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Summary
Summary
In How to Succeed in Business by Breaking All the Rules, Dan S. Kennedy debunks twenty treasured maxims to show would-be millionaires that the techniques they thought were helping them are actually holding them back.A successful entrepreneur and highly sought-after motivational speaker, Kennedy writes in a brisk, no-nonsense style to show how the advice of so-called ?experts? run against the experience of most successful people. The first rule of success, he argues, is to throw out all the other rules.For instance:? Forget just about everything you were ever told about positive thinking. Optimism is helpful, but blind optimism is just plain stupid. Identify and plan for every possible objection or setback that could come your way or be prepared to be thrown for some real loops.' The customer is not always right. Make an effort to understand people's dissatisfaction, but a pain in the neck is a waste of time. Be prepared to ?fire? customers who are never satisfied and concentrate on those you can make happy.' Forget about creativity. Plain, ordinary ideas make people rich every day, as long as they are willing to work very, very hard at the run-of-the-mill things they do.Full of anecdotes about people who defied convention, this energetic, plain-talking guide offers practical, hands-on advice to help you become a successful entrepreneur.
Reviews 3
Publisher's Weekly Review
The subtitle misleads the reader: the book does not present a plan but is a series of somewhat unrelated, anecdote-driven chapters debunking various management sacred cows. Kennedy's points are frequently well taken. Some of the shibboleths he eradicatese.g., "The customer is always right"have long ceased to be truisms. His other contrarian success strategies include such maxims as mix work and play whenever you can; forget everything you were told about persistence; don't treat everyone alike, manage by discrimination. Yet there are contradictions. Chapter 7 advises that "Quitters win a lot"; pages later, the author includes in his advice to young people the story of his phoning a potential employer every day for two weeks to secure an interview. This book does not pretend to be great management theory. Instead, the author offers counter-intuitive advice in a lively, easy-to-read style. It just might give some people the necessary nudge to earn a few million dollars or at least a few hundred thousand. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Some readers may not agree with Kennedy's philosophy or appreciate his brashness. But all will undoubtedly defend his right to communicate his ideas. And much of his campaign to debunk common business myths succeeds, in part because he supports all of his contentions with a case history or three. And in part, too, because a lot of his thinking, or what he calls "contrarian success strategies," rings true. Consider, for example, his invectives against modesty and humility in entrepreneurs. Without a high self-image and confidence in abilities, any businessperson would find it difficult to make money--let alone charge high fees for expertise. Or that the form of packaging, not the actual product, is the differentiating factor between so-so profits and wild success. Or that extensive research and quality programs (along with other current management initiatives) are adequate substitutes for gut instinct and hunches. More than 20 such myths are analyzed in depth and then picked apart--all to the readers' benefit. Street smarts for the small (and to be large) company. --Barbara Jacobs
Library Journal Review
Kennedy (How To Make Millions with Your Ideas, Dutton, 1996) thumbs his nose at conventional paths to success. Here he writes about both famous and not-so-famous people who have become wealthy by defying the so-called "rules." Despite the author's iconoclastic way of thinking, he does believe in hard work and a good education. However, Kennedy maintains that even without a talent for creativity, pleasing personality, professional credentials, forced positive thinking, high IQ, or a natural-born anything, you can get that job, find customers compatible with your business philosophy, and get rich quick. Regarding technology, however, he is contradictory, advising the reader to "avoid seduction by technology," on the one hand, and, on the other, stating that "technology makes it easier than ever to start businesses with very little money." Nonetheless, Kennedy's book will appeal to entrepreneurs prepared to be self-promoting and a bit arrogant.Bellinda Wise, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
