The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions [Hardcover]

Gurbaksh Chahal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 23, 2008

Gurbaksh Chahal started the Internet advertising company ClickAgents from his bedroom at the age of 16, having emigrated to the United States with his Sikh family from the small town of Tarn Taran, India. He dropped out of high school to pursue the venture full-time, and two years later sold ClickAgents for $40 million, making him one of the youngest self-made millionaires in history and allowing him and his entire family to realize their dreams. Chahal went on to become the youngest executive of a multi-billion dollar NASDAQ-listed company, and then sold his second company, BlueLithium, to Yahoo! for $300 million, turning many of his employees into multi-millionaires as well.

In The Dream, Chahal’s refreshing advice for entrepreneurs encourages them to embrace risk and to carve out new niches in the marketplace. He emphasizes the value of good business timing: how to execute an idea and get it to the marketplace, how to create and maintain solid business relationships, how to stay grounded, and—most importantly—how to teach yourself that failure is not an option. Chahal’s story not only shows how a 16-year-old immigrant overcame discrimination and adversity to fulfill his highest ambitions, but also provides aspiring entrepreneurs with valuable hands-on advice on how to achieve success.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"While success like his is often attributed to luck, Chahal's story, like that of many immigrants, is more one of sacrifice ... it was years of hard work, persistence and faith, along with the support of his family, that brought his financial rewards--not chance."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Chahal is a prodigy, a successful entrepreneur, and a writer. His story is remarkable and we think it is a prime example of what can be accomplished with a little motivation and ingenuity. Young Hollywood wants to know what this young man can’t do!"--Young Hollywood

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Gurbaksh Chahal is an internet business entrepreneur and self-made multi-millionaire. By the age of twenty-five, Chahal had created, built, and sold two companies for more than $340 million, and is currently laying the foundations for a third company. He is featured on the new prime-time network show The Secret Millionaire (FOX air date December 2008), is developing several other television shows, and in the beginning stages of building a non-profit called the Chahal Foundation. He lives in San Francisco.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (October 23, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0230610951
• ISBN-13: 978-0230610958
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #398,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

G was born in the town of Tarn Taran, near Amritsar in Punjab, India to Avtar and Arjinder Chahal. In 1985, his parents received a visa for America through a lottery-based system in India, and the following year, when he was four, the family settled in San Jose, California. His parents had arrived with only $25 to their name, and they struggled at menial jobs to make a future for their four children.

For the Chahal family, as for many immigrants, education was paramount.
However, at the age of 16, Gurbaksh dropped out of high school to pursue a dream as an entrepreneur and started his first company, ClickAgents. It was one of the first ad networks focused around performance based advertising. Eighteen months later, he sold it for $40 million to ValueClick.

In January 2004, Gurbaksh founded his second company, BlueLithium, this time with an insight into sophisticated new ways that data, optimization and analytics could help Web advertisers with behavioral targeting. BlueLithium was named one of the top 100 private companies in America for three years in a row by AlwaysOn, and in 2006, it joined Google, Skype and Salesforce.com in being named Innovator of the Year. In 2007, Yahoo acquired BlueLithium for $300 million in cash.

At 28, Gurbaksh is already leading his third start-up, RadiumOne. RadiumOne is the first Real Time Bidding (RTB) enabled display audience network with social and mobile capabilities.

Through its proprietary and patent-pending "Social Retargeting" technology, RadiumOne allows companies to take advantage of the ever-increasing amount of "social" data on the Internet to zero in on the consumers most likely to be receptive to their messages. This helps not only companies, since they can make efficient use of limited Web advertising budgets, but also potential customers, since they are presented with messages more relevant to their needs. RadiumOne is headquartered in San Francisco, and is funded by several prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalists. Satellite offices are in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and London.

On April 2010, Chahal was awarded the Leaders In Management Award and an Honorary Doctorate degree in Commercial Science from Pace University in 2010 in recognition for his career achievements as an entrepreneur. Much of that story Chahal himself told in his international best-selling book, "The Dream."

Gurbaksh's successes as an entrepreneur has also been noted in The New York Times, Entrepreneur magazine, Forbes and BusinessWeek. He has also been profiled on Oprah Winfrey Show, Bonnie Hunt and EXTRA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, October 29, 2008

By 

Resolute - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions (Hardcover)

I really like this book. I can relate to the struggles to become independent from my parents, and the difficulty in accepting who I am and how different I am from a lot of people. I like some of the lessons, especially on the importance of knowing your DNA, and working on your strengths. I do computer programming so reading about his story was also really nice for me to see some of the ways a businessman/salesman thinks. This was an easy and good read as well.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice book with universal lessons all entrepreneurs either learn before they start a company or as they start it., November 16, 2008

By 

Jeff Lippincott "JLIPPIN" (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions (Hardcover)

I liked this book. It is another of those business books written by an entrepreneur who made a lot of money by creating a company or two and then wrote a book explaining how he did it and what he learned a long the way. There were 7 chapters.

The author's story was interesting. At least I found it to be. But I would have liked the book better if the author had expanded on his Chapter 7 that covered "The Lessons of Entrepreneurship." I group those lessons below in five different categories as follows:

I. LEADERSHIP SKILLS
>>Do your homework
>>Never compromise your morality
>>Watch your back
>>Own your mistakes
>>Don't expect perfection, but strive for it
>>Be fearless
>>Pick your battles
II. PEOPLE SKILLS
>>Perception is reality
>>Learn to listen
>>Adjust your attitude
>>Grow a thick skin
>>Forget noble motivations
>>Be nice to people on the way up
III. TIME MANAGEMENT
>>Don't procrastinate
>>Don't do anything by half measures
>>Expect the unexpected
IV. BUSINESS SKILLS
>>Never lose sight of the competition
>>Trust your gut
>>Listen to your heart
>>Don't get emotional
>>Be frugal
V. OPERATIONS
>>Always negotiate from a position of strength
>>Hire the smartest people you can find
>>When it comes to staffing your company, don't be frugal
>>Figure out what you are good at

If you are young and a want-be entrepreneur, then I recommend you consider giving this book a read. The author was young when he started his entrepreneurial journey. And the numerous lessons he cites in the book and I cite above are definitely important lessons one should learn preferably before, but maybe during, their journey to starting a company.

You may not make as much money starting and selling your first company as the author did. But the lessons he talks about are universal. 4 stars!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Story! Dreams do come true..., October 24, 2008

By 

Isolent Mink (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions (Hardcover)

What a great story! It's wonderful to read about someone living the American dream. From immigrating from India as a child to dropping out of high school to becoming a self-made millionaire while still a teenager, Gurbaksh's story is inspiring and motivational, as well as an excellent read.