Even though I have raised significant venture capital as an entrepreneur and have participated in dozens of transactions as an investor, I still found the book to be informative, especially with regard to the dilutive impact of some of the more onerous deal terms that we avoid at Rincon Ventures.
 

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The Magicians Tells Their Secrets

Brad and Jason have been exposing venture capitalists’ secrets since 2005, when they began writing a blog series on Term Sheets at AskTheVC.

They are both former entrepreneurs and current Partners at Foundry Group, a highly successful, early stage venture firm. If you have not seen the Firm’s recent music video entitled I’m A VC, take a moment to watch it now – it will give you a window into Brad and Jason’s respective personalities and the degree to which they do not conform to the stereotypical stick-up-the-ass venture capitalist. My favorite line in the song is: “I can’t take a leak without people who pitch me”, having experienced similar restroom encounters firsthand.

Things I Loved

• Tactical & Hands-on – As described in Why Most Business Books (Still) Suck, entrepreneurs have limited time to expend reading theoretical business books which do not provide actionable content. In contrast, Venture Deals focuses on pragmatic, tactical advice.

• Jargon Free – As noted in Buzzkill, it can be difficult to describe a complex subject in simple terms, free of industry jargon. Brad and Jason consistently maintain an approachable, straightforward writing style that allows the reader to readily focus on the content, rather than parsing dense, rhetorical flourishes (like those which often populate this blog…)
• Attitude – Brad and Jason clearly exhibit an entrepreneur-centric approach to the venture funding process. Their relentless (mostly friendly) mocking of venture capitalists and lawyers adds some welcomed levity to what can be, at times, dry subject matter.

• Examples – The book is filled with text excerpted from actual funding documents, rather than the generic templates usually found in academic textbooks.  Each example is explained and guidance is provided regarding to the extent an entrepreneur can and should attempt to negotiate the provision.

• Focused Negotiating – Brad and Jason do an excellent job of explaining common negotiating tactics deployed by VCs. However, their most salient advice is that entrepreneurs should focus on two factors: economics and control. As they state, “We suggest that any significant time you are spending beyond these two core concepts is a waste of time.” They then dissect a typical term sheet and identify which terms impact: (i) economics, (ii) control, (iii) both and (iv) neither. They also remind emerging entrepreneurs that the power is not solely held by the VCs and encourage entrepreneurs to, “Figure out your superpower and your adversary’s kryptonite.”

• Don’ts – As noted in greater detail below, I especially like the chapter entitled, “Raising Money The Right Way.” This chapter provides spot-on, tough-love advice. Entrepreneurs should take this chapter to heart, because commission any one of these mistakes will immediately mark them as a rookie.

Things I Liked

• Entrepreneur’s Voice – Matt Blumberg, CEO of Return Path serves as the voice of the entrepreneur, punctuating the text in periodic sidebars. For instance, in a section describing the ramifications of a No-Shop clause, Matt writes, “Insist on spelling out key terms prior to a signed term sheet if it has a no-shop clause in it. A VC who won’t spell out key employment terms at the beginning is a big red flag.” He goes on to recommend that, “…you should also ask that the no-shop clause expire immediately if the VC terminates the process. Also, consider asking for a carve-out for acquisitions.” Such detailed, practical counsel can prove to be priceless.

• VC Firms Unveiled – As the VC world is relatively small and a bit clubby, many internal aspects of the industry, such as: how firms are structured, the manner in which VCs reserve for follow-on investments and the various fiduciary hats a VC must wear, are not always obvious to emerging entrepreneurs. Venture Deals demystifies the VC landscape and helps entrepreneurs understand the typical VC’s motivations, responsibilities and priorities.

Things I Liked Less

• Price – I am cheapskate. The hardcopy list price of $49.95 is frankly a bummer (to be fair, Amazon offers the book new for $33). Fortunately, you can download the Kindle edition for $27 and the audio version for $18. I normally would advise readers to purchase the cheapest offering.  However, some of the book’s value is lost in an audio format, as it is difficult to derive value from the book’s numerous sample contract provisions via an audio recitation versus written text. 

• Limited Entrepreneurial Perspective – Although Matt does a serviceable job of providing the voice of the entrepreneur, readers would be well served to hear from multiple entrepreneurs who have been bloodied by the fundraising process. 

What Not To Do

Although Venture Deals primarily describes what an entrepreneur should do to facilitate the funding process, I found the brief chapter describing what not to do to be especially instructive. The mistakes outlined in this chapter include several that I have seen entrepreneurs make when pitching me, including:

• Don’t Ask For A Non-Disclosure Agreement

• Don’t Email Carpet Bomb VCs

• No Often Means No

• Don’t Ask For A Referral If You Get A No

• Don’t Be A Solo Founder

• Don’t Overemphasize Patents

Venture Deals Has Made My Life Easier

The typical sophisticated investor crafts funding rounds for a living, whereas an entrepreneur usually raises money a handful of times over their entire careers. Venture Deals helps level the inherently skewed fundraising playing field by providing a window into venture capitalists’ bag of tricks, while guiding entrepreneurs to remain focused on the deal points that matter most.

For the past several years, I have directed my students and other emerging entrepreneurs to AskTheVC, as well as Feld Thoughts. If you have an ad hoc funding question, these sources may still satisfy your needs. However, if you are an emerging entrepreneur seeking institutional funding, the time and monetary investment required to read Venture Deals will undoubtedly yield a positive ROI.

Venture Deals has made my life easier by providing me with a one-stop repository of fundraising advice that I can recommend to my students and other emerging entrepreneurs. Since its publication, I have referred hundreds of entrepreneurs to Venture Deals, most recently at a keynote talk I gave to 300-budding entrepreneurs at Cal Tech. If you are an emerging entrepreneur contemplating the mysteries of the fundraising process, Venture Deals will undoubtedly make your life easier as well.

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Unfortunately, most business books do not offer entrepreneurs an adequate payoff. However, Guy Kawasaki’s latest book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions (Enchantment) is an exception.

The short version of my review is: “Enchanting? Yes.”

If you are curious as to why a serial entrepreneur who does not generally appreciate business books gives Enchantment a thumbs-up, read on…

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Fan, Not A Fan Boy

I have used Guy’s previous book, The Art Of The Start (Art), in my UC Santa Barbara New Venture Creation class for the past five years. Quarter-after-quarter, it has inspired and enlightened my students. It has also influenced my thoughts, as evidenced by the six infoChachkie blog entries which reference Art.

I read Enchantment anticipating that it might augment my Entrepernurial Selling class, which focuses on influence and persuasion, rather than sales tactics. I was not disapointed.

Tricking The Jedi

It is no surprise that I enjoyed Enchantment. The second most referenced author on my blog, after Kawasaki, is Robert Cialdini, co-author of Yes! 50-Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive (Yes!) and author of Influence: The Psychology Of Persuasion. Enchantment cites Mr. Cialdini throughout. Guy even gives him a nod in his index, indicating that thought leaders often assess a new book by flipping to the index to see if their name is included. At the beginning of the index, Guy writes, “I hope Robert Cialdini checks this index.” No doubt, he did.

Enchantment complements these widely-read works by focusing influence and persuasion through an entrepreneurial lens. For instance, Guy refers to an entrepreneur’s venture as their “cause.” A cause can be a: non-profit, Internet startup, idea, political opinion, or coffee shop. Anything that you are passionate about and are willing to expend energy to motivate others to support, qualifies as a cause.

Guy utilizes a pragmatic, hands-on approach, which provides readers with tools to enhance their persuasion capabilities, rather than simply presenting them a non-actionable narrative. For instance, the table of contents also serves as a checklist by which the reader can keep track of the persuasion skills they have mastered.

At the conclusion of Enchantment, Guy includes a 20-question test which enables  readers to assess their persuasion capabilities. He then helps readers evaluate their results with some amusing “grades.” For instance, he classifies test-takers scoring  between 19 and 20 as, “You can teach Steve Jobs a thing or two,” while he suggests to those scoring  between zero and five that they should, “Ask Guy for a refund.” I scored 18, which entitles me to “Go forth and enchant.”

This practical approach also manifests itself in Guy’s action-oriented section headings. For instance, in the chapter entitled, “How To Enchant Your Boss”, readers are instructed to:

• Make Your Boss Look Good

• Drop Everything And Do What Your Boss Asks

• Underpromise, Overdeliver

• Prototype Your Work

• Show And Broadcast Progress

• Form Friendships

• Ask For Mentoring

• Deliver Bad News Early

Things I Loved

• Pithy – Guy is the Steven King of business books. Like King, his writing style is breezy and engaging. The brief chapters lend themselves to multiple sittings, allowing a busy entrepreneur to read each chapter in short increments.

• Little Bull Shitake – Guy’s stature in the business publishing world allows him to talk straight. For instance, he pointedly describes the petty nature of the negative feedback he received when he asked his blog readers to submit cover art on spec. Guy is enchanting without pulling his punches.

• Quotes – Guy’s use of quotes is hardly unique. However, the quotes he uses are particularly thoughtful and effectively set the stage for the text that follows. My favorite quotes, along with the corresponding headings include:

• Phrasing – Fluency is the ease by which people comprehend the information communicated to them. The easier a concept is to understand and recall, the more influential the concept. Guy takes this approach to heart with the use of memorable phrasing, such as:

“flow with the go”

“Facebook is for show, LinkedIn is for dough”

“familiarity breeds commitment”

“artificial dissemination”

• Honesty – As in Art, Guy stresses the importance of Honesty and encourages his readers to act as mensch and freely do good deeds. He notes that enchantment borne of deception is fleeting. 

• Field Manual – Enchantment is a practical how-to book that entrepreneurs can repeatedly refer to when tackling specific issues, such as; “How To Overcome Resistance”, “How To Use Push Technology” or, “How To Enchant Your Employees.”

• Accessible – Guy stresses that enchantment is open to everyone who is likeable, trustworthy and has an awesome cause. This inclusive approach motivates emerging entrepreneurs by demystifying the paths to success.

Things I Liked

• Bibliography – Students of persuasion will appreciate the inclusion of a comprehensive list of current and classic books that can augment their ability to influence others.

• Sidebars – Each chapter concludes with a personal story describing a significant enchanting event in the lives of various entrepreneurs. Most of these life-stories loosely reinforce each chapter’s topic.
• Photos – Guy, an avid photographer, includes a number of candid photos that give the book an intimate, genuine flavor seldom seen in mass market business books.

Things I Liked Less

• Cover Story – After the index, Guy includes a few pages that describe the “making of” the book’s cover. I am sure this was an exciting process for everyone concerned, but it is better suited to a blog entry, rather than the epilogue.

• Concentration – As noted above, I am a big fan of Cialdini. However, greater exposure to studies performed by other, less widely-read persuasion experts would have been appreciated.

• Obsolescence – By Guy’s own admission, his references to current technologies, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn build in an implicit shelf-life. My hope is that he and his publisher diligently update future editions of Enchantment to include emerging technologies while removing those that are obsolete.

Positive ROI

 Guy’s greatest insight is that, “Enchantment is a process, not an event.” One might logically extend this quote to say, “Enchantment is not a process, it is a way of life.” By nature, entrepreneurs are impatient and typically seek quick solutions so they can advance to the next challenge. However, as Guy makes clear, enchantment is not a silver bullet. It will not immediately resolve your startup’s problems, but  will significantly reduce the overall friction of your adVenture’s journey.

I highly recommend Enchantment for both experienced and emerging entrepreneurs. The time spent  reading Enchantment will net a significant return. Buy a copy for yourself, your Core Team and your key employees – anyone who is in a position to enchant your Donors, investors, employees, customers, and other stakeholders. I look forward to incorporating Enchantment into my Selling classes’ curriculum. 

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By 2011, the video had been watched over 50 million times. Never Gonna Give You Up’s resurgence began in 2007, when a user on an obscure gaming site posted a link to Rick’s video under the heading for a trailer of the not-yet-released Grand Theft Auto IV video game. One year later, the phenomenon had become commonplace and was dubbed “Rickrolling,” a term that is now ubiquitous with any Internet misdirection technique.

Although Rickrolling is a harmless, rather pedestrian prank, many companies unknowingly Rickroll their customers and prospects by improperly aligning their products’ capabilities with their respective marketing messages.

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According to Guy Gabriele, Chief Creative Officer at Idea Engineering, brands live in the minds of customers and prospects. Guy believes that your brand is not what you say it is or what you hope it will be. Rather, your brand is a promise which is interpreted by those to whom you message. When your product or service is unable to deliver on this promise, you are effectively Rickrolling everyone who responds to your misaligned messaging.

At Computer Motion (NASDAQ: RBOT, acquired by Intuitive Surgical), our initial brand’s promise was, “Robotics will reduce costs within the operating room.” Although we did not intentionally mislead anyone, the customers and prospects that believed us were Rickrolled. We assumed that robots would perform tasks that would reduce the required number of surgical staff persons. The reality was that robots added costs to surgical procedures because the size of the surgical team remained unchanged. Once our target market acted upon our call to action and experienced our products, they revised our brand’s promise as follows: “Robotics are cool, hard to use and add costs to surgical procedures.”

It took us a couple of years to realize that our brand’s intended promise was not in sync with reality. We eventually modified our promise to: “Robotics will enable new minimally invasive procedures.” Fortunately, we delivered on this revised promise and ultimately helped create a multibillion dollar industry in which costs increased, but patient outcomes were greatly improved.

We were slow to revise our brand’s promise because we wanted robotics to reduce operating room costs, as we felt that such cost reductions were a requisite for our success. Avoid Rickrolling your customers and prospects by ignoring what you want your brand’s promise to be and understanding the actual promise that resides in the minds of your intended users.

Rick Rolls On

Rick Astley’s career was revived by the Rickrolling phenomenon. Never Gonna Give You Up has been a tongue-in-cheek nominee for a number of awards, including the 2008 UK Christmas song of the year and the seventh inning stretch song played during the New York Mets’ games. Your customers might never “give you up,” if you maintain congruence between your brand’s perceived promise and the promise that your product actually fulfills.

______________________
John Greathouse has held a number of senior executive positions with successful startups during the past fifteen years, spearheading transactions which generated more than $350 million of shareholder value, including an IPO and a multi-hundred-million-dollar acquisition.

John is a CPA and holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School. He is a member of the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Faculty where he teaches several entrepreneurial courses.
______________________

Copyright © 2007-11 by J. Meredith Publishing. All rights reserved.

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The person asking the question subsequently replied that I was “ignorant” and missing out on a great learning opportunity by not reading. Although the response was somewhat rude, it was valuable, as it caused me to think a bit more deeply about this issue.

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To set the record straight, I am an avid reader, although I seldom read business books. The point I was inarticulately attempting to make is was that the greater the distance between you and a particular experience, the less impactful and relevant the experience becomes.

Take, for instance, the proverbial child touching a hot stove. The lesson is ingrained in the child because it is visceral, undiluted and immediate. Compare this first-hand learning experience with: (i) someone animatedly telling you about the time they touched a hot stove, versus, (ii) reading about someone else’s hot stove experience, versus (iii) reading about a second-hand account of a hot stove incident. The further you are from the pain, the less meaningful, instructive and relevant the cause of the pain.

This same phenomenon occurs when emerging entrepreneurs read business books. To a greater or lesser degree, depending on the author’s intimacy with the recounted experiences, the time it takes to passively read about someone else’s experiences would be more effectively spent interacting with others who have relevant, real-world knowledge that they are willing to interactively share.

Consider the following chart, which describes the most-to-least impactful ways to learn entrepreneurial skills.

Business Books Redux

To be fair, business books suck in a relativistic way. Given an emerging entrepreneur’s limited discretionary time, I believe you will generally learn more by engaging in entrepreneurial tasks and working closely with experienced Advisors than by passively absorbing anecdotes from a book.

In my reply to the “you are ignorant” Quora comment, I clarified that successful entrepreneurs love learning and that the desire to expand their intellectual horizons is often the impetuous for launching new ventures. I went on to explain that the key to entrepreneurial learning is to identify the most relevant and impactful experiential sources and to leverage them in the most efficient manner.

There is no doubt that business books can be entertaining and, in some cases, enlightening. However, irrespective of how many business books you read, you cannot “study” your way to entrepreneurial proficiency. Entrepreneurship is a physical sport, not a cerebral one.

During your various adVentures’ journeys, you will touch a lot of hot stoves, get a few scars and have numerous fun and fulfilling experiences along the way. I describe some tactics for making the most of your experiences here: Five Ways To Maximize Your Startup Experiences.

______________________
John Greathouse has held a number of senior executive positions with successful startups during the past fifteen years, spearheading transactions which generated more than $350 million of shareholder value, including an IPO and a multi-hundred-million-dollar acquisition.

John is a CPA and holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School. He is a member of the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Faculty where he teaches several entrepreneurial courses.
______________________

Copyright © 2007-11 by J. Meredith Publishing. All rights reserved.

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My intent in referencing this egregious article is not to debate “global cooling” – I mean “global warming” – I mean “climate change.” Rather, it is to highlight that journalists often have a very hopeless world view. Irrespective of the facts at hand, they often relish in proclaiming mankind’s imminent demise. Let’s face it, sex sells and so do doom and gloom.

Fortunately for mankind, entrepreneurs do not hope they can make an impact. They act. Improvements in mankind’s lot arise from entrepreneurs who ignore the headlines, hope less and act more to improve their lives as well as the well being of those around them.

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Hope of Deliverance

There are two kinds of discontent in this world: the discontent that works, and the discontent that wrings its hands. The first gets what it wants. The second loses what it has. There’s no cure for the first but success, and there’s no cure at all for the second.
– Gordon Graham, Author and Philosopher

Hope is the confident expectation that someone or something will change one’s circumstances for the better.  Hope is passive. Hope changes nothing. As such, successful entrepreneurs do not rely on hope.

Hoping less is not equivalent to defeatism, nor does it imply that entrepreneurs should be pessimists. On the contrary, entrepreneurs who perpetually see the proverbial glass as overflowing are properly motivated to survive a startup’s grueling emotional rollercoaster. As discussed in Great Expectations, such perpetual optimism is necessary to maintain the confidence of employees, investors and other stakeholders. 

However, a successful entrepreneur’s optimism is not baseless. On the contrary, it is founded on the Three C’s Of Wealth Creation – confidence, courage and conviction – not on an idle hope that some exogenous factor will cause him to succeed.

Good News Is Bad News – Bad News Is Great News

In contrast to the typical entrepreneur’s sanguine view of the world, as noted in Conventional Wisdom Isn’t, many journalists see the world in a much more negative light. During the typical television news hour, good news is often relegated to the final minutes, after the viewer has been subjected to assorted murders, accidental deaths, fires, scandals, etc. Unfortunately, there is a lot of truth to the TV News adage: “If it bleeds, it leads.”

Contrary to the predominately negative headlines, the world has been and continues to “get better,” largely because of the efforts of entrepreneurs who ignore the continuous flow of bleak media messages and focus on creating something out of nothing.

Stephen Moore’s and Julian Simon’s book, It’s Getting Better All The Time is a testament to the dramatically positive impact entrepreneurs have had on mankind’s collective quality of life during the past century.  The book depicts “The Greatest Trends of the Last 100 Years” via pithy text, charts and straightforward graphs. 

I culled a few trends which are most representative of the fact that “the good old days” were not nearly as good as our primitivism tendencies would lead us to believe. Each of these trends was born from the dedicated, hard work of one or more entrepreneurs who worked more and hoped less.

Note: Source of all the following charts and graphs: It’s Getting Better All The Time

As noted at left, the average American’s lifespan increased nearly 64% during the 20th century. More significantly, life spans for both sexes and all races also increased significantly during the same period. Not just the wealthiest members of our societies are enjoying longer lives – all socioeconomic stratas have reaped the rewards of medical and life science innovations.

Hopeless headlines decry the increasing rates of heart disease and cancer. What the accompanying stories often do not communicate is that such debilitating ailments claim more lives each year because fewer people in past generations lived long enough to fall victim to such “old age” diseases.

Despite the pop culture myth that “we are working more and more for less and less,” the facts tell a different story. As noted in the accompanying graph, the average work week in the U.S. has decreased nearly 50% during the past 150 years.

Not only have entrepreneurial breakthroughs led to longer life spans, entrepreneurial innovations have transformed the quality of modern life such that today’s poor routinely enjoy luxuries unheard of 100 years ago, even among the aristocracy of the 19th century.

Given that Americans are working less and living longer, their leisure time has risen substantially. When this discretionary time is converted into years, the advancement over the past 120 years is dramatic, rising from a measly 11 years (essentially one’s childhood) to a threefold increase of 35 years. Modern man’s leisure time is nearly equivalent to the average 19th century worker’s entire lifespan.

As noted in the chart at left, Americans have consistently started working later in life and have enjoyed a growing number of years of retired living. However, a hopeless headline that could be drawn from this data is “Americans Now Spending More Years On The Job Than Ever Before.” Although such a headline would be factually correct, it would omit the positive market factors underlying the data.

A common refrain when people recall the past is a longing for yesteryear’s “low prices.” For instance, one might ask, “Whatever happened to McDonald’s thirty-cent hamburger?” The answer is that the price has not increased. Rather, it has diminished steadily over the past seventy years.

In 1940, that thirty-cent hamburger represented approximately one half-hour of the average worker’s wage. Modern McDonald’s customers only have to work approximately nine minutes to earn the income required to purchase a Big Mac, which is larger and more nutritious than its 1940s predecessor. The current price of a Hershey’s chocolate bar is equivalent to a few minutes of the average American’s labor, one-tenth of the equivalent price of the same candy bar 100 years ago.

In reality, most historical prices were considerably higher than their modern equivalents, when the amount of work required to purchase the goods is taken into account. As the chart below makes clear, necessities such as baking soda, pencils, nails and socks all cost modern buyers a fraction of the prices paid by consumers 100-years ago. The next time you read a headline condemning price increases, keep in mind that the continual march toward greater efficiencies and productivity serve to reduce many prices, in real terms. 

Not only are Americans living longer, with greater leisure time and lower prices, they can expect more of the same in the years ahead. The rate of innovation accelerated with each passing year during the past century, as evidenced by the continual rise in the number of patents issued during the 20th century. As noted in the graph below, from 1978 to 1998, the total number of patents issued more than doubled.

Newsweek’s Wrong Again

In 1980, Newsweek magazine reported the following, based on a U.S. Government Report entitled Global 2000.

“The year: 2000. The Place: Earth, a desolate planet slowly dying of its own accumulating follies. Half the forests are gone; sand dunes spread where fertile lands once lay. Nearly 2 million species of plants, birds, insects and animals have vanished. Yet man is propagating so fast that his cities have grown as large as his nations a century before.”

Do not hold your breath waiting for a retraction. Instead, hope less and focus on turning your entrepreneurial dreams into commercial realities that will benefit all of mankind, even the naysayers at Newsweek and their hopeless brethren.

______________________
John Greathouse has held a number of senior executive positions with successful startups during the past fifteen years, spearheading transactions which generated more than $350 million of shareholder value, including an IPO and a multi-hundred-million-dollar acquisition.
John is a CPA and holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School. He is a member of the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Faculty where he teaches several entrepreneurial courses. He is also the author of an award-winning entrepreneurial blog infoChachkie.com. You can learn more about his experiences at johngreathouse.com
______________________

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Copyright © 2007-9 by J. Meredith Publishing. All rights reserved.

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After years of denying the phantom quote, Durocher eventually embraced it, using it as the title of his 1975 autobiography. However, as he mellowed with age, Durocher attempted to rewrite his place in history by claiming that he was not implying that nice guys could not win. Rather, he argued that being “nice” and “winning” simply have no correlation.

Most historians do not subscribe to Mr. Durocher’s revisionist history. The hot-tempered, foul-mouthed, heavy-drinking ballplayer earned the nickname “The Lip” because of his caustic tongue. He is not politely pointing out a soup stain on the umpire’s tie in the above photo. Leo “The Lip” was anything but “nice.” 

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Unlike “The Lip,” Barrie Bergman is a humble, self-made man who realized early in life that being nice provides a significant business advantage. Barrie, along with his lifelong wife and business partner Arlene, realized that they could attract A+ Players, have more fun and create more wealth by establishing a culture of trust and celebration. If you doubt that you can “do well by doing good,” check out Time Wounds All Heels.

Barrie’s story epitomizes the American Dream. When he was a child, Barrie’s father was forced to declare bankruptcy. The only asset that his father retained was a small warehouse from which he sold 45-rpm records that had previously been played in jukeboxes.

From that single used record store, Barrie and Arlene grew Record Bar into the second-largest record chain in the U.S., with over 200 locations. The Bergmans sold the chain to a European conglomerate in the pre-iPod days of the 1990s for approximately $100 million, proving that timing really is everything in life, comedy and business.

A cynic might claim that the Bergmans’ success had more to do with luck than the fact that they created a healthy culture in which people were able to thrive personally and professionally. That cynic would be wrong. After taking a multi-year victory lap, Barrie and Arlene purchased Bare Escentuals out of bankruptcy. They eventually turned the failing, four-store cosmetics chain into a global, public company, which generated sales in excess of $550 million in 2008.

Rather than steal all the thunder of Barrie’s book by providing too many specifics, I have opted to list some of the chapter titles below. As you can see from this list, the book is pleasingly humorous and irreverent.

We’ll Get Rich A Few Days Later: Adhering to ethics

Greed Is NOT Good: Screwing people over for the love of money

License To Kill: Fighting the urge to do whatever it takes

Don’t Defecate Where You Live: Creating a fun place to work

357 Magnum-Style Management: Managing by intimidation

Firing Someone Is Never Easy: Procrastinating only makes it harder

Don’t Give It All At The Office: Having a life outside the workplace

Boy Was I Dumb And Boy Did I Get Smart: How I almost bankrupted the company

As noted in Why Most Business Books Suck, I am usually frustrated by books written by successful business executives. Such egocentric business tomes are usually dreadfully boorish and self-serving. Not so with Barrie’s book. Barrie avoids this common pitfall by his willingness to laugh at himself and freely admit his mistakes. In this regard, he displays the Humble Pride common to so many successful serial entrepreneurs.

In addition to sharing his business wisdom, Barrie also treats the reader to some of his behind-the-scenes interactions with a number of celebrities. Barrie freely admits that he remained star-struck throughout his career, despite the fact that he met nearly every major musical artist from the mid-1960s through the late 1980s. Spoiler Alert: George Harrison was the nicest of all the rock-n-rollers.    

If you are looking for an anecdotal business book, filled with straightforward and enlightening observations, Nice Guys Finish First may be for you. However, before you pick up the book, I want to forewarn you, using Barrie’s own words from the book’s Prologue: “I expect that what I have to say will piss off some people. If it doesn’t, I’ll be disappointed.”

If Leo Durocher had read Barrie’s book, he may have gotten pissed, but at least he could have avoided spending the final decades of his life attempting to rehabilitate his reputation.

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Copyright © 2007-9 by J. Meredith Publishing. All rights reserved.

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