You Need to Be a Little Crazy: The Truth about Starting and Growing Your Business (Paperback)

by Barry Moltz (Author) "I remember in the mid-1990s, a friend had given me a carved medallion on a rope with strange symbols and markings on the front..." (more)
Key Phrases: Bob Bernard, Errand Solutions, Little Crazy (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"[Barry] Moltz makes entrepreneurialism intoxicating. -- The Chicago Sun-Times, October 12, 2003

Product Description
Advice about starting a business never sounded like this! Beginning with "you must be crazy," serial entrepreneur and angel investor Barry Moltz offers the true insider’s scoop on new business start-ups. With doses of irreverence and humor, the return-to-basics guide focuses on what comes before the bottom line. Addressing passion-the ultimate entrepreneurial fuel-relationships, failure, and authenticity, Moltz incorporates stories from his entrepreneurial colleagues and shows what it takes to integrate personal and professional life to achieve the highest satisfaction.

Moltz describes the ups and downs and emotional trials of running a start-up business and invites readers to let go of the myths and expectations that can hamstring them emotionally while getting their businesses up and running. In a helpful, heartfelt, and often humorous way, Moltz reassures entrepreneurs that they are not alone-whatever their form of craziness-and that they can retain self-worth and sanity as they ride the start-up roller coaster.

Showcasing the varieties of new venture craziness, entrepreneurs at all ages and stages in their business-building processes will realize they too can succeed. Jolts of passionate entrepreneurial wisdom energize these anecdotes, with such ideas as:

• People-not capital-are the true currency.
• Passion keeps everything going.
• Relationships and authenticity are the drivers in this business climate.
• There is no perfect idea and no magic bullet.
• Don‘t expect your path to be a straight line.

Incorporating lessons from the boom and bust 1990s, the realignment of business and personal values in the wake of terrorism, and proven ways to nurture the human dimension in business, these are voices to help all business owners find and trust their own entrepreneurial passions. After all, says the author, "The worst they can do is eat you!"

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Business (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 079318018X
• ISBN-13: 978-0793180189
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #252,091 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Both Fluffy & Entertaining..., April 22, 2005

By	E. VONROTHKIRCH (Garland, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a guru book, mostly filled with 'emotional wisdom'. There isn't much solid info to be had, just entertaining stories and anecdotes. To paraphrase what I found useful: "You can read and study business til the end of time, but you just have to jump in and do it!" Consider this book an emotional primer, nothing more, nothing less.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't deserve a 5-star rating, December 13, 2003

By A Customer

It's weird. I notice that all the reviewers give this book a 5-star rating, and at the same time, all reviewers come from IL. The author, Barry Moltz, is from IL as well. I would conclude that Barry Moltz has a lot of good friends ready to write a review on Amazon.

Anyway...

I think the book is great for people who are thinking about creating their own business but haven't started yet. It gives a lot of food for thought. However, if you have already created your own business, you will be a little disappointed because you will not learn much.

This book is about the rollercoaster ride that is awaiting people who wants to start their own business. What you should expect to go through emotionally: everything that you should know and the problems you will go through with your family, your business partners, your health, etc.

Don't look for insightful comments and business recommendations. That's not what the book is about.

If you have already been through the trouble of creating your own business, you will probably already know what Barry Moltz is talking about.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Almost unreadable, and not worth the effort, December 23, 2004

By	B. Gnoz "bgnoz" (Martinez, GA United States) - See all my reviews

After reading so many glowing reviews here an Amazon, I bought this book. I began reading and quickly found myself wondering when the introductory comments would end and the book itself would begin. Then it dawned on me... the entire book is written as a relatively loose collection of thoughts. Ugh!

I pressed on, hoping that some enlightenment might be found among all these scattered thoughts. On and on I went, far past the point of pain. I found myself reading with an oddly-placed determination that this book MUST have something more to it in order for it to have been so universally praised.

Well, I've made it through roughly half of the pages, and that is more than enough for me. Reading this book is like sitting down to lunch with your manic-depressive uncle during his manic phase. Worse, he's just had his second latte' and can't seem to focus on a single topic for more than a couple of sentences. There appears to be little thought given to structure or construct, and the result is a hyperactive jog through the author's mind. Unfortunately, you quickly start to recognize the scenery as you are led in various ways through the same small plot, and ultimately you are led nowhere.

To top it off, his experience actually seems quite narrow and brief. Thankfully, he relates the stories of a dozen other entrepreneurs, but these are too broad and anecdotal to provide much insight. The net result is a book of brief, common-sense admonishments.

I've rarely been so disappointed in a book. How it has received so many good reviews is beyond me.