fundraising trail for your company Develop the confidence you need to negotiate key terms in a funding deal Understand best practices in fundraising, and learn how to avoid the top 10 fundraising mistakes

Get Backed

Author : Evan Baehr
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (112 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Get Backed by : Evan Baehr

Download or read book Get Backed written by Evan Baehr and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: HOW DO YOU LAUNCH THE VENTURE OF YOUR DREAMS? "Get Backed" isn't just about startup fundraising. It's a handbook for anyone who has an idea and needs to build relationships to get it off the ground. Over the last 3 years, entrepreneurs Evan Loomis and Evan Baehr have raised $45 million for their own ventures, including the second largest round on the fundraising platform AngelList. In "Get Backed", they show you exactly what they and dozens of others did to raise money--even the mistakes they made--while sharing the secrets of the world's best storytellers, fundraisers, and startup accelerators. They'll also teach you how to use "the friendship loop", a step-by-step process that can be used to initiate and build relationships with anyone, from investors to potential cofounders. And, most of all, they'll help you create a pitch deck, building on the real-life examples of 15 ventures that have raised over $150 million. What's in the book?: The original pitch decks and fundraising strategies of 15 ventures that raised over $150 million; Email scripts that will get you a meeting with angel investors, venture capitalists, and potential board members; Pitching exercises developed by startup talent beds like Stanford University's d.school and Techstars; A breakdown of the 10 essential pitch deck slides, how to create them, and what questions you should answer with each; An overview of the 5 main funding sources for startups, the pros and cons of each, and who the big players are; A crash-course in visual and presentation design that will make any deck beautiful; Templates for 4 stories every entrepreneur should know how to tell; The story of one entrepreneur who showed up in Silicon Valley with no network and six months later had investments from Fred Anderson, Bono, and Peter Thiel. "Get Backed" will show you exactly what it takes to get funded and will give you the tools to make any idea a reality.

Resonate

Author : Nancy Duarte
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1118008936
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (18 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Resonate by : Nancy Duarte

Download or read book Resonate written by Nancy Duarte and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-07-02 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals the underlying story form of all great presentations that will not only create impact, but will move people to action Presentations are meant to inform, inspire, and persuade audiences. So why then do so many audiences leave feeling like they've wasted their time? All too often, presentations don't resonate with the audience and move them to transformative action. Just as the author's first book helped presenters become visual communicators, Resonate helps you make a strong connection with your audience and lead them to purposeful action. The author's approach is simple: building a presentation today is a bit like writing a documentary. Using this approach, you'll convey your content with passion, persuasion, and impact. Author has a proven track record, including having created the slides in Al Gore's Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth Focuses on content development methodologies that are not only fundamental but will move people to action Upends the usual paradigm by making the audience the hero and the presenter the mentor Shows how to use story techniques of conflict and resolution Presentations don't have to be boring ordeals. You can make them fun, exciting, and full of meaning. Leave your audiences energized and ready to take action with Resonate.

Good Charts

Author : Scott Berinato
Publisher : Harvard Business Review Press
ISBN 13 : 1633690717
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (336 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Good Charts by : Scott Berinato

Download or read book Good Charts written by Scott Berinato and published by Harvard Business Review Press. This book was released on 2016-04-26 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dataviz—the new language of business A good visualization can communicate the nature and potential impact of information and ideas more powerfully than any other form of communication. For a long time “dataviz” was left to specialists—data scientists and professional designers. No longer. A new generation of tools and massive amounts of available data make it easy for anyone to create visualizations that communicate ideas far more effectively than generic spreadsheet charts ever could. What’s more, building good charts is quickly becoming a need-to-have skill for managers. If you’re not doing it, other managers are, and they’re getting noticed for it and getting credit for contributing to your company’s success. In Good Charts, dataviz maven Scott Berinato provides an essential guide to how visualization works and how to use this new language to impress and persuade. Dataviz today is where spreadsheets and word processors were in the early 1980s—on the cusp of changing how we work. Berinato lays out a system for thinking visually and building better charts through a process of talking, sketching, and prototyping. This book is much more than a set of static rules for making visualizations. It taps into both well-established and cutting-edge research in visual perception and neuroscience, as well as the emerging field of visualization science, to explore why good charts (and bad ones) create “feelings behind our eyes.” Along the way, Berinato also includes many engaging vignettes of dataviz pros, illustrating the ideas in practice. Good Charts will help you turn plain, uninspiring charts that merely present information into smart, effective visualizations that powerfully convey ideas.

Data Visualization Made Simple

Author : Kristen Sosulski
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 135138077X
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (513 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Data Visualization Made Simple by : Kristen Sosulski

Download or read book Data Visualization Made Simple written by Kristen Sosulski and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-09-27 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Data Visualization Made Simple is a practical guide to the fundamentals, strategies, and real-world cases for data visualization, an essential skill required in today’s information-rich world. With foundations rooted in statistics, psychology, and computer science, data visualization offers practitioners in almost every field a coherent way to share findings from original research, big data, learning analytics, and more. In nine appealing chapters, the book: examines the role of data graphics in decision-making, sharing information, sparking discussions, and inspiring future research; scrutinizes data graphics, deliberates on the messages they convey, and looks at options for design visualization; and includes cases and interviews to provide a contemporary view of how data graphics are used by professionals across industries Both novices and seasoned designers in education, business, and other areas can use this book’s effective, linear process to develop data visualization literacy and promote exploratory, inquiry-based approaches to visualization problems.

Computerworld

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 96 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Computerworld by :

Download or read book Computerworld written by and published by . This book was released on 1999-10-11 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than 40 years, Computerworld has been the leading source of technology news and information for IT influencers worldwide. Computerworld's award-winning Web site (Computerworld.com), twice-monthly publication, focused conference series and custom research form the hub of the world's largest global IT media network.

Everyday Business Storytelling

Author : Janine Kurnoff
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1119704669
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (197 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Everyday Business Storytelling by : Janine Kurnoff

Download or read book Everyday Business Storytelling written by Janine Kurnoff and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-02-17 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A practical, easy-to-use guide to transform business communications into memorable narratives that drive conversations—and your career—forward In Everyday Business Storytelling: Create, Simplify, and Adapt A Visual Narrative for Any Audience, visual communication and storytelling experts Janine Kurnoff and Lee Lazarus leverage decades of experience helping executives at the world's top brands—including Colgage-Palmolive, Nestlé, T-Mobile, Medtronic and Meta—bring clarity and meaning to their business communications. Whether you're building a presentation, crafting a high-stakes email, or need to influence the conversation in your next meeting with an executive, or have to communicate with data, Everyday Business Storytelling offers an insightful exploration of how to develop compelling business narratives that meet diverse audience needs. You'll discover how to use a simple, repeatable framework to transform your ideas, data, and insights into an authentic, persuasive story. Within this professional development book, you'll also find clever data visualization and visual display techniques to help humanize your stories and build an audience connection, leading to improved presentation skills and better data literacy. Whether you're looking to enhance your executive presence, align teams, become an expert at converting data analysis into data insights, or want to communicate change and influence audiences, Everyday Business Storytelling is for you. Everyday Business Storytelling is an indispensable guide to making your communications stick in the minds of your audience and drive change. It enables you to display confidence and communicate with clarity regardless of how complex your message is. If you're a busy, talented businessperson looking for tactics to improve your executive presentations, one-pagers, emails, or virtual meetings, this communication book is for you.

Illuminate

Author : Nancy Duarte
Publisher : Portfolio
ISBN 13 : 1101980168
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (19 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Illuminate by : Nancy Duarte

Download or read book Illuminate written by Nancy Duarte and published by Portfolio. This book was released on 2016-02-16 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Illuminate' demonstrates how, though the power of persuasive communication, one can turn an idea into a movement, as compared with the likes of Steve Jobs, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Starbucks, IBM, and more.

How to Develop Entrepreneurial Graduates, Ideas and Ventures

Author : Penaluna, Kath
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1789909023
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (899 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis How to Develop Entrepreneurial Graduates, Ideas and Ventures by : Penaluna, Kath

Download or read book How to Develop Entrepreneurial Graduates, Ideas and Ventures written by Penaluna, Kath and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2022-07-22 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charged with developing learning, teaching and assessment practices that go beyond delivering discipline-specific subject knowledge, the demands on entrepreneurial educators have increased in recent decades. This guide will help educators develop more entrepreneurial graduates by demonstrating how they can equip learners with key competencies such as team working, creativity, problem solving, and opportunity recognition.

Graphic Discovery

Author : Howard Wainer
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691134057
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Graphic Discovery by : Howard Wainer

Download or read book Graphic Discovery written by Howard Wainer and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2007-10-21 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Good graphs make complex problems clear. From the weather forecast to the Dow Jones average, graphs are so ubiquitous today that it is hard to imagine a world without them. Yet they are a modern invention. This book is the first to comprehensively plot humankind's fascinating efforts to visualize data, from a key seventeenth-century precursor--England's plague-driven initiative to register vital statistics--right up to the latest advances. In a highly readable, richly illustrated story of invention and inventor that mixes science and politics, intrigue and scandal, revolution and shopping, Howard Wainer validates Thoreau's observation that circumstantial evidence can be quite convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk. The story really begins with the eighteenth-century origins of the art, logic, and methods of data display, which emerged, full-grown, in William Playfair's landmark 1786 trade atlas of England and Wales. The remarkable Scot singlehandedly popularized the atheoretical plotting of data to reveal suggestive patterns--an achievement that foretold the graphic explosion of the nineteenth century, with atlases published across the observational sciences as the language of science moved from words to pictures. Next come succinct chapters illustrating the uses and abuses of this marvelous invention more recently, from a murder trial in Connecticut to the Vietnam War's effect on college admissions. Finally Wainer examines the great twentieth-century polymath John Wilder Tukey's vision of future graphic displays and the resultant methods--methods poised to help us make sense of the torrent of data in our information-laden world.

HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations

Author : Nancy Duarte
Publisher : Harvard Business Press
ISBN 13 : 1422187101
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (221 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations by : Nancy Duarte

Download or read book HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations written by Nancy Duarte and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Terrified of speaking in front of a group> Or simply looking to polish your skills? No matter where you are on the spectrum, this guide will give you the confidence and the tools you need to get results. Learn how to wIn over tough crows, organize a coherent narrative, create powerful messages and visuals, connect with and engage your audience, show people why your ideas matter to them, and strike the right tone, in any situation.

Beautiful Data

Author : Toby Segaran
Publisher : "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN 13 : 144937929X
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (493 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Beautiful Data by : Toby Segaran

Download or read book Beautiful Data written by Toby Segaran and published by "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". This book was released on 2009-07-14 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this insightful book, you'll learn from the best data practitioners in the field just how wide-ranging -- and beautiful -- working with data can be. Join 39 contributors as they explain how they developed simple and elegant solutions on projects ranging from the Mars lander to a Radiohead video. With Beautiful Data, you will: Explore the opportunities and challenges involved in working with the vast number of datasets made available by the Web Learn how to visualize trends in urban crime, using maps and data mashups Discover the challenges of designing a data processing system that works within the constraints of space travel Learn how crowdsourcing and transparency have combined to advance the state of drug research Understand how new data can automatically trigger alerts when it matches or overlaps pre-existing data Learn about the massive infrastructure required to create, capture, and process DNA data That's only small sample of what you'll find in Beautiful Data. For anyone who handles data, this is a truly fascinating book. Contributors include: Nathan Yau Jonathan Follett and Matt Holm J.M. Hughes Raghu Ramakrishnan, Brian Cooper, and Utkarsh Srivastava Jeff Hammerbacher Jason Dykes and Jo Wood Jeff Jonas and Lisa Sokol Jud Valeski Alon Halevy and Jayant Madhavan Aaron Koblin with Valdean Klump Michal Migurski Jeff Heer Coco Krumme Peter Norvig Matt Wood and Ben Blackburne Jean-Claude Bradley, Rajarshi Guha, Andrew Lang, Pierre Lindenbaum, Cameron Neylon, Antony Williams, and Egon Willighagen Lukas Biewald and Brendan O'Connor Hadley Wickham, Deborah Swayne, and David Poole Andrew Gelman, Jonathan P. Kastellec, and Yair Ghitza Toby Segaran

The Harvard Business Review Good Charts Collection

Author : Scott Berinato
Publisher : Harvard Business Press
ISBN 13 : 1633697304
Total Pages : 664 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (336 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Harvard Business Review Good Charts Collection by : Scott Berinato

Download or read book The Harvard Business Review Good Charts Collection written by Scott Berinato and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2019-01-29 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A good visualization can communicate the nature and potential impact of ideas more powerfully than any other form of communication. For a long time, "dataviz" was left to specialists--data scientists and professional designers. No longer. A new generation of tools and massive amounts of available data make it easy for anyone to create visualizations that communicate ideas far more effectively than generic spreadsheet charts ever could. The Harvard Business Review Good Charts Collection brings together two popular books to help you become more sophisticated in understanding and using dataviz to communicate your ideas and advance your career. In Good Charts, dataviz maven and Harvard Business Review editor Scott Berinato provides an essential guide to how visualization works and how to use this new language to impress and persuade. He lays out a system for thinking visually and building better charts through a process of talking, sketching, and prototyping. In Good Charts Workbook, Berinato extends the usefulness of Good Charts by putting theory into practice. He leads readers step-by-step through several example datasets and basic charts, providing space to practice the Good Charts talk-sketch-prototype process for improving those charts. Examples include a "Discussion Key" showing how to approach the challenge and why. Each challenge focuses on a different, common visualization problem such as simplification, storytelling, creating conceptual charts, and many others. The Harvard Business Review Good Charts Collection is your go-to resource for turning plain, uninspiring charts that merely present information into smart, effective visualizations that powerfully convey ideas.

Public Policy Writing That Matters

Author : David Chrisinger
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 1421442337
Total Pages : 233 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (214 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Public Policy Writing That Matters by : David Chrisinger

Download or read book Public Policy Writing That Matters written by David Chrisinger and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thoroughly updated and expanded guide to honing your public policy writing skills—and making a significant impact on the world. Winner of the George Orwell Award by the National Council of Teachers of English Professionals across a variety of disciplines need to write about public policy in a manner that inspires action and genuine change. You may have amazing ideas about how to improve the world, but if you aren't able to communicate these ideas well, they simply won't become a reality. In Public Policy Writing That Matters, communications expert David Chrisinger, who directs the Harris Writing Program at the University of Chicago and worked in the US Government Accountability Office for a decade, argues that public policy writing is most persuasive when it tells clear, concrete stories about people doing things. Combining helpful hints and cautionary tales with writing exercises and excerpts from sample policy analysis, Chrisinger teaches readers to craft concise, story-driven pieces that exceed the stylistic requirements and limitations of traditional policy writing. Aimed at helping students and professionals overcome their default impulses to merely "explain," this book reveals proven tips—tested in the real world and in the classroom—for writing sophisticated policy analysis that is also easy to understand. For anyone interested in planning, organizing, developing, writing, and revising accessible public policy, Chrisinger offers a step-by-step guide that covers everything from the most effective use of data visualization to the best ways to write a sentence, from the ideal moment for adding a compelling anecdote to advice on using facts to strengthen an argument. This second edition addresses the current political climate and touches on policy changes that have occurred since the book was originally published. A vital tool for any policy writer or analyst, Public Policy Writing That Matters is a book for everyone passionate about using writing to effect real and lasting change.

America's Bilingual Century

Author : Steve Leveen
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781733937559
Total Pages : 528 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (375 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis America's Bilingual Century by : Steve Leveen

Download or read book America's Bilingual Century written by Steve Leveen and published by . This book was released on 2021-01-04 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can Americans make our country stronger, kinder, smarter? By marshaling our enviable can-do ethic and learning another language. We can do it, no matter what our age: author Steve Leveen chose Spanish as his adopted language in midlife. America's Bilingual Century is filled with tips for learning a language, some mechanical--like changing your phone and laptop settings to your adopted language--and some philosophical. For instance, start by having a place in your life where you'll use the language, Steve says. The "where" makes the "how" more attainable. And recognize that, as with any adoption, you do it for love, and for life--so don't fret when you're not fluent in five months. If you have kids, start them young. You'll be glad you did when you read about the explosive growth of dual language schools across the country and the significant, measurable advantages they give our young people. Steve also takes us to the top summer language immersion camps, for both children and adults. And he shares his findings from leading language scholars, teachers, sociolinguists, app creators, and bilinguals of all stripes that he discovered during his dozen years of research. Then he topples 12 myths about Americans and languages that no longer hold in this century. Like thinking the whole world speaks English (it doesn't), that being monolingual is natural (it isn't), and that Americans suck at language (quite the opposite, as he demonstrates). Here and now in the 21st century, America is embracing its many ethnic and cultural heritages. How natural, then, that we enfold the many languages that these heritages thrive on as part of that quintessentially American pursuit of happiness. If you've never thought of bilingualism as being a patriotic act, America's Bilingual Century may persuade you otherwise. Knowing a second language changes the way we perceive the world, and the way the world perceives us. "English is what unites us," Steve says. "Our other languages are what define and strengthen us." And even if becoming bilingual leans more toward aspiration than arrival, that's okay. The journey is as rewarding as the destination.