
Reviews Write New Review
Location
Booking Fee
Fee: $##,###Get Pricing
Virtual Fee: $##,###Get Pricing
[email protected]
Peter Sims
Entrepreneur & Best-selling Author; Known for "Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries"
Peter Sims is a best-selling author and the founder & CEO of BLK SHP, Inc. — a place and platform for making small bets, forging co-conspiracies, and building new ventures. He is also an Adviser at Google[x], The Moonshot Factory.
His book "Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries", was selected as a one of the six best advice books for entrepreneurs by the Wall Street Journal and as one of the best business books of the year by The Washington Post and Inc. Magazine. Sims coauthored the Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek best-seller "True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership" with Bill George, applying his learned product design and design thinking from Stanford's Institute of Design.
Sims co-founded FUSE corps, a platform considered the White House Fellowship for city government, contributing over 100,000 hours of public service annually. He was also part of the initial team that started Giving Tuesday, an international charity movement that raised over $1 billion for social good causes in 2018. His previous experience extends to venture capital, including the co-founding of Summit Partners’ European Office in London.
Sims is a graduate of Bowdoin College and Stanford Business School. He is the founder of the BLK SHP Foundation, a global community of creative misfits. As a leadership speaker, Sims shares stories and lessons on how people transform from good to great leaders, underlining the importance of leading oneself effectively, learning from personal failures and setbacks, and upholding values during times of economic turmoil.
As a sixth generation Northern Californian, his ancestors founded Gundlach Bundschu (GunBun), California's oldest family-owned winery, which is managed by his cousins today.
Speech Topics
Authentic Leadership
Based on the lessons learned from 125 of the worlds most-respected entrepreneurs and leaders profiled for TRUE NORTH: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, including Charles Schwab, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, CEO of Palm Inc. Donna Dubinsky, Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric, Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy, Andrea Jung CEO of Avon Products, and Narayana Murthy of Infosys. Themes include: overcoming life crucibles and setbacks, clarifying personal values and motivations, developing effective support structures, using your life story to motivate and inspire others, approaches for staying grounded, and personal leadership development plans.
Little Bets
What do Thomas Edison, Chris Rock, and Jeff Bezos all have in common?
Answer: An understanding that the biggest ideas spring forth from a series of small discoveries, reworked to achieve a great result.
Based on extensive research, including over 200 interviews with successful creators and innovators, Sims demonstrates that the kind of linear problem-solving and fear of failure we were conditioned to embrace actively thwarts creativity. Whether its Steve Jobs or architect Frank Gehry or the braintrust at Pixar, there is no complete plan or vision at the outset. Rather, through a process of trying and failing in incremental ways, they gain critical information as they go from one small, experimental step to the next which eventually lead to extraordinary breakthroughs. These so-called little bets helped spark the ideas that led to companies like Twitter and blockbuster movies like the Toy Story franchise. We can learn to think and work like those we think of as geniuses failing fast to learn quickly, trying imperfect ideas, focusing on finding problems rather than solving them, and practicing highly immersed observationto turn our own little bets into big successes.
Books
News
Related Speakers View all
![]() |
Mark C. Thompson
Bestselling Author, Venture Investor, Former Executi...
|
![]() |
Adrian Gostick
Founder of The Culture Works & Bestselling Author of...
|
![]() |
Dave Logan, PhD
Bestselling Author; Organizational Expert; Co-Founde...
|
|
Peter Sheahan
Founder & Group CEO of Karrikins Group, Innovative B...
|
![]() |
Michael Treacy
Entrepreneur & Corporate Strategy Expert, Best-Selli...
|
![]() |
Peter Diamandis
Founder & Executive Chairman of the XPRIZE Foundatio...
|
![]() |
Tony Alessandra
Marketing Professor, Entrepreneur, Behavioral Styles...
|
![]() |
Jon Bergmann
Pioneer of the Flipped Class Movement & Bestselling ...
|
![]() |
Josh Linkner
Authority on Innovation & Leadership, Serial Entrepr...
|
![]() |
Garrison Wynn
Comedian & Motivational Business Expert
|
|
Howard Putnam
Former CEO of Southwest Airlines
|
![]() |
Vince Poscente
Accelerating Growth Motivator, Olympian & New York T...
|
![]() |
David Goldsmith
Award-Winning Businessman, Consultant to Global Exec...
|
![]() |
Libby Gill
Leadership, Corporate Culture & Change Expert; Execu...
|
![]() |
Richard Florida
Leading Urbanist, Economist & Author of "The Rise of...
|
![]() |
Jim Cathcart
Motivational Speaker, Author, Executive Coach
|
![]() |
Marcus Buckingham
Performance Analyst; Best-selling Author; Two decade...
|
![]() |
John Wood
Founder of Room to Read, Author, Social Entrepreneur
|
![]() |
Robert Kriegel
Change Expert, Bestselling Author, Sports Psychologist
|
![]() |
Bill Rancic
"The Apprentice" Winner; Entrepreneur; Star of "Giul...
|