Customer Rating: 
Summary: Motivation for Inventors
Comment: I found this book very inspiring and motivating, especially the second chapter on finding a business to start. It is better to start with a mediocre product than never to get going. .. the continued search for the perfect venture can turn into mere procrastination... Make the decision that you are an entrepreneur. If your plan doesn't work...you are that much closer to ultimate success. This is worth having in your library so you can re-read periodically
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Startup Entrepreneur
Comment: "The Startup Entrepreneur - How you can succeed in building your own company". It provides you with all the insight into running of a business from startup stage right through to corporation size from the entrepreneur's point of view. Reading advice; can sometimes be a tedious task, but this book is backed up by James Cook's real life examples of the trials that he went through as an entrepreneur. Right from starting small, in a service-based business then growing to a large corporation this book missed nothing. Its inspirational, advice driven, with plenty of information on what to do in given situations.
Another interesting topic this book covered was the background information given about many of the "famous" entrepreneurs that came out of the American economy. It is a study in the entrepreneur and their habits and common traits. Commonalties were usually that they didn't care a hell of a lot of what people thought of them, they weren't overly greedy, had the need for control, and also had the need for anonymity.
Chapters in the book include starting, developing, success in starting, winning ways to keep you going, and how to diversify your growing enterprise. It finishes with exit strategies, i.e. stepping down, and/or selling your company. It then has a section on one of the crucial topics for all decision makers in a company - tips on marketing and sales. There was even an interesting section on running a sales team.
This is a well-written book with much of the theory based on James Cook's interesting and extremely varied life in business, both in success and on the brink of failure. Motivational for the young and old entrepreneur, I give it an nine out of ten.
