The Reluctant Entrepreneur: Turning Dreams into Profits

FOREWORD: IS THIS AN “INSPIRATIONAL” BOOK?

Most people go into businesses for the wrong reasons. And most people go about starting and developing businesses in the wrong way.

My friend Michael Masterson, whom I admire immensely, has done a phenomenal job of attacking myths and misinfor­mation about entrepreneurs and how they actually create and grow successful enterprises. You will finish this book with a different, deeper, and more realistic understanding of what is really involved in getting a brand-new business going, getting traction for it in its marketplace, protecting it during its fragile infancy, and growing it to mature success. Getting a new business going is not easy. But it’s not mysterious either.

In one of my own books, No B.S. Guide to Business Success in the New Economy, I make the point that most people uninitiated to and contemplating entrepreneurship are fearful about it and wonder if they are up to it, because of a belief that successful entrepreneurs are wild-eyed, daring risk takers, akin to riverboat gamblers frequently “going all in” with questionable hands. This is not true at all. Success is about smart risk management, not about wild risk taking. This is one of many concepts about business success where Michael and I have strong agreement—and where he can set you straight.

He also adeptly disabuses the reader of the need for The Big Idea, visionary innovation, and motivation as key success ingredients. Instead, he approaches business as a methodical ...