Customer Reviews

The Guru Guide to Entrepreneurship: A Concise Guide to the Best Ideas from the World's Top Entrepreneurs

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Basically this book is a collection of quotes lifted from secondary sources. The authors then take them and write about entrepeneurship trying to extract the key concepts.
I was not excited about the purchase although I imagine if you have limited experience in this area, you will gain some benefit.
I am an active angel investor and previously ran companies in both the USA and England.

This is one of the most inspiring book I've read. It has been carefully presented in the most simplified form. Any would-be entrepreneur will definitely pick up something valuable from this book in their quest for success. With up to 70 world renowned entrpreneur as your Guru, nothing could possibily go wrong.

Buy and keep a copy close by, whenever you're feeling down or run out of ideas in your long and lonely journey to success, you need all the help and "lift" you could get and this is when the Gurus will come and save your day.

This is entrepreneur advice straight from the horses' mouths. In this case, the horses are 70 well-known entrepreneurs who reveal their success secrets on everything from identifying a good business concept to raising money, getting and keeping customers and managing people. Authors Joseph H. Boyett and Jimmie T. Boyett draw on material written by and about these start-up monarchs and end each chapter with a concise summary of the lessons that a reader should glean from their stories. In addition, they include a useful appendix with summary bios of each of the men and women cited or quoted in the book. We [...] invite budding entrepreneurs to enjoy this book while picking up some invaluable pointers, while more experienced businesspeople are encouraged to browse its pages and collect some dandy quotes to throw around the conference table.

The Boyetts provide one of the most informative books in which various prominent entrepreneurs ("gurus") share their experiences as well as their ideas. What sets this book apart from most others is the fact that, rather than use the interview format, the Boyetts organize their material within six thematic chapters: Should You Do It?, The Perfect Idea, Money Matters, getting Customers, Keeping Customers, and Managing People. As they explain in their Introduction, "You hold in your hand a digest of the best thinking about what it takes to start your own business and succeed, but we have designed this to be more than just a digest. It also provides you with a much needed cross-reference to the best thinking about the key issues in starting and running a business." That's true. It is also true that almost any other senior-level managers of well-established organizations (including global corporations) can also derive substantial benefit from such "best thinking." Consider these brief remarks by Jack Welch when explaining what GE can learn from entrepreneurial companies:

"For one, they communicate better. Without the din and prattle of bureaucracy, people listen as well as talk; and since there are fewer of them they generally know and understand each other. Second, small companies move faster. They know the penalties for hesitation in the marketplace. Third, in small companies, with fewer layers and less camouflage, the leaders show up very clearly on the screen. Their performance and its impact are clear to everyone. And, finally, smaller companies waste less. They spend less time in endless reviews and approvals and politics and paper drills. They have fewer people; therefore they can only do the important things. Their people are free to direct their energy and attention toward the marketplace rather than fighting bureaucracy."

These remarks are especially relevant to several of the "gurus" whom the Boyetts feature, including Paul Allen and Bill Gates, Mary Kay Ash, Jeffrey R. Bezos, Warren Buffett, Walt Disney, Wayne Huizenga, Steven Jobs, Herb Kelleher, Tom Monaghan, Ross Perot, Ted Turner, and Sam Walton...all of whom created multi-billion dollar global corporations with visionary and tenacious entrepreneurship. Those who share my regard for this book are urged to consult the "Select Bibliography" the Boyetts provide to which I presume to add Visionary Business (Marc Allen), Entrepreneur America (Rob Ryan), and Growing a Business (Paul Hawken).

I've read a number of the (auto)biographies of the Entrepreneurs mentioned in this book. This Guru guide summarised concisely the main points of each.

I didn't like this book very much. Hardly learn anything from the book except a bunch of famous persons name.