It was sheer coincidence that the two books covered in this column both feature modified versions of the international symbol for pedestrian on their cover. But there’s no avoiding the subliminal message: entrepreneurs are people on the move – they have to walk the talk.
John Sviokla and Mitch Cohen, two PricewaterhouseCoopers executives, explore the traits that self-made billionaires share in “The Self-Made Billionaire Effect: How Extreme Producers Create Massive Value.”
From the very beginning of this book, the authors emphasize that not all the folks in that astronomical tax bracket are the stereotypical high-tech gurus (although at book’s end, the authors’ A-Z list of billionaires covered does run from Paul Allen to Mark Zuckerberg). But the book also presents case studies on people like the comedienne who developed Spanx, the South African who founded SpaceX, and the brothers who became shopping mall moguls.
What these highly successful people have in common is their inability to work well as a cog in the machine – rather than performing within expected parameters, these folks think outside the box.
The authors identify five critical habits of mind that have served these billionaires well, and that you, too, might cultivate – although the nomenclature the book puts forth (“Empathetic Imagination” and “Patient Urgency” are just two examples) seems self-important and off-putting.
It was a relief to turn to “Entrepreneurship for the Rest of Us,” a straight-talking, action-oriented assessment of the entrepreneurial mindset. The author, seasoned business writer Paul B. Brown, boils successful entrepreneurship down to some basic principles that are within reach of almost anyone.
Brown thinks intensive planning is overrated – he’s an advocate of starting small, learning from your mistakes, building on your experience, and trying again. This book shows how to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit and make it work for you.
Barbara Lloyd McMichael is our ground reporter in South King County, Wash., and author of the syndicated book review column The Bookmonger. Her PR for People® Book Review is written exclusively for The Connector.
PR for People® Book Review:
Entrepreneurship for billionaires
-and the hoi polloi
by Barbara Lloyd McMichael
The Self-Made Billionaire Effect –
John Sviokla and Mitch Cohen
Portfolio/Penguin – 246 pp - $27.95
Entrepreneurship for the Rest of Us – Paul B. Brown
Bibliomotion – 168 pp - $26.95