The full title of this book by Robert Ashton is
Brilliant Checklists for Entrepreneurs: Your Shortcut to Success
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book a 4 Stars rating. This means it is Good to Very Good.
Here is my book review.
Helpful and useful
This book brings two of my main business principles into potential conflict. These are:
1) Accelerating your success by taking advantage of the knowledge and experience of others. Looking at how others have achieved success can be helpful but perhaps even more powerful is learning from the failures of others who have been to the “School of Hard Knocks”.
2) Taking the time to think deeply about your own business. I believe that the vast majority of people don’t make the effort to really think hard because it is hard work. So, as a human race, we think about surface level issues, the symptoms rather than root causes and we snatch at easy answers. Then we’re surprised and disappointed why we didn’t achieve the success we wanted.
I discovered it’s a nice compromise. Some of the checklists are question based, others can easily be turned into relevant questions. For example it may say “do X” and you are forced to ask “how do I do X?”
For those who are looking for answers, the scope of the book is broad but it doesn’t go into anything in much detail. Perhaps it gives you enough to know what to search for when you’re searching Google. In fact, it gives you tips on how to search which is an underrated skill.
I’d have liked it to point to a list of more resources to make it more helpful. It leaves you on your own.
When you’ve got a problem, the book may serve as a useful starting point but you will probably need much more help and guidance.
I can see it’s helpful for those who are starting a business to appreciate what is involved and just how much you need to learn if you’re going to make the transition author Michael Gerber talks about from technician (good at the basic operations of the business) to manager (managing activities and resources) to entrepreneur (who builds a business). It may be a big leap than you expect and it’s one of the big reasons why many people try being a business owner but go back to being employed.
It’s also useful for established business owners as a refresher. I think we’re all good at thinking “I know that” when the real questions are “do I need to do that?” and “am I doing it?” or “Doing it well enough?”
It’s a good book but not an outstanding book so that’s four stars from me.
You can buy the book from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
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