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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
From the annals of FadCompany magazine...,
By A Customer
This review is from: Daring Visionaries: How Entrepreneurs Build Companies, Inspire Allegiance, and Create Wealth (Hardcover)
No disrespect intended, but I happened to have worked for one of the "daring visionaries" profiled in this book. And from my own observations, it must be said that all too often, in a quest to package and glamourize "madcap" or "wild and crazy" startup cultures and their leaders, authors such as Mr. Smilor quietly ignore the potential liabilities of this style of entrepreneurship.Put simply, it is all too easy to confuse impulsivity and extroversion for "visionary" leadership- simply because the theatre of wild displays of energy and risktaking are by their nature dramatic and impactful. But building and growing a great company is not a performance art. And the personality given to such behaviors may as easily be simply an improvisional actor portraying the role of a crazed and daring entrepreneur. It should not come as a surprise to anyone that a talent for such antics isn't a guarantee of anything- especially true leadership skills. From my own experience, the manic charisma of our leader was complimented with a mercurial and frequently even self-destructive personality. Charismatic leaders often are men or women of character- and I don't mean to imply anything to the contrary. Mr. Smilor makes other points beyond his glamorization of nutty dreamers, and I do not disagree with much of the rest of his book. But to anyone who would take from this book the author's suggestion that "the wild and crazy things you do to enhance culture form the mythology of the company" I would add simply this. If the mythology of your company isn't the truth of your company, your company is engaged in delusion (at best) and deception (at worst).
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From The Innovation Road Map Magazine,
By
This review is from: Daring Visionaries: How Entrepreneurs Build Companies, Inspire Allegiance, and Create Wealth (Hardcover)
If you are entrepreneur, aspiring to be an entrepreneur or an employee in a company being driven to be more entrepreneurial, this is the book for you. It is chunked into small chapters, easy to read and full of wisdom gained from years of study and experience. Ray Smilor is one of the premier researchers, thinkers and advocates for entrepreneurship not only in the U.S. but the world.When I read a book, I do what people tell you not to do. I dog-ear the pages I think contain valuable insights or important facts. This book has probably a third of its 250 pages dog-eared. Smilor writes, "The American economy of free agency reflects Charles Dickens's famous opening line in A Tale of Two Cities, "These are the best of times; these are the worst of times." For workers, we have a tale of two economies - the big-company economy and the entrepreneurial economy. On the one hand, many workers are experiencing enormous dislocation. Traditional values of job security, seniority, and loyalty have been jarred by demands for flexibility, productivity, and performance. Driven by international competitiveness, innovative labor eliminating technologies, requirements for new kinds of skills and more decentralized, autonomous team approaches to getting the job done, large corporations have dramatically cut employees, changed reward systems, and altered management structures. In other words, they are trying to become more entrepreneurial." Like it or not, we will all likely be asked to operate more entrepreneurially regardless of our profession. Smilor offers his sage advice and analysis in six sections - The Soul of the Entrepreneur, Secrets of Entrepreneurial Success, Skills of Entrepreneurs, Experience of Entrepreneurship, Managing the Dark Side and Social Impact of Entrepreneurship - and 50 chapters. In the foreword, Guy Kawasaki, CEO of Garage.com, writes, "This book is about evangelists and revolutionaries - those daring souls who envision a better world, blaze new trails in business, and upset the status quo...I've come to the conclusion that all successful entrepreneurs have the elements of both within them." Ray Smilor comments, "...each of us owns our own dreams. These dreams give purpose to our lives. A sausage manufacturer in Kansas City beams when talking about the quality and taste of his sausage; a software developer in Austin, Texas, radiates when describing her product; and a young designer of CD-ROMs in San Diego glows when showing off his latest innovation." "George Bernard Shaw provides the essential insight into one's purpose. He said, "This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mightily one." writes Smilor. But it's more than a dream; there is responsibility. "Ownership, however is a two way street. Those who own have the responsibility to perform. Fulfillment and actualization of dreams come only with performance and achievement." If you're interested in dreaming and then actualizing your dreams, this is a good book for you. Entrepreneurship is a journey. Like the hero's journey described by Campbell, the searcher learns that it is the journey not the destination that teaches about life.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Skim it First, then Memorize it Last,
By
This review is from: Daring Visionaries: How Entrepreneurs Build Companies, Inspire Allegiance, and Create Wealth (Hardcover)
When I ordered this book, I was intrigued about statement given by a reviewer explaining how "enterpreneurship is a subset of management." I also had the mind-set that reading this book was going to be a total waste of time. I got prepared to read a motivational book that would not go beyond my short-term memory.Entrepreneurs are a special breed. I agree that anyone with the desire, training and savvy can accomplish anything once the person is committed to it. Entrepreneurs are leaders, managers, learners and followers. Leadership and management are subsets of entrepreneurship. Mr. Smilor was correct when he admonished the dean at a leading business school. Schools today are only teaching students what they ought to know when they should also be training students on what to do! Entrepreneurs inspire people, create wealth and improve society in America. These are just a few of the many topics covered in short, but very concise chapters. May I offer a suggestion for the entrepreneur who is just getting started or for the burned-out entrepreneur who has been in the trenches too long (that's me!). Skim the book like the first class taken in a post-graduate degree program. Make this book the first step in the long and winding process. I can assure you that many issues covered will not be fully absorbed the first time. Then, before presenting the start-up to investors, carefully review the book again, as the last step, to make sure you covered all the bases. You will get a new outlook and gain an entirely new appreciation for this book. One final point. It demands total commitment and takes the ultimate sacrifice to be an entrepreneur. It is a gut-wrenching experience...
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