The Book
Build Anyway
A Business Owner's Guide to Leading Through Technology You Don't Fully Understand
By Jeff Gipson
About the Book
What you'll find inside
This is not a technology book. It's about something harder than learning technology. It's about leading through technology you don't fully understand — and doing it anyway.
Because that's what business ownership actually looks like most of the time. You're not the expert in the room. You're the person responsible for the room. And right now, if you own a business of any size, you are being asked to make decisions about artificial intelligence, about automation, about software — and you probably feel at least a little bit like Jeff did after his very first sales call: Oh crap. Now we actually have to build something.
The difference between the business owners who figure it out and the ones who don't isn't technical knowledge. It's the willingness to say yes before you're ready — and then go figure out how to make it true.
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Download Free AudiobookSoon“Readiness is not a feeling you arrive at before you start. It's a feeling you develop by starting.”
— Jeff Gipson, Build Anyway — Chapter Five
Why This Book
What this means for you
For business owners who feel behind
100% of companies believe AI is the future of their business. Only 5% are doing anything about it. This book is for the other 95%.
Real stories, real numbers
Not theory — a welder who built a million-dollar web company, sold it, and now leads AI product development. Every chapter is a real story with a real lesson.
A mindset that works
Steadfast. Immovable. Always abounding. Three principles that describe every builder Jeff has ever respected — regardless of their background or industry.
Table of Contents
Chapter by chapter
- Foreword
Steadfast, Immovable, Always Abounding
The three principles — steadfast, immovable, always abounding — that have functioned as an operating philosophy through every hard thing Jeff has built.
- Introduction
Now We Actually Have to Build Something
Jeff made his very first sales call to sell a website. He sold it — $9,600, first call. Then he had to figure out how to build one. He never had before.
- Chapter One
Building Is Building
From the welding shop to the blank screen: building is building. The tools change. The principles don't. You don't need a technical background — you need the mentality.
- Chapter Two
Failing Forward (Eight Times)
RogIQ was rebuilt from scratch eight times. The lesson: planning matters more than building. Clarity is the skill. Not coding. Clarity.
- Chapter Three
Benchmarking the Competition (Then Selling to Them)
Recruiters Websites spent ten years studying Haley Marketing Group as the benchmark — then Jeff sold his company to them. Know where you want to land before you start moving.
- Chapter Four
A Million Lines of Code
A million lines of code. Nearly 8,000 commits. The honest story of what building something real actually costs — professionally and in real life.
- Chapter Five
The Bad Blog Post That Changed Everything
In spring 2023, Jeff opened ChatGPT for the first time. The blog post was awful. It was also the most exciting thing he'd seen in years. Forty hours later, he had a prototype nobody knew he was building.
- Chapter Six
The New Standard
The standard has moved. Not slightly — fundamentally. AI-assisted development is its own skill. When you interview developers, ask how they use AI in their workflow. The answer will tell you everything.
- Chapter Seven
Fifteen Hours vs. Two Years
Jeff's team rebuilt a chatbot in fifteen hours that the traditional approach had spent nearly two years failing to deliver. You don't have to build it — you have to lead it.
- Closing
Figure Out What's Impossible. Then Do It.
Back to the welding shop, back to his father's phrase, and forward to the one thing Jeff wants you to do when you close this book: start.
Figure out what's impossible.
Then do it.
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