In this Author POV, we highlight Productive Difficulty, Joshua Waldron’s guide to deciding which hard things are actually worth doing. The book challenges the assumption that difficulty itself is proof that something has value.
Drawing on Waldron’s experience building and running companies, Productive Difficulty introduces seven criteria for distinguishing challenges that build lasting capability from effort that simply consumes time and energy. Written primarily for founders, operators, business owners, and other decision-makers, the framework can also be applied to career changes, personal goals, and other consequential choices.
Can you introduce your book for librarians who may be discovering it for the first time?
Productive Difficulty is a book about how to tell which hard things are worth doing. Most business books assume the answer is either “work harder” or “make it easier,” and neither one holds up. Plenty of hard things are just expensive, while plenty of easy things are easy because everyone is already doing them. The useful question is not whether something is hard, but what the hard returns.
The book gives readers seven criteria for answering that question. They separate what I call productive difficulty, the kind that builds capability and compounds into an advantage nobody can easily copy, from pointless suffering, the kind that costs you time and leaves you where you started. The two can feel identical while you’re in them, which is why people need a way to tell them apart before they commit.
I didn’t come to this from theory. I built a manufacturing company in a market few investors would touch, in a political climate that was hostile to it, and took it from a side project to the Inc. 500. Most of what worked came from deciding to do things competitors avoided because they were regulated, capital-intensive, or unglamorous. Most of what failed was hard work aimed in the wrong direction. The book is an honest account of both, and the framework is what I wish I’d had at the start.
It’s written for founders, operators, and anyone facing a decision they keep calling a bandwidth problem when it’s really a difficulty problem. Patrons who read business strategy will find it there, but it reads more like a letter than a textbook and is short enough to finish. It publishes September 26, 2026.
What inspired you to write this book, and what core themes do you hope readers take away from it?
The book started with a pattern I kept seeing in the founders I work with. They would come to me exhausted, running a company that was hard in every direction, and assume the exhaustion was proof they were doing it right. When we looked closer, most of the hard things on their plates weren’t building anything. They were just hard. Meanwhile, the one decision that could have changed the business often sat untouched because it was hard in a way that felt too expensive to start.
I recognized it because I had done the same thing. There’s a whole school of thought that says if it’s hard, go harder, but it rarely asks whether you’re running fast in the wrong direction. I spent years in that mode before realizing that the things that built my company were a relatively small number of difficult choices nobody else wanted to make, while much of the rest was effort that returned nothing but itself. I wanted to write down the difference, not as motivation, since there’s plenty of that on the shelf already, but as a working method someone could use on a Tuesday afternoon with a real decision in front of them.
The theme I most hope readers walk away with is that “Is this hard?” is a useless question. Everything worth having is hard, and so is not having it. Health is hard, and being unhealthy is hard. Building a company is hard, and watching one stagnate is hard. Since you’re going to pay either way, what matters is choosing which hard you pay for and choosing it on purpose.
Underneath that are two ideas I’d want any reader to keep. The first is that the right difficulty compounds. A price cut might give you a result that disappears next quarter; a capability you built in-house can continue creating value. The second is that a hard thing worth doing still teaches you something if it fails, which makes it easier to commit to intelligently. Once you can see those two things clearly, much of the fear around hard decisions goes away, and what’s left is the work.
What kind of readers or patrons do you see this book resonating with most?
The core reader is an adult who runs something: a founder, small business owner, operator, department head, or anyone who owns a decision and lives with the consequences. Most of the people I work with are between 35 and 55, mid-career, past the point where a pep talk helps and at the point where a better way to think helps a lot. Patrons who check out business strategy, leadership, and entrepreneurship titles are the natural fit, and the book also sits comfortably alongside titles on decision-making and career change.
It reaches wider than that because the framework isn’t specific to business. The seven criteria can be applied to any hard choice: a career move, a degree program, a move across the country, or a physical goal. Readers who pick up personal-development books because they’re facing something difficult and want a way to evaluate it, rather than simply a way to feel better about it, may find it useful.
I’d put the practical floor at college age. A 20-year-old deciding what to commit the next five years to is exactly the reader I’d hand it to. Younger readers can follow it, but the examples assume some experience with work and consequences. For collection purposes, it’s adult nonfiction spanning business and personal development, and it reads more like a well-written memoir than an academic text. There’s no jargon or workbook-style exercises, just stories and a method. Readers who liked Ryan Holiday’s Stoic titles or Cal Newport’s work on doing hard things well will recognize the territory.
What themes or discussion topics do you hope librarians highlight when recommending the book?
The first is the distinction the book is built on: productive difficulty versus pointless suffering. Every reader has both in their life right now, and most have never sorted them. If a librarian tells a patron this is a book that helps you figure out which of your hard things are worth it, that’s the whole pitch. It works for someone deciding about a business just as well as someone deciding about a career, a mortgage, or another major commitment.
The second is the idea that you don’t get to opt out of hard. Being healthy is hard, and so is being unhealthy. Starting the company is hard, and so is spending 20 years wondering whether you should have. Since the cost gets paid either way, the real question is which one you choose, and the book is about choosing deliberately.
The third is that easy is crowded. Everyone is optimizing for less friction, so difficult ground can become strategically valuable simply because fewer people are willing to stand on it. That’s the business argument readers are most likely to want to debate, which also makes it useful for discussion groups.
For a book club or discussion program, the question I’d put on the table is simple: What’s the hard thing you’ve been calling a bandwidth problem? Everyone in the room probably has one, and the seven criteria give people a way to talk about it without the conversation becoming confessional. The book also spends real time on failure, including mine, and on the idea that a hard thing chosen well can still teach you something when it doesn’t work. Groups that have discussed grit or resilience books before may find that a more honest angle because it doesn’t ask anyone to pretend the losses weren’t losses.
Are there any sensitive topics or content considerations librarians should be aware of?
One thing worth saying plainly is that the company at the center of the book’s business examples is SilencerCo, a firearms suppressor manufacturer I co-founded and ran. The book is not about guns and does not take a position on gun policy. It is about building a company in an industry that many investors and banks would not touch and in a difficult regulatory and political environment. That context is part of the story because it is part of what made the decisions difficult. Readers who are uncomfortable with the firearms industry may still find that the framework applies to them, but librarians should know the setting going in so nobody is surprised by it.
Beyond that, the book covers business failure, layoffs, and the personal cost of running a company under pressure, including effects on family and health. It’s told from the inside and doesn’t clean any of that up. There is no graphic content, sexual content, or violence. The tone is direct and occasionally blunt, in the way a founder might speak to another founder, but it is written for a general adult audience, and I would be comfortable with a teenager reading it.
If your book were part of a library display, what topics, themes, or comparable titles would you pair it with?
The obvious home is a display on decision-making and doing hard things well. It sits naturally next to Ben Horowitz’s The Hard Thing About Hard Things, which is probably the closest cousin in spirit: a founder writing honestly about the decisions nobody prepares you for. Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle Is the Way and Cal Newport’s So Good They Can’t Ignore You cover neighboring ground from the philosophical and career sides. Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Antifragile is a heavier read, but its idea that some things become stronger under stress overlaps with what my book tries to make practical.
If a librarian wants a contrast, Angela Duckworth’s Grit pairs well because my book is partly an argument with it: persistence is only a virtue if you’ve picked the right thing to persist at. For a founder or entrepreneurship display, I’d place it alongside honest founder stories and strategy books such as Shoe Dog by Phil Knight and Zero to One by Peter Thiel.
It also works in a New Year or fresh-start display alongside Atomic Habits and books on career change, because it addresses a question many people are asking in January: Which of the hard things in front of me is actually worth doing? For libraries that run programming around local business or Small Business Month, it can also serve as an anchor title, since many of the examples involve building a physical business in an environment where doing so was unusually difficult.
Are there companion resources librarians or educators should know about?
The main companion is HardIsFun.com, where the book lives alongside the rest of my work. It’s also where librarians can reach me directly, and I answer my own email within a couple of business days.
I’m available for library programming and speak regularly to founder and operator groups. I’m happy to participate in author talks, small-business programs, or book discussions, either in person around Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic or virtually anywhere. For discussion groups, I can supply a short reading guide built around the seven criteria, and I’m also happy to join a session by video for the final 20 minutes to take questions. Bulk copies for programming are available through me at a discount.
Productive Difficulty is the first of three planned books. Hard Is Fun follows on January 27, 2027 and is the fuller book, covering the worldview behind the framework and the stories that shaped it. A young adult edition of Hard Is Fun is planned for around May 2027 for teen readers choosing what they want to commit to for the first time. Librarians who order this book will therefore have a natural follow-up for the same patrons a few months later, while the YA edition offers an entry point for teen collections.
Which formats are currently available?
Productive Difficulty is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook. The hardcover is 278 pages, measures 6 x 9 inches, has an ISBN of 979-8900576220, and carries a list price of $24.99. The paperback ISBN is 979-8900576213, and the Kindle edition has the ASIN B0HFG15W3P.
All three formats publish September 26, 2026, although the paperback is already available. There is no audiobook, large-print, bilingual, or classroom edition at this time. The young adult edition planned for spring 2027 is being written with classroom and library use in mind.
The book is currently being listed with IngramSpark and will be orderable through standard library wholesalers. Until then, libraries can order directly from me at jw@joshuawaldron.com. Bulk pricing is available for library programming, book clubs, schools, and community groups.
How could this book be used in community events or themed programming throughout the year?
I’ll be straightforward about the fit: this isn’t a book for heritage or identity-month programming, and I’d rather librarians not stretch it to fit one. Where it works is in programming built around decisions, work, entrepreneurship, career transitions, and starting over.
January is the obvious opportunity. New Year programming is full of patrons making resolutions they may abandon by March, and the book offers a way to identify the one difficult thing worth keeping instead of five easy ones worth dropping. A “Choose Your Hard” discussion in the first few weeks of the year fits the book well.
National Small Business Week in May and National Entrepreneurship Month in November are natural homes for the business side. Libraries that run programs for local business owners, host SCORE or Small Business Development Center sessions, or partner with a chamber of commerce could use the book as an anchor for a founder panel or workshop on the seven criteria. I’m happy to join those in person or virtually.
Veterans Day in November is another program I would especially like to see. I work with transitioning Navy SEALs through an incubator that helps them start companies, and many of the questions the book addresses are the same ones they’re asking: what to build, how to distinguish a worthwhile challenge from a pointless one, and how to start again in civilian life without a map. A program for veterans considering business ownership fits both the book and my experience.
Graduation season in May and June also works for the career-development angle, and National Manufacturing Day in October suits libraries in industrial communities because many of the book’s examples involve building something physical. More broadly, any career-change or “What’s next?” programming is home territory. The reader who has just been laid off, retired, or realized the job is no longer the life they want is just as much the reader I wrote this for.
Do you offer author engagement options for schools or libraries?
Yes. I speak to founder and operator groups regularly, and library and school programming is something I want to do more of now that the book is out. I’m open to most formats: virtual author talks or Q&As, in-person talks or panels, book-club visits where I join the discussion, or working sessions based on the seven criteria where people bring a real decision and leave with a clearer way to evaluate it.
For schools, the young adult edition arriving in spring 2027 will be the strongest fit for classroom visits, but I’m also happy to speak with high school or college students about the current book, particularly in programs centered on entrepreneurship, careers, or life after graduation.
In-person events are easiest around Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic, where I live, and in Utah, where I’m from and return often. Virtual visits work anywhere. For libraries and schools, virtual Q&As are offered at no charge. For in-person events, we can work out something appropriate based on distance and format. Librarians can contact me at jw@joshuawaldron.com, and I generally respond within two business days.
Is there anything else you would like librarians, teachers, or educators to know about your work?
Mostly that I’m not a professional author. I’ve spent my career building and running companies, and I wrote this book because the founders and operators I work with kept needing something I couldn’t hand them. That means the book is a working tool from someone still doing the work, and it also means I’m reachable. If a librarian, teacher, or patron writes to me with a question about the book or a difficult decision they’re weighing, they’ll get an answer from me, not from an assistant.
The second thing is that this is a book about hard things written by someone who has had a few. I spent time in a wheelchair as a teenager and was told what I wouldn’t do again, and I later built a company that many people said couldn’t be built. I don’t say that to sell the book. I say it because the people who may most need a book like this are often the ones who wouldn’t automatically pick up a business title. Someone starting over after an injury, a layoff, or a failure is just as much the reader as the founder with a decision sitting on his desk.
I’m also independently published, which means a librarian’s recommendation carries more weight for this book than it might for one with a large marketing department behind it. I don’t take that lightly. If you shelve it, run a program around it, or hand it to one patron who needed it, I’d genuinely like to hear about it.
To learn more about Joshua Waldron, Productive Difficulty, companion materials, bulk ordering, and author programming, visit HardIsFun.com.
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