Written for entrepreneurs, small business owners and managers who are ready to move their companies from the start up stage to the first level of expansion, this book provides practical tools and exercises to mentally and emotionally prepare them for increased business success and growth. Guzik addresses organizational and time management issues, and emphasizes the importance of identifying and changing potentially bad habits that block the company's growth and performance.
The timeless guide to achieving the state of “relaxed concentration” that’s not only the key to peak performance in tennis but the secret to success in life itself—now in a 50th anniversary edition with an updated epilogue, a foreword by Bill Gates, and an updated preface from NFL coach Pete Carroll “Groundbreaking . . . the best guide to getting out of your own way . . . Its profound advice applies to many other parts of life.”—Bill Gates, GatesNotes (“Five of My All-Time Favorite Books”) This phenomenally successful guide to mastering the game from the inside out has become a touchstone for hundreds of thousands of people. Billie Jean King has called the book her tennis bible; Al Gore has used it to focus his campaign staff; and Itzhak Perlman has recommended it to young violinists. Based on W. Timothy Gallwey’s profound realization that the key to success doesn’t lie in holding the racket just right, or positioning the feet perfectly, but rather in keeping the mind uncluttered, this transformative book gives you the tools to unlock the potential that you’ve possessed all along. “The Inner Game” is the one played within the mind of the player, against the hurdles of self-doubt, nervousness, and lapses in concentration. Gallwey shows us how to overcome these obstacles by trusting the intuitive wisdom of our bodies and achieving a state of “relaxed concentration.” With chapters devoted to trusting the self and changing habits, it is no surprise then, that Gallwey’s method has had an impact far beyond the confines of the tennis court. Whether you want to play music, write a novel, get ahead at work, or simply unwind after a stressful day, Gallwey shows you how to tap into your utmost potential. In this fiftieth-anniversary edition, the principles of the Inner Game shine through as more relevant today than ever before. No matter your goals, The Inner Game of Tennis gives you the definitive framework for long-term success.
Unleash Your Inner Company distills John Chisholm’s four decades of successful entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley into ten steps to discover, launch, and scale the ideal business for you. You will learn how to: • Mobilize your passions and perseverance to reinforce each other and achieve your goals • Discover unsatisfied human and customer needs in those areas where you have natural advantages • Match those needs with your resources and strengths (your “STARS”) to assess which needs fit you best • Improve those fits by acquiring and developing the right resources and strengths; differentiate yourself by being not better, but different, from competitors, even well-established ones • Innovate by combining things you already know in novel ways • Partner with firms and individuals so you and your business can focus on what you do best • Evaluate your options and choose the best one for you • Launch and scale up your successful business, uniquely tailored to you and your strengths. Along the way, you will discover: • That you have many more resources and advantages for success than you realize • How and when to choose a co-founder and team members • How to avoid competitors, and thus gain time and space to get established • How to find, nurture, and ride positive feedback loops within yourself, with your team members, and among your customers • How to build and maintain your self-confidence despite setbacks • If, when, and how to raise money • How to evolve and scale your business, no matter how modest, into a large enterprise, if you so desire • When to comply with, or circumvent, or oppose regulations that impede the formation or growth of your business • What you can learn from Apple, Google, Facebook, and Uber. You will learn from the author’s mistakes—as many as he was able to squeeze into the 400 pages of this book—so you don’t make the same ones. Regardless of your background, location, interests, and passions, the timeless and universal insights, principles, anecdotes, and exercises of Unleash Your Inner Company will inspire and guide you from your first steps, through every kind of obstacle, to the ultimate success of your venture.
The Startup Game is the first up-close look at how the relationship between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs is critical to enhancing the success of any economy. Entrepreneurs drive the future, and the last several decades have been a thrilling ride of astounding, far-reaching innovation. Behind this transformative progress are also the venture capitalists - who are at once the investors, coaches and allies of the entrepreneurs. William H. Draper III knows this story first-hand, because as a venture capitalist, he helped write it. For more than 40 years, Bill Draper has worked with top entrepreneurs in fabled Silicon Valley, where today's vision is made into tomorrow's reality. From a venture capitalist who saw the potential of Skype, Apollo Computer, Hotmail, OpenTable, and many other companies, come firsthand stories of success. In these pages, Draper explores how to evaluate innovative ideas and the entrepreneurs behind those ideas, and he shares lessons from Yahoo, Zappos, Baidu, Tesla Motors, Activision, Measurex, and more. Also, in revealing his on-the-ground account of how Deng Xiaoping brought China roaring into the modern world and how Manmohan Singh unlocked the creative genius of Indian entrepreneurs, Draper stresses the essential value of farsighted political leadership in creating opportunity. The author also discusses his efforts to bring best practices of the venture capitalist/entrepreneur partnership to the social sector. Written in an engaging narrative, and incorporating many of the author's personal experiences, this book provides a much-needed look at how the world of venture capital and entrepreneurship works.
Introduction -- The height requirement -- Secure your shoulder harness -- Fuel for the motor -- Filling your empty seats -- Riding in the front seat -- Picking up speed -- Hands in the air -- Smile for the camera -- Epilogue -- Final word -- Acknowledgements -- Additional resources.
A guide for creating a deeper relationship with the entrepreneurial journey The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur offers overworked and harried entrepreneurs, and anyone who thinks like one, a much-needed guide for tapping into the wisdom that is most relevant to the entrepreneurial life. The book is filled with inspirational meditations that contain the thoughts and writings of notable American authors. Designed as a daily devotional, it is arranged in a calendar format, and features readings of transcendentalist literature and others. Each of The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur meditations is followed by a reflection and a challenging question from John Jantsch. He draws on his lifetime of experience as a successful coach for small business and startup leaders to offer an entrepreneurial context. Jantsch shows how entrepreneurs can learn to trust their ideas and overcome the doubt and fear of everyday challenges. The book contains: A unique guide to meditations, especially designed for entrepreneurs A range of topics such as self-awareness, trust, creativity, resilience, failure, growth, freedom, love, integrity, and passion An inspirational meditation for each day of the year. . . including leap year Reflections from John Jantsch, small business marketing expert and the author of the popular book Duct Tape Marketing Written for entrepreneurs, as well anyone seeking to find a deeper meaning in their work and life, The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur is a practical handbook for anyone seeking to embrace the practice of self-trust.
Nick Friedman and Omar Soliman started the multimillion-dollar franchise College Hunks Hauling Junk when they were just twenty two, and they’ve been having the time of their lives ever since. What’s their secret? That's just it--there isn't one. There's no fancy software or complicated business schemes. No outside investors or quirky market niche. They just followed 10 common-sense commandments to building a straightforward, fun, and successful business that does a simple job well. Anyone can understand it, and anyone can do it.
The world is changing. Markets have crashed. Jobs have disappeared. Industries have been disrupted and are being remade before our eyes. Everything we aspired to for “security,” everything we thought was “safe,” no longer is: College. Employment. Retirement. Government. It's all crumbling down. In every part of society, the middlemen are being pushed out of the picture. No longer is someone coming to hire you, to invest in your company, to sign you, to pick you. It's on you to make the most important decision in your life: Choose Yourself. New tools and economic forces have emerged to make it possible for individuals to create art, make millions of dollars and change the world without “help.” More and more opportunities are rising out of the ashes of the broken system to generate real inward success (personal happiness and health) and outward success (fulfilling work and wealth). This book will teach you to do just that. With dozens of case studies, interviews and examples–including the author, investor and entrepreneur James Altucher's own heartbreaking and inspiring story–Choose Yourself illuminates your personal path to building a bright, new world out of the wreckage of the old.
What does it take to create the career you want? It's no secret that the world of work has changed, and we're shifting toward an ever more entrepreneurial, self-reliant, work-from-wherever-you-are economy. That can be a liberating force, and many professionals dream of becoming independent, whether by starting their own businesses, becoming consultants or freelancers, or developing a sideline. But there's a major obstacle professionals face when they contemplate taking the leap: how to actually make money doing what they love. You may have incredible talent and novel ideas, but figuring out how to get started, building your reputation in a new realm, developing multiple revenue streams, and bringing in a steady flow of new clients can be a daunting prospect. Dorie Clark, a successful entrepreneur and author, has done it all. And in Entrepreneurial You she provides a blueprint for professional independence, with insights and advice on building your brand, monetizing your expertise, and extending your reach and impact online. In short, engaging chapters she outlines the necessary elements and concrete tactics for entrepreneurial success. She shares the stories of entrepreneurs of all kinds--from consultants and coaches to podcasters, bloggers, and online marketers--who have generated six- and seven-figure incomes. This book will be your hands-on guide to building a portfolio of revenue streams, both traditional and online, so that you can liberate yourself financially and shape your own career destiny.
In today's uncertain world of business, one rule stands above the rest: If you want to survive--let alone thrive--you must embrace change. Everything else comes after. In Invent Reinvent Thrive Kellogg School of Management Professor Lloyd Shefsky provides the inspiration and insight any entrepreneur or family business needs for long-term success--and he backs it all up with proven models of what works and what doesn't. Shefsky reveals the common thread of all business success stories: reinvention. He explains not just how to reinvent concepts and ideas from the start, but ways to continuously innovate and reinvent your business to meet today's constantly changing marketplace conditions. In addition to his own expert insight, Shefsky provides firsthand advice through case studies derived from dozens of original interviews with entrepreneurs and family business giants, consisting of the leaders of some of today's most successful companies, including: Howard Schultz (founder, Chairman, and CEO of Starbucks) Jim Sinegal (founder of Costco) Chuck Schwab (founder of Charles Schwab & Co.) Tom Stemberg (founder of Staples) The author also gives special attention to family businesses (which account for over half the U.S. GDP) and how to address vexing family disparities, enabling family businesses to last more than two generations. Invent Reinvent Thrive offers all the answers you need to get your business where you want it to be. You'll learn exactly where new and multi-generational business owners fall short and miss incredible opportunities, why they fail to take the plunge or innovate--and how you can rework, revitalize, and reinvent your business not just to avoid the most common perils but to lead your business to the apex of your industry. "Entrepreneurship is not a cataclysmic event," Shefsky writes. "It is a constant process." Follow his advice through every step of the process and you will successfully invent, reinvent--and thrive. PRAISE FOR INVENT REINVENT THRIVE: "If you think business books are boring, this is your chance to prove yourself wrong. Storytelling is an art, and Shefsky brings that art to business. Invent Reinvent Thrive is a treasure trove of valuable lessons." -- STAN KASTEN, President and CEO, Los Angeles Dodgers; former President of the Washington Nationals and the Atlanta Braves, Hawks, and Thrashers "Invent Reinvent Thrive is full of wise and practical guidance for both would-be and continuing entrepreneurs. Shefsky's discussions provide wonderful advice that will aid anyone embarking on or continuing in an entrepreneurial enterprise." -- DAVID RUDER, former Chairman, Securities & Exchange Commission "Our company's direct experience with Lloyd Shefsky . . . inspired us to methodically pursue Brown-Forman's never-ending greatness, and this book can do the same for others. I highly recommend Invent Reinvent Thrive to all businesspeople." -- PAUL VARGA, CEO and Chairman, Brown-Forman Corporation, producer of Jack Daniels, Finlandia, Southern Comfort, and other spirits "Lloyd Shefsky tackles the issues many entrepreneurs face and offers practical advice to defy the odds. If you've had business success, yet need to go to the next level, read this book." -- GINGER GRAHAM, former President and CEO, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, and former faculty at the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at the Harvard Business School "This is a very serious study of a critical issue, and no one dealing with entrepreneurship or family businesses should make the mistake of ignoring it." -- ISRAEL ZANG, Professor and former Dean of Business School and Vice Provost of Tel Aviv University
