Moxie

A lot of books on entrepreneurship (or books on any topic for that matter) contain excess amounts of fluff.

You know the books: There are a few pages of information with really interesting concepts that you can apply to your business or life... then the rest is just feel-good stuff the author tossed in so that they would have enough material to write a book with.


Moxie And Other Fundamental Entrepreneurial Concepts: Simple Truths That Might Make All the Difference by Jim Flowers is NOT one such book. It's fluff-free: 100% straight-forward need-to-know material for entrepreneurs. At just 89 pages, it only took me around an hour to read - and I enjoyed every minute of it.


Flowers, who is the Director of VT KnowledgeWorks at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, highlights four success factors for entrepreneurs:


- Moxie: an entrepreneur's passion, confidence and ability to get things done

- Market: ride the wave of a fast-growing well-identified market

- Magic: your special sauce; what makes your product/service truly unique and desirable

- Mentors: experienced entrepreneurs who can guide you

Here's a brief video of Mr. Flowers explaining these 4 M's:



In addition to Moxie, Market, Magic, and Mentors, the book also discusses the best personality traits of an entrepreneur, what makes a good business model, important things to remember about management, what to do about money, and how to avoid common mistakes.

It's a great little book with some big points to make. I highly recommend it.

I also recommend reading Jim Flower's blog.

Business Stripped Bare

This week I finished reading "Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur" by Sir Richard Branson.

The book shows how global the Virgin brand has become. Branson describes the creation of Virgin Records (his first big endeavor in the 70s), Virgin Airlines, Virgin Mobile, and Virgin Galatic among many others.


He offers a great deal of sound advice, but here were some of my take-aways:

1. Founders can be amazing promoters. Brand not only your business, but also yourself.

- Entrepreneurs are often described as being eccentric. Richard Branson is no exception. From descending from a helicopter, to propelling down a building, Branson seems willing to do anything to promote his famous Virgin brand.

2. Small is beautiful.

- One of the management techniques that Branson has become well known for is that he keeps his business units small - very small. He does not like the idea of more than 250 people working in a building. Once the number of employees grows past this point, people start feeling lost in the mix - and the chances that creative ideas will surface goes down as well.

"...instead of letting it grow bigger and bigger and putting it into bigger and bigger offices, I will take, say, the assistant marketing manager, the assistant managing director, the assistant sales manager, and I'll say: you're now the manager of a new company." - Branson

3. When starting multiple companies, leverage with what you already have - but always have a safety net.

- Branson is a risk taker. He is famous for having started many businesses with his line, "Screw it, let's do it." But as much as he puts on the line with each new company, he never risks everything - there is always a something to fall back on.

Giving back -

Finally, the last chapter in the book details Branson's passion for corporate social responsibility. Many companies and entrepreneurs today claim that they care about more than the bottom line, but few really mean it. I got the feeling that Branson genuinely cares.

And at the end of the day that means something.