[Quotes] The Intelligent Entrepreneur

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“If you’re reading this book, it’s probably because you hope to become a truly successful entrepreneur. You want to build something dynamic, useful, and great, and may be even get rich in the process.”

“Most ventures fail usually for a good reason.”

“Challenge and hardship can be the best teachers.”

“You’re a product of all the decisions you made.”   

-- Mark Cinedella

"There are skills, attitudes, and a fundamental base of knowledge that education and  experience can provide. You won’t turn me into a world­class athlete by sending me out to  practice with a coach, but I will certainly play a better game. Entrepreneurship is no different.”-- Professor Howard Stevenson, HBS

“Chance  favors  the  prepared  mind.” –  Louis  Pasteur

“When one person’s network expanded, [both at and after Harvard Business School] everyone else’s network expanded too”

“Ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is what is important.” -- Professor William A. Sahlman, HBS

“If you are planning to be an entrepreneur, you should be planning to be a salesman. You’re constantly selling. You’re selling yourself when your company doesn’t even exist yet; you’re selling the concept to potential employees; you’re selling to customers. And you’re trying to convince suppliers that this teeny company of yours that isn’t well finance--you’re selling them the belief that you’re going to be succeed.”--Professor Ed Zschau, HBS

“I would much rather that they die regretting what they have done than what they have not done.” -- Professor Joseph Lassiter, HBS

..ask yourself, who has really got my back? Who can you count on to take a genuine interest in your efforts? Who will offer good advice but also enthusiastic encouragement? If people who are important to you won't provide that sort of support, can you at least inoculate yourself from their negative influence? And if you don't have mentors and role models, who can help you achieve your dream of becoming an entrepreneur, you'd better make a serious effort to seek them out."

“They say that comedians live in the same world as the rest of us; they just see everything differently. It’s the same with entrepreneurs. Once you’ve truly made that commitment, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you begin to see the world in a different light.

"Problems give way to opportunities. 'Why?' becomes 'Why not?' 'It’s always been done this way' turns into 'What if we tried something different?'"

"Opportunity is personal, not universal. It grows out of your talents, experiences, interests, and the problems that you’re uniquely positioned to perceive in the world." 

“While successful entrepreneurship does indeed require innovation, focusing first on the solution rather tan the problem that needs to be solved can be a recipe for failure.”

“Decide where you want to live, pick an industry with good  prospects and ample opportunity, find the best job you can, and then look for good mentors. If things go well, you will soon have firsthand knowledge of the industry – and as time goes  on there’s a good chance you’ll be able to identify the problems that people truly want  someone to solve.”

“It’s  easier  when  you  really  care  about  solving  a  problem.  It’s  definitely  easier  to  stick   with  it  if  you  like  the  business.”--Marla Malcolm Beck

“A real opportunity consists of both the problem and the proposed solution.” 

“Don’t go out there and look for experiences. Experience’s what’s you get when you don’t achieve what you want. Go out there and do what you want to do and succeed at it.”-- Barry Beck

“Innovation usually comes from either bringing a new technology to an industry or coming up with a new business model.”

“Some of the best ideas are  simple,” --Professor Ed Zschau, HBS

“If coming up with innovative ideas is difficult, doing so again and again is much harder.”

“What often keep you going, I’m sure, is knowing that your venture is your baby. It's your dream.”

“It’s not who you know. It’s who you get to know.” -- Chris Matthews

“Change  creates  unprecedented  opportunity.  But  to  take  full  advantage  of  those  opportunities,   focus  on  the  team.  Teams  win.” – John  Doerr

“An HBS student who gets in to an argument with a member of the school’s administration. As the debate grew heated the student exclaimed “Why are you treating me like this? I’m your customers!” Shaking his head, the administrator soberly replied “No, you’re not. You’re the product.””

“People are drawn  to the excitement of somebody who is really alive, really on fire about something” 

“The  number  one  rule  is  to  be  passionate  about  something.  Your  passion  is   your  best  means  of  meeting  people.  There’s  so  little  o  it  in  the  world,  and  people  are  drawn   to  the  excitement  of  somebody  who  is  really  alive,  really  on  fire  about  something.   Everything  else  follows.”-- Marc  Cenedella

“It’s your dream, sometimes there’s simply no other choice. You must do it alone.”

“To  be  a  champ  you  have  to  believe  in  yourself  when  nobody  else  will.” -- Sugar  Ray  Robinson

“Thinking new is important, but they need customers who can think new as well.”

“It  is  not  the  critic  who  counts;  not  the  man  who  points  out  how  the  strong  man  stumbles,  or   where  the  doer  of  deeds  could  have  done  them  better.  The  credit  belongs  to  the  man  who  is   actually  in  the  arena,  whose  face  is  marred  by  dust  and  sweat  and  blood;  who  strives  valiantly;   who  errs,  who  comes  short  again  and  again,  because  there  is  no  effort  without  error  and   shortcoming;  but  who  does  actually  strive  to  do  the  deeds;  who  knows  great  enthusiasm,  the   great  devotions;  who  spends  himself  in  a  worthy  cause;  who  at  best  knows  in  the  end  the   triumph  of  high  achievement,  and  who  at  the  worst,  if  he  fails,  at  least  fails  while  daring   greatly,  so  that  his  place  shall  never  be  with  those  cold  and  timid  souls  who  neither  know   victory  nor  defeat.”--Teddy Roosevelt:

“Starting your company means that, much of the time, you have to do the difficult work and make the hard decisions alone.”

“Analytic can only take you so far.   Pass that point instinct has to take over.”

 “One  of  the  tough  tensions  that   good  founders  face  is  how  to  be  solo  players, but  at  the  same   time,  still  be  team  players.” -- Noam Wasserman

“True entrepreneurs work extremely hard to take as little risk as possible. They don’t cultivate a large appetite for risk. Instead they manage risk.”

“One  of  the  great  myths  about  entrepreneurs  is  that  they  are  risk  seekers.  All  sane  people  want   to  avoid  risk.” – Professor  William  Sahlman, HBS  

“It’s much better to have some other offer and not need it than to need one and not have it.”

“Leadership is getting someone to do what they don’t want to do, to achieve that they want to achieve” -- Coach Tom Landry

“Passion is a critical part of your job. If you're not passionate, let me either help you become passionate or help you find something else that you are truly passionate about.”

“No good leader will be universally liked.”

“Leadership is about organizing people, and motivating them to work together toward a common goal.”

“Your venture is only as good as its best salesperson.”

“Start and build, and take your win! Take some money off the table.” -- Ledeky-Darman theory of entrepreneurship

“Free is the wrong price.”

“As soon as you decided to become an entrepreneur, you become a sale person.”

“When somebody suggest that they can teach you to sell anything to anybody, Run! Don't walk away.”

“You don’t want to sell anything. You want to sell your things.”

“People want to believe. They want to believe in you. They want to believe in your company. And, your job is simply to give them the opportunity to believe.”

“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or  petty – never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense.” – Winston Churchill

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more  common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a  proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and  determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve  the problems of the human race.” – Calvin Coolidge

“The idea just gets you started. Once you get in the game, you’ve got to work at it until  you figure it out. And no matter what we do, no matter how much success we have in a  given year, the game is always about survival. Nothing stays the same for ten years. We’ve  had to change our strategy year after year after year. If you can survive through all the  tough times, you’ll be that much stronger when the good times finally come.” -- Marla Malcolm Beck

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable an persists in trying to  adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George  Bernard Shaw 

“We need 100,000 people in 100,000 garages trying 100,000 things – in the hope that five of  them break through.” – Tom Friedman

“The freedom and security provided by a high income or a significant windfall are much  more important to highly successful entrepreneurs than the money itself.  At the deepest level, what matters most is finding a true measure of fulfillment – one that leave you feeling  that you have used all your talents to accomplish something worthwhile, make a difference  in people’s lives, and leave a legacy for those who follow.”

“Entrepreneurship isn’t just about solving a problem, building a venture, managing risk, or  making money. It’s about having a positive impact on the world, making the most of the gifts  you’ve been given, and realizing your full potential as a human being. An intelligent  entrepreneur, in short, plays this game for life.” 

Source:The Intelligent Entrepreneur: How Three Harvard Business School Graduates Learned the 10 Rules of Successful Entrepreneurship by Bill Murphy Jr. 

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Book or Audiobooks?

Personally, I prefer audiobooks. It's fun, and I can listen when I'm doing something else. It also makes other activities (e.g., jogging) a lot more fun. For more detail about audiobooks, please read [this post].

There is one more reason that may encourage you to go for the audiobook version. You can get it now for FREE. Audible offers you a free trial for 14 days. Even if you get the book and cancel the subscription right away (so that you don't have to pay), you can keep the book. And, don't worry if you lost the audiobook file. Just log into audible.com. You can keep downloading the over and over again.

About the summary: It takes time to finish up a book. And, when you do, sometimes, you want to review what you learn from the book. If you do not make  notes as you read, you might have to go through the book once again. This can be time-consuming when you are dealing with a book. But you can still flip through the book and locate what you are looking for.

However, when the material is an audiobook, it is extremely hard to locate a specific part of content. Most likely you will have to listen to the entire audiobook once again.

This book summary will help solve the pain of having to go through the book all over again.

I am leaving out the details of the books. Most books have interesting examples and case studies, not included here. Reading the original book would be much more entertaining and enlightening. If you like the summary, you may want to get the original from the source below.