How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America
Robert Jordan
RedFlash Press; 173 pages; $16.47
Reviewed by the Editors of MEQ
Bonnie Baskin is just one of 45 amazing entrepreneurs (albeit the only woman, surprisingly) featured in How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America. Baskin founded ViroMed in Minnetonka, Minn., in the early 1980s, then sold the clinical lab portion in 2000 to Laboratory Corporation of America for $40 million. Baskin credits her father — owner of a successful chemical company — with teaching her all she knows about entrepreneurship.
Jordan has succeeded in penning a book that could serve as “Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur’s Soul.” His format and level of personal exploration have a “feel-good” vibe that will inspire those who like it sweet, but might bore those who don’t. It’s a subjective call, but Jordan acknowledges that he never set out to write the next War and Peace of entrepreneurship.
“This is a book of quotes, thoughts and ideas,” Jordan explains. “The intention here is a quick jolt of inspiration.”
For someone picking up the book for that quick infusion, it might well fill the bill. The format makes for easy perusal. Some quotes are handwritten, others are in various fonts, and the interviews are laid out with photos in an easy-to-read question-and-answer format. At times the book looks as if someone went a little crazy with the desktop design program, but overall the book is easy on the reader’s eyes.
Particularly in today’s hard economic times, there are many books that address an entrepreneur’s financial situation. But not many address the emotional aspects of starting a business.
The entrepreneurs featured in here actually talk about their feelings.
One of these, Dick Costolo, an entrepreneur who sold his content aggregator company, FeedBurner, to Google, is also a comedian who appeared with the renowned troupe “Second City,” among other acts. Costolo talks about investors in a candid, emotionally direct way: “Investors are your friends when things are going great,” he said. “You gotta be smart enough to realize that if things head south, they’re not necessarily going to be your friends anymore.”
And Jim Dolan, founder of the Dolan Company, a public records gathering firm in Minnesota, is honest about his entrepreneurial personality: “The problem is boredom. If I’m bored, I may break something just for the fun of fixing it. That’s kind of rough on the people who actually work in the company, you know?”
Dolan’s quote might make the reader laugh, but anyone who has been around entrepreneurs for very long — especially those who work for them — will also nod their heads in agreement. Dolan hits the description of the easily-bored, tinkering entrepreneur on the button.
Costolo and Dolan — along with many other entrepreneurs interviewed in this book — succeed in coming off as candid, approachable human beings who are willing to share their failures in ways that help other entrepreneurs gain confidence in themselves.
Jordan and the other interviewers in the book also succeed in asking questions that draw an honest, emotional response from the world’s busiest people. That’s hard to come by, and it indicates both the thought and talent present among the interviewers.
Despite its success in portraying the emotional side of entrepreneurship, the book runs the risk of bringing to the fore certain insecurities in the reader: After reading quote after quote of entrepreneurs who have unquestionably “made it,” would-be entrepreneurs may feel like they’ll never measure up to the standards of these people.
Take Chris Moffitt, for example, owner of Rubicon, which has captured at least 60% of the sapphire substrate market for LED screens, phones and tape recorders. Moffitt says: “I had the pitch down fast. And it was easy to raise money.”
Since raising money is so hard for the overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs, some might want fewer inspiring thoughts and more concrete details from Moffitt.
Here’s another one: Raj Soin, who started Modern Technologies Corporation, an engineering company that went public in 2002 when it had revenues of about $100 million. Soin reflects: “I don’t believe in a particular industry, and I don’t believe in technology or product. I believe in people. Give me the right horse, and I’ll bet on any race.” Makes it sound easy, doesn’t he?
Baskin advises us to “see the glass half full,” and Viresh Bhatia, who now leads Hardcore Computer after selling InstallShield for $80 million, tells his fellow entrepreneurs to “just do it.”
Although well-worn, these quotes may well fire up an entrepreneur-to-be who is in the right frame of mind.
It’s worth picking up this book, leafing through it, and finding the quote that inspires you. Budding entrepreneurs could very well find their mantra or, at the very least, a pick-me-up in these challenging times.
