Customer Reviews

Lucky Or Smart?: Fifty Pages for the First-Time Entrepreneur

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I read Lucky or Smart after receiving a recommendation from a very creditable source. However, it was a great disappointment, and in my opinion, a waste of money. $13.95 (as per the inside cover of the book) for 58 pages that delivered little value.

Bo Peabody may himself be both lucky and smart for founding and selling a low revenue-no profit generating internet company during the internet bubble; I hope you are lucky enough to read this review and then smart enough to avoid purchasing his book. My brief summary of the lessons from the book follows:

Chapter 1: Start a company that is innovative, morally compelling and philosophically positive; this will attract smart, motivated people that will do great things because they are smart and motivated (Enron aside)
Chapter 2: you are born an entrepreneur or a manager - accept who you are because you cannot change
Chapter 3: entrepreneurs are B students, managers are A students - unfortunately I was a B student in high school and an A student in college, something the author does not address
Chapter 4: strive to be good enough to survive; if you do you will be bought by a company that can make you great; but don't be great on your own or you will not survive
Chapter 5: have faith
Chapter 6: don't take no for an answer
Chapter 7: entrepreneurs don't have power - "get used to it"
Chapter 8: stay calm and be gracious in difficult situations
Chapter 9: read the WSJ daily, the NY times on Sunday and pick one other reputable weekly or monthly business magazine - and don't read any other form of press
Chapter 10: always sell
Chapter 11: know what you don't know

after reading the above there is no reason for you to purchase the book unless you want to know more about Bo Peabody or the companies he founded. That is all there is, except for a number of tangentially related stories that involve Bo and his limited experiences in the business world (I say this because he was in his early thirties when this book was written).

Instead of reading Lucky or Smart I would highly recommend the Richest Man in Babylon or Rich Dad Poor Dad.

I enjoy reading stories about entrepreneurs and the (sometimes) crazy stuff they do. Bo Peabody is a crazy and, might I add, highly entertaining, entrepreneur. Bo made wads of cash selling his internet company Tripod at the height of the bubble. He was in his mid 20s.

"Lucky or Smart" is a small book, in length no greater than a weekend NY Times magazine article. The tone is positive, irreverant, and homely. There is some classic diatribe. For example, in talking about the corrosive effects of Blackberry's on the concentration span of executives nowadays, he recommends that smart entrepreneurs send them to competitors to rob them of their power of thought (p45). Sad but very likely true.

Bo sees the business world as made up of A-students and B-students, the former being primarily managers, the latter entrepreneurs. Each plays a very important role in a new venture. There is a symbiotic relationship between the two, with the B-students pushing the envelope, selling, and ignoring accepted wisdom in search of new frontiers, while the A-students refine and focus based on the view in the rear-view mirror.

There isn't a lot in the way of inspiration or guidance but Bo shows us that you can be lucky or you can be smart, and a truly smart person realizes when she's getting lucky and capitalizes on it.

If you enjoyed "Dot Con" by John Cassidy, "Dot Bomb" by J. David Kuo, or "A Good Hard Kick in the Ass" by Rob Adams, you might enjoy Bo's book.

It seems that whenever you are looking for deep insights into some aspect of business someone will say, "There is this great little book called ..."

"Think and Grow Rich", "Richest Man in Babylon", and the "One Minute Manager" all fall into the category of "A great little book..."

The beauty of little books is that the author has managed to buck the economics of publishing (which values books by page count and size) and has focused clearly on one topic. This clarity is priceless and hard to find.

Bo Peabody has created another in a list of "Great little books..." He clearly paints a picture of the kind of person who should be an entrepreneur and the things that person needs to focus on and learn.

The book makes its points well and has compelling stories that illustrate the ideas. It has a frank view of the mystique of the entrepreneur and the way that ego can destroy our companies.

It's a great little book!

My profile: 42 yo Sales Engineer.

I must admit this is an audiobook that is extremely enjoyable to listen in the road for it tells a story much fascinating with unsual characters and an insiders story on the internet bubble, but other than that, what can I do to learn something? Just realize that I have to be smart enogh to know when Im being Lucky??

Yes, he does point out a basic distintion between managers and enterpreneurs, and the recognition that both must co-exist to make a biz flourish.. yet at the end of the day, there is a message of fatalism.. he asserts either you are or you are not an enterpreneur and there is nothing much you can do about that.
He rode on the wave of free advertising when the inetrenet boom thought all their enterpreneurs were free living young spirits.. he did sell his stock of a Co that NEVER made profits..its this the way to go???

As I said.. its very enjoyable to listen to.. but I did not find much to do for myself afterward.

If you spent the latter part of the '90s working with brilliant, slightly unhinged tech wizards with a disdain for footwear and an even greater disdain for being "managed," then you'll love this book. Or if you spent the '90s trying to decide which brilliant, slightly unhinged dot com ideas you should fund, then you'll love this book. Even if you spent the 90s working on your stamp collection, this book is a very funny look at the inner workings of a small company, with words of wisdom, wit and inspiration that extend way beyond the dot com era.

This was truly one of the best business books I have read in ages. It was filled with humor and timeless truths which are communicated from a very personal perspective. It is this perspective which allows the reader to immediately identify with the message.

The good Mr. Peabody has struck gold many times in his professional career...he has allowed us a glimpse into the personality traits, and the pysche, which have allowed him to take advantage of these opportunties.

It was just fantastic...hysterical, yet the messages never lost in the comedic presentation. Every entrepeneur from 15 to 60 needs to read this piece...it reads like a very funny Aesop's fable for the business world.

This book is useless. I'm so surprised others gave it four stars. The author just got lucky with his timing and he inflated the valuation of his company by posing as a slacker CEO while in reality he was working 100 hour work weeks.

Then he was smart because he cashed out instead of going IPO because in his own words, he knew that the company was "all hat, no cattle". Then he took his money invested it in other companies that he "started" through his venture capital company. He actually doesn't talk about any of those operations so one wonders if he considers investing the same as starting a company.

Personally I wasn't looking for someone's luck story. I wanted "secrets to an entrepreneurial life" as the cover claims and what I really wanted was information that I could implement in the next company I start. This didn't teach me any. It was like reading an article in some bad paper, like USA Today, just longer.

If you want an autobiography of a random lucky guy, this is the book for you. If you want to make your business more successful without lying to the press or being someone you aren't, read Adrian Slywotzky. He can tell you some real entrepreneurial secrets that you can apply to your business.

This small book from the founder of Tripod is worth the hour it will take you to read it. Peabody was a `B' student and suggests that successful entrepreneurs are almost always `B' students: good at lots of things, experts at none. To compensate, `B' student entrepreneurs need to hire `A' student managers (and coders and VPs), who are excellent a one or two things, to successfully take a startup to maturity. This revelation is not rocket science, and not an entirely new concept either, but it is very interesting to hear how this strategy played out for Peabody and Tripod.

Even though he made millions, Peabody does not boast or make the silly claim--like many Internet millionaires--to have known all along that he was destined for greatness. In fact he is quite humble: he readily admits he was making a lot of his business strategy up as he went along, and that with Tripod, it could have just as easily gone the other way and ended in failure.

The three salient lessons from this very short memoir of an entrepreneur: work very hard, hire the right people, and be smart enough to know when you are getting lucky.

I picked up this book on the recommendation a client. Mr. Peabody tells good stories and lays out some straightforward facts. In many ways, it's a nifty little autobiography with some useful nuggets of information.

The advice he gives is mainly for Type-A personality entrepreneurs; Risk-taking, project-starting individuals whose main focus is getting product out the door so their effort can be called a success.

For anyone who does not fit that mold, this book is not necessarily speaking to you. However, even if its not directed at you, you'll still gain some insight into why people like Peabody behave and think the way they do.

What I liked most:
-- Always sell. As the person at the top of the organization, always sell.
-- Recognize which role is naturally in you: Entrepreneur, or Manager, and then excel in that role.
-- Know what you don't know. Don't try to buffalo your way through things. To me this is part of being intellectually honest.

What could have been better:
-- I do agree that striving for "good" will be what gets a company off the ground, but that's the end of the road for the entrepreneur on that project anyway. After the entrepreneur moves on to other challenges, the company he leaves behind needs to press forward and strive to be great. That part needed more value ascribed to it.
-- Peabody talks a lot about selling at the entrepreneurial level, but never touches on the mechanics of developing a strategy for it. It may be instinctive to him, but it would have been nice to have him explain a more functional approach.

I liked the book. Quick read. Some good nuggets. Just not enough of them in the right places.

I suppose Peabody followed his own advice: He wrote a good book, not a great one.

This is one of the best business books I've ever read. It conveys highly insightful, meaningful ideas in a remarkably concise and common-sense way. No droaning on with complex business models or contrived new management theories. Peabody simply shares his views of what makes a successful entrepreneur and manager, and the importance of understanding the value of diverse personalities and skill sets. The ideas it contains are motivating, entertaining and invaluable. I've purchased several copies for colleagues. I highly recommend it.