Idea Man cover art

Idea Man

A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Idea Man

By: Paul Allen
Narrated by: Sean Runnette
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

By his early 30s, Paul Allen was a world-famous billionaire - and that was just the beginning.

In 2007 and 2008, Time named Paul Allen, the cofounder of Microsoft, one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Since he made his fortune, his impact has been felt in science, technology, business, medicine, sports, music, and philanthropy. His passion, curiosity, and intellectual rigor - combined with the resources to launch and support new initiatives - have literally changed the world.

In 2009 Allen discovered that he had lymphoma, lending urgency to his desire to share his story for the first time. In this classic memoir, Allen explains how he has solved problems, what he's learned from his many endeavors - both the triumphs and the failures - and his compelling vision for the future. He reflects candidly on an extraordinary life.

The book also features previously untold stories about everything from the true origins of Microsoft to Allen's role in the dawn of private space travel (with SpaceShipOne) and in discoveries at the frontiers of brain science. With honesty, humor, and insight, Allen tells the story of a life of ideas made real.

©2011 Paul Allen (P)2011 Penguin Business Business Development & Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship Professionals & Academics Science & Technology Technology Memoir Witty Software Artificial Intelligence Biography Computer Science Software Development

Listeners also enjoyed...

 No Better Time cover art
Disrupting the Game cover art
Shoe Dog cover art
They Made America cover art
Doom Guy cover art
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different cover art
Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings cover art
Even This I Get to Experience cover art
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution cover art
Never Lost Again cover art
Raw cover art
Up Close and All In cover art
A Very Public Offering cover art
Concorde cover art
Defying Reality cover art
The Friendly Orange Glow cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Paul Allen was a great man in his field who also contributed so much in many other areas, too. This is his well-narrated story of how he rose to such great heights alongside Bill Gates at Microsoft, as well as achievements elsewhere. This is a
really nice audio book which I enjoyed. He will be greatly missed.

A great man

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I came to this book anticipating most of it to be about Microsoft, the subject I got the book for. I wanted a perspective on its start from the other co - founder. This was engrossing as Mr Allen kept diaries so had great detail of the very early days programming late at night but it skimmed over fairly quickly his involvement in the company's latter days as he grew apart from Bill Gates.

The second half of the book I didn't know what to expect as I didn't know about Paul Allen's other interests and achievements. The starting chapters to this second half, post the big topic of Microsoft, about sports ownership failed to grab me much but the chapters on music, the mind (the ultimate computer has he says), space flight, the start of cable internet and exploration by yacht went together very well. These were equally engrossing and showed what Paul Allen's many other legacies were that had developed from his post Microsoft business investments.

If you just came to this book about Microsoft you will really like its start up story but please hang around for the bigger picture of a private but engaging man.

Much more than just microsoft

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent, loved it, RIP Paul Allen. Software is eating the world now and many have benefited from their rise.

i could not stop listening

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There were too frequent technical names of the hardware, which shadows the storyline sometimes. Too many times 'I' instead of 'we', and at some stages it felt that he wasn't happy with his fortune :/ God bless him.

Pessimistic at points

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.