Customer Reviews

The One Minute Entrepreneur: The Secret to Creating and Sustaining a Successful Business

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Compared to some of his previous books this one really disappoints. The story is told as a hokey narrative (as is Blanchard's style) of the hapless protagonist as he struggles to start his career in sales and then start his own business. It quickly dissolves into a shameless ad for a half dozen or so motivational speakers and fellow authors. Very little meat on the bone. Each chapter ends with a list of a few folksy hints and tips our hero learns, but they are often not well developed or supported in the story and add little to this boring shallow book. Pass on this one. For a good getting started in business story with better take-aways read Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace by Ricardo Semler.

The stories in this dreadful One Minute tome are told in a way that isn't realistic. People don't just don't speak like the characters in this weak, so-called helpful book for entrepreneurs do.

But nevermind that.

I read The One Minute Manager 14 years ago and I recall enjoying it and coming away with a couple of pointers. Maybe I was not only younger but more easily impressed then. If you must read this hokey book, and you find it as boring and unhelpful as I found it, then at least save yourself some time and skip to the end of each chapter where you'll find such gems of advice as "Ambition is the fuel that can drive life-changing events." Or, "If nobody will pay you to do what you love, you have a hobby, not a career." I kept waiting for there to be something better, but it didn't come.

Just watch the video above. I think it speaks for itself. The author's trying really hard to sell you on this unhelpful book.

This book is about Common Sense 101: work hard, keep the cash flowing, strive for balance in your life, and treat others with respect.

Maybe All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten would be more apt of a guide. I'd follow one point of advice from that book regarding 1-minute Entrepreneur:

Flush.

I understand that this is supposed to be a "parable," but I find the characters one-dimensional and difficult to identify with. There is a traditional, conservative thread running throughout the book -- Jud is very, very much a down-home, clean-cut type. He marries (of course), has two children (of course), and ends up creating a corporate culture that includes the typical terminology we're all so sick of -- "contact with the customer" is relabeled as "moments of truth," the company's philosophy is centered around some acrostic of the words "I CARE," and so on.

I couldn't quite finish this book, short though it was. There were some pieces of wisdom that may or may not be obvious ("play to your passion," "listen to others," "don't be afraid to ask for help"), but overall, I found the characters and story to be too flat and smarmy to endure. The book seems to be a poor approximation of life. I like the fact that the authors made an attempt to put their advice into context by forming a story around it, but the entire book is unrealistic.

Jud and Terri are not like real people. I couldn't identify with them. The whole adventure reads like a "family-values" sitcom written by conservative businessmen.

Fables can be an effective way to communicate if the fable is based on something that everyone can relate to. If you make a living getting paid thousands of dollars for speaking just a few minutes, you'll really relate to this book. Oh, you don't do that? I guess the fable won't work as well if you run a pizza shop, clean drains, or sell bicycles.

The book's second problem is that the authors are trying to cram in too much information. The One Minute Manager had three points in it. This book has dozens. As a result, you get lots of lists that you won't quite understand unless you've read all the other books referenced here.

If you want to be an entrepreneur, my advice would be to skip this book and read something about what someone has done in your line of business that's not being duplicated near where you are. You'll understand that kind of book much better, and you'll get more benefit from your reading.

I think that the wonderful Ken Blanchard is spreading himself too thin if he thought this was a well-done book that would help millions of entrepreneurs.

I've read and learned from other books in the "One Minute" series, but this book was pure drivel. The entire book revolves around simple, common-sense concepts any entrepreneur better already know - make more money than you spend, treat your customers well, don't abuse your employees...

In the world this book was created in, everybody wants to help, be on your advisory board, donate money, mentor you, etc, and totally for free (including the time to talk with you, be on your board, fly to your office at their own expense...). It's pretty rare for any of that to come in the real world without a steep price tag.

I remember their advice on open-book finances being a quickly passing fad 15 years ago or so. If you're having financial problems, don't count on your employees to care as much about the business as you do. For the most part, employees care about their paycheques, not about your bottom line. Yes, you can be careful with your screening process and get some good employees, but people are more worried about their own problems, not yours. Nothing is as simple as this book would lead you to believe.

There is nothing practical about the advice in this book. Nothing in the book will help you start a business from scratch. Go read The One Minute Salesperson instead.

I agree with the other one-star reviews - Blanchard's "one minute manager" was a fantastic book - a completely new way of managing presented in a thoughtful, concise manner. His other books (Gung Ho, Raving Fans, etc.) are also well done, so I was VERY dissapointed with this text. The characters are hokey, and the "plot" is very cliche. Additionally this book does not add anything to the body of material that is out there regarding entreprenrship. The tagline "The secret to creating and maintianing a successful business" is much better illustrated through Tim Ferriss' "The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich".

What you're getting: A silly parable with some self-help bullets tacked-up on the end of each chapter.

This is the One-Minute formula, so on the one hand, no surprise there. You don't buy the One-Minute-Hot-Workplace-Topic-of-the-Week expecting leading edge knowledge or even profundity. You're buying a pick-me-up. A quick, feel-good read in hopes of gaining 1-2 takeaways.

This fails to meet even those low-expectations.

The story--aside from being ridiculously irrelevant to planet earth entrepreneurs--is poorly written. Horrible. The only thing the characters inspired in me was the urge to give Jud McCarley (the protagonist) a wedgie.

And, as for those signature distilled points of wisdom? You'd swear they were taken from the discard pile of a 1950's Reader's Digest draft. Nothing more than tired, recycled, and randomly applied self-help cliches. Half of them aren't even particularly relevant to entrepreneurism.


The pro? It's a short book.

A pleasant book to read as it conveys ideas and teachings in the form of a story. 3 stars for the content though...as it could have conveyed more useful information as suggested by the lucrative front cover.

This book is a fast, easy read to remind those in business to keep what is important in the forefront of their minds. For most business professionals the key points are common sense, however, sometimes we all need to be reminded.

The One-Minute Entrepreneur engages you in the story while it enlightens you about the journey. That is, with the typical business book, you're hoping up to pick up a few gems to run your business more effectively, reap better results, or ratchet up your career a few notches. But here, you find yourself actually rooting for the hero--and hoping that he makes the best personal decisions as well as business decisions. Bingo--for you and the hero. Hutson and Blanchard give solid business principles here, plus guidelines for acting with personal integrity and building relationships through networking.

Good balance between story and principles. Highly recommended.