Review
"The encouraging tone, along with Wright's skilled background in his field, leaves the reader feeling capable of success -- able to make crucial decisions correctly." -- T. Patrick Mulroe, Harvard University
"This is a must book for the small business owner who may be wondering what he or she is doing wrong. The book looks at five businesses and distills the reasons for the differing results in an informative and entertaining fashion. Must reading... and FUN!!" -- The Red Hot Work At Home Report
"Wright must have been looking into my office windows because one of his characters seems to think much as I do. This character -- Alex -- is bent on just surviving. He can't seem to think in terms of success; he only tries to make it through a month at a time. Sound familiar? Well Alex changes, and so can I." -- Entrepreneur Life
"Wright's theory is that a business owner can make a thousand bad decisions as long as the "crucial" decisions are made correctly. He has a charming, common sense way of guiding the reader through each phase of these crucial decisions... sheer encouragement for the small business owner." -- Talking to the Boss
Dear folks, Really appreciated your "Eight Best Books" rendering, but probably like a lot of responses from your loyal readers, you missed a book that has been worth thousands of dollars to each of the thousands of its readers who has put it to use in their business and gained their dreams.
I refer to How to Make 1,000 Mistakes In Business and Still Succeed by Hal Wright. Granted, I've plowed through most of your offerings and all of them except Vonnegut are on our office shelves. I completely respect the enormity of your task. To narrow down all the books and tell someone, "Here's the top eight you need to succeed" ends up a subjective task no matter how you slice it. Probably a second or a third list from the responses of other readers and then comparing them would come closest to an ideal list. (But who has the time for that except academics?) Here's why I offer 1,000 Mistakes to head Inc. Magazine's Big Eight list--or at least in the first four titles.
For the market our members cover (mostly start-up to under $3MM in sales and under 10 employees), they must connect immediately with a business owner who pinches every nickel. ANY person with a background of just two or more years worth of battle scars will see themselves at least three to four times in 1,000 Mistakes. When the experience level is seven to ten years and up, they see themselves not only in every chapter, but every couple of pages, because 1,000 Mistakes is based on regular, repeated real life issues among scores of different businesses.
In fact, the background of the NABC (National Association of Business Coaches) Business Coaching System our members use comes from this work. It is based on Mr. Wright's 15 years worth of working one-to-one with over 1,000 paying clients--a few of them are detailed in the book. As both an attorney and an accountant focused on helping small businesses succeed, Hal Wright really has no peer when it comes to a broad knowledge of coaching business success or knowledge of what makes small business successful. I would pit Hal's knowledge against anyone in or even near the small business scene. Could be this is the reason our members buy 1,000 Mistakes in case lots--albeit at wholesale pricing--because it is a genuine light to business owners as well as those about to take the leap.
While I do not like to write lengthy e-mails, you can probably surmise I am quite passionate about small business success. In fact our NABC motto is Helping a Good Business Get Better. As an aside, coaching is not consulting although aspects of coaching can be found in many consulting interventions--although much of the time not compensated. I would be happy to rush a copy to Inc. so that you you can see for yourself. Sincerely, National Association of Business Coaches Steve Lanning, Executive Director -- Steve Lanning, in a letter to the editor of Inc. Magazine
Product Description
The entire first chapter is included for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.
