Always Learning
Confessions of an Entrepreneur

Confessions of an Entrepreneur

The Highs and Lows of Starting Up

Chris Robson

Aug 2010, Paperback, 224 pages
ISBN13: 9780273721482
ISBN10: 0273721488
Average rating 5 star£10.99
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No-one ever tells you what it really feels like to be an entrepreneur. What you actually have to go through when you chase ambitions and fortunes.

However, in his new book, Confessions of an Entrepreneur, Chris Robson does.

It’s not a book about business plans and choosing the right business ideas. Those books already exist. This doesn’t.

This is a book about the emotional issues that other business books ignore – the sacrifices you make, the struggle to choose and work with the right partner(s), the strain of uncertainty and potential failure, the dizzying and addictive highs of success, the challenge of building and motivating a team – everything that you will experience when you start a new business. It’s about the journey every single entrepreneur has to take – and it’s this journey, not just the destination, that you have to learn to love if you’re going to be a great entrepreneur.

And you don’t just hear from the author alone, you are invited to read the raw, honest stories from some of the most talented entrepreneurs on this planet, including Bill Gross of Idealab, Roland Rudd of Finsbury Communications, Jo Fairley of Green & Black’s, Nick Wheeler of Charles Twyritt, William Reeve of LoveFilm and many others. For the first time, they’ll tell you what they really had to go through to follow their dreams right through to the end – bitter, sweet or both!

Praise for the book

“Hard hitting, no holds barred, crash course into the world of the entrepreneur.”
Lord Bilimoria CBE, DL – Founder and Chairman of Cobra Beer

“More like an outright thriller than a business book. It brings to life the raw excitement and sheer terror of being an entrepreneur.”
Guy Browning, Writer, Broadcaster, Creativity Guru

“Chris manages to map the DNA of successful entrepreneurs in an entertaining and hugely readable way. A must read for anyone who wants a window into the mind of the entrepreneur.”
Roland Rudd, Founder of Finsbury, International Communications Group


Introduction

About the entrepreneurs

Acknowledgements

PART 1 Prepare for battle

Chapter 1 Blood brothers

Chapter 2 Genius or madness

Chapter 3 Telling stories

Chapter 4 A sacrificial lamb

Chapter 5 Bottle the highs to cope with the lows

PART 2 Taking the strain

Chapter 6 Cutting and re-cutting

Chapter 7 Slicing the lamb

Chapter 8 Friends, allies and mentors

Chapter 9 When jealousy is a good thing

Chapter 10 Pals or partners

PART 3 In the danger zone

Chapter 11 Challenging your own assumptions

Chapter 12 Loving the middleman

Chapter 13 Not knowing

Chapter 14 Going with your gut

Chapter 15 Finding your North Star

Chapter 16 Don’t spare the rod

PART 4 Dusk or dawn

Chapter 17 Building the right family

Chapter 18 In the red or in the black

Chapter 19 Killing your baby

Chapter 20 Champagne

Chapter 21 Getting out of the ditch

Chapter 22 Homerun

Summary: Bittersweet

Chris Robson is a CEO and a serial entrepreneur. He has a track record of creating significant growth and profit across a range of marketing services, digital and media businesses. In the 80’s Robson cut his teeth with Hanson before becoming the youngest Director of advertising agency DMB&B. After completing an MBA at London Business School, he built up and floated the Internet services company, Syzygy, on the German Stock Exchange in 2000, raising 55m€ and with a market valuation of 240m€. He is a Founding Director of Ink publishing, the world’s largest producer of in-flight media and was CEO of Edengene the leading growth and innovation consultancy where he advised companies like Coca-Cola, Unilever, GSK, PepsiCo, RBS, Santander, O2 & J&J. More recently he co-founded the You Wish Group, providing innovative Internet services to large companies and raising investment for a new service launching in autumn 2010.

rated 5 star

The missing book

9 Dec 2010

By A

I doubt if you have another book like this on your shelf. As an aspiring entrepreneur I have been doing lots of work trying to write the best business plan I could, covering all the bases, leaving no stone unturned, yet I know I can't plan for everything. This book reaches those parts the others don't. It won't help you present your idea, it won't teach you how to manage your cash flow, or negotiate office space. But it does prepare you for the journey and openly discusses those. Should I? Shouldn't I?... decisions that face you every evening. Not so much a book, more a friend to help you face the emotional challenges that come with working without a safety net. Quite readable, very memorable, really valuable.