Quench Your Own Thirst: Business Lessons Learned Over a Beer or Two

by Jim Koch Narrated by Jim Koch

Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER and named a 2016 Best Book of the Year by Inc., Business Insider, Forbes, and Amazon

Founder of The Boston Beer Company, brewer of Samuel Adams Boston Lager, and a key catalyst of the American craft beer revolution, Jim Koch offers his unique perspective when it comes to business, beer, and turning your passion into a successful company or career.

In 1984, it looked like an unwinnable David and Goliath struggle: one guy against the mammoth American beer industry. When others scoffed at Jim Koch's plan to leave his consulting job and start a brewery that would challenge American palates, he chose a nineteenth-century family recipe and launched Samuel Adams. Now one of America's leading craft breweries, Samuel Adams has redefined the way Americans think about beer and helped spur a craft beer revolution.

In Quench Your Own Thirst, Koch offers unprecedented insights into the whirlwind ride from scrappy start-up to thriving public company. His innovative business model and refreshingly frank stories offer counterintuitive lessons that you can apply to business and to life.

Koch covers everything from finding your own Yoda to his theory on how a piece of string can teach you the most important lesson you'll ever learn about business. He also has surprising advice on sales, marketing, hiring, and company culture. Koch's anecdotes, quirky musings, and bits of wisdom go far beyond brewing. A fun, engaging guide for building a career or launching a successful business based on your passions, Quench Your Own Thirst is the key to the ultimate dream: being successful while doing what you love.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

12/21/2015
Koch, founder of the Boston Beer Company and brewer of Samuel Adams beer, offers a worthy history of his company’s origins and the road to capturing a very respectable 1% of the American beer market. Koch was born into a family with five generations of brewers and became a successful management consultant. In 1984, he decided to resurrect the family brewing business using a recipe dating back to the 1860s. Within four years, the company was experiencing exponential growth. Koch both chronicles the company’s success and explores issues that many entrepreneurs wrestle with, including determining which kind of business to enter, and getting started once that decision is made. He recounts his struggles to get financing and find the right name; Liberty Tree, Sacred Cod, and Whipping Post were among the candidates before he finally settled on Samuel Adams. Other turning points include taking the company public, sustaining attacks from industry giants such as Anheuser-Busch, and handling the difficult departure of his founding partner, Rhonda Kallman. This is an engaging and well-written blend of stories from a beloved company’s founding and sound guidance on surmounting common dilemmas faced in business and in life. Agent: Jim Levine, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency. (Apr.)

From the Publisher

"Koch takes you into his confidence with an affable, gravelly voice, detailing lessons learned; frank stories of mistakes and failures; and thoughts on how a focus on quality, community, and innovation have propelled his work. You don’t have to be a hophead to glean insights, as Koch’s down-to-earth language, deadpan humor, and clear passion for beer help pull listeners in (his loving description of tasting the company’s signature Sam
Adams Boston Lager charmingly borders on the erotic). With short chapters and amusing anecdotes, this is an enjoyable listen for budding entrepreneurs, craft-brew drinkers, and anyone who enjoys learning the ins and outs of a unique industry." -Booklist

Kirkus Reviews

2016-02-28
The founder and brewer of Samuel Adams shares the story of Boston Beer Company, his business philosophy, and entrepreneurial tips. Today, craft beer is all the rage, but that wasn't the case in 1984, when Koch decided to quit his successful job as a management consultant to start the Boston Beer Company, which would become famous for Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Inspired by upstart San Francisco-based brewery Anchor Brewing, Koch set out to brew a high-quality, premium beverage that was basically nonexistent in the beer market at the time. In doing so, he became a pioneer of the craft, home-brew, and small-batch movements. However, Koch's desire to start a brewery was not a whim. He is a fifth-generation brewer, and the Samuel Adams recipe has been in the family since the 1860s. Invoking "the spirit of a tavern conversation," Koch's chatty prose is fun and jocular as he recounts the old days when he sold Samuel Adams by hand while touring Boston's bars and restaurants, giving impromptu taste tests and letting the quality of the beer do most of the talking. Koch does more than tell old war stories (a bar manager once pulled a gun on him during a cold call). He also shares nuggets of common-sense business wisdom, such as investing in the product over marketing, pursuing organic growth over growth at all costs, and setting challenging but attainable goals. Koch's wisdom is summed up in his koan: "No one climbs a mountain to get to the middle." As the brewery landed more accounts and sales increased domestically and abroad, it experienced all the growing pains of a budding business as Koch's once-ragtag organization quickly morphed into a more streamlined and professional operation. Always true to himself, the author's belief in Samuel Adams and the people around him is what makes his story and philosophy so genuine and endearing. Koch's down-to-earth personality, business advice, and passion are good models for those interested in making their own ways.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171866167
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	04/12/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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