Table of Contents
Preface xiii
Part 1 Beginnings
A few failures first 3
Ambition-the stuff of life 9
Stop making excuses and get started 12
Start-ups with a dash of going concern 14
The correct use of optimism 19
The true value of ideas 22
Saying it v. doing it 26
What's in a name? 27
Is this a good time to start a business? 31
To the recent graduate 34
Part 2 People
Age and the founder 41
Time, energy and ideas 45
Poor children of the rich and successful 49
Joys and perils of a partnership 52
Networking 57
Cliques and clubs-the ties that bind 58
Mentoring 60
The founder's passion 62
Bottom-up management 65
An end to pygmy bosses and grey leaders 68
Coping with talent 72
Trouble within 74
Private-life drama 77
The necessary evil of H R 79
Parts 3 Points of Style
Bring back the Renaissance men 85
There always will be blood 87
Fatherhood and the entrepreneur 90
Some day my prince will come (home early) 92
The delights of the portfolio career 95
The mythical entrepreneur 98
Ritualism in business 101
Made not born 103
The brogue element 107
Part 4 The Capital Pursuit
Tales of the Money Riverbank 113
Moonlighting: the best launch for a start-up 114
Summoning an angel 119
Venture capitalists: on another wavelength 125
Banks 126
Secondary sources of money 127
A word about dumb money 129
Part 5 Formulas
The trouble with trying to spot a winner 135
Five questions I ask myself before investing 138
Business plans 142
A list of don'ts 145
A spell in service 149
By the staff, for the staff 154
Independents will always have their day 157
Franchises-the worst of all worlds 160
Part 6 The Cycle
Turnaround and creative destruction 165
The cycle as told by restaurants 168
Managing in a downturn 172
Faustian pact of a guarantee 177
A sense of dread ails the opinion-makers 180
The consumer's new mantra is value 183
X&Y in a downturn 187
Dishonest dealings 190
Watch out for an epidemic of petty fraud 193
Time to go on the offensive 194
Hard times reveal the true opportunists 196
Losing your reputation 199
Getting fired 202
Part 7 The Entrepreneur at Large
Inventors are heroes 213
Women inventors 216
Innovation and reality 218
All part of a good education 227
The reputation of business 229
What's so terrible about making money? 232
Stress and risk: the secrets of happiness 234
A parlour game for the highly motivated 236
Satisfying the soul 239
Acknowledgements 242
