Ambition
The book shows the theme of ambition through Travis Kalanick. Born with all the right advantages to succeed in life, he goes on to do just that. From the very beginning of his career, he was interested in starting a company of his own. After a couple of failed attempts, he is provided with an opportunity to accomplish all his ambitions through Uber. Despite his obsession with the rise and grind culture, the exploitation of employees by calling them super pumped, his ambition was the main reason for Uber’s initial success.
Wealthy from the start
It is clear that both Travis Kalanick and Garret Camp came from money. Before they ventured out into Uber, both of them already had various failed and successful attempts of company startup. It goes to show that the more money you have from the start, the more opportunities to fail and eventually succeed you have. Even at the conclusion of the book, Kalanick’s demise from Uber, he was left to comfort his sadness with billions of dollars gained from its success, and an opportunity to venture into new waters.
A pyramid of corruption
The book shows Kalanick’s intentional lenience within the company. The corruption and misconduct of managers over various areas was overlooked, and a blind eye was turned to sexual assault cases. All this is within Kalanick’s term of being super pumped. Forming a pyramid, those with higher powers within the company had the green light to exploit and abuse those beneath them, creating a vicious cycle which was bound to lead to the company’s demise.
