The Entrepreneur Equation: Evaluating the Realities, Risks, and Rewards of Having Your Own Business [Audio CD]

If you are thinking about starting a business and want to be talked out of it, this is the book for you. Carol lays out all the downsides, risks, and pitfalls of entrepreneurship. This book is a cold splash of water for starry-eyed dreamers. But it doesn't offer solutions. Successful businesses are started every day in America, and somehow companies make profits. I'd rather hear about how obstacles are overcome and problems solved. Why the negativity?

Disclosure: I had an early copy of the book to read. Carol is a wonderful person, a sound business mind, and clearly a great writer. Ready for the review?

Sometimes it's easy to say "Go" or "just start" or "just do it"... I've repeatedly found myself saying this to others.

Want to start that new shop on Etsy? "Just go." Want to open that Hot Dog Restaurant? "Do it..."

But... Carol's made me realize an important caveat still exists..one that's easy to forget.

The one about "oh yeah, it's hard work to start a business and actually succeed." I found the book to greatly reminded me of Michael Gerber's E-Myth. You know the book? The one that makes you consider all these things you don't really want to consider because they easily unmask some telling truths about your plan.

Carol helps us answer the tough questions early before it's too late. Carol takes you on a bit of a journey. It's a bit of an adventure book, almost like a board game. "Move forward if and only if you've done this."
Let me explain, the book works like this..

First few chapters.

1) Here are the myths about starting, running, owning a business. Are you starting for these reasons or for that reason?
2) Are you this type of person? Do you possess these qualities?

OK Good. Once you've answered these questions NOW it's time to move on to the next chapter.

3) Now let's look at your idea. Let's do some risk assessment. Let's consider the idea and fit for you and your personality. Does your idea have legs? Let's look at your business plan. How about financing? etc etc...

OK good, have you done that? Now let's move on.

Carol's funny and witty and the book delivers a lot of spunk.

So why 4 stars?

4 stars because we're living in a day and age where we need the starters more than ever. We need the folks that ARE willing to ask these questions later. I know, I know... The book can save you a lot of wasted time, heartache and lost money. Carol has given us a guidebook to help avoid a potential disaster, but I believe such books also have the ability to shy us away from starting anything in the first place. I know as I read the book myself and considered some recent business ideas I've started, I got that scared, anxious, and that resistant feeling I've been trying to avoid. "Ah Geez Carol.. Thanks for making me thinking about that"

Sometimes we need to read the Carol books after the fact. It's the ah-ha moments that allow us to look back and do it better the next time. I believe that's when you want to read Carol's book. Not before you start your first business, or even your second, but after you've got a few failed attempts under your belt.

It's a weird suggestion, but that's the moment I believe Carol's book can help you the most. So YES, Buy it! Stick it on the bookshelf. Lock it in the vault. Don't send it to your kindle just yet. You'll know when you really need it.

Make sense? I still say Go Now.

As an entrepreneur I consider the author's point of view too radical and somehow out of balance. Only warning alone can not make the future entrepreneurs successful. There is very little practical insight or solution offered in this book to avoid the pitfalls. Creating too much fear around the goal of building your own successful business can result in failure anyway. To my opinion she has a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience but colored by her childhood's scarcities and her dread for financial loss. Give yourself permission to question all the materials in this book because reading it blindly can cause you to co-create your own failure.