Entrepreneurial Voices

Entrepreneurial Voices offers first-hand lessons for entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs from the words of business owners.

From the tradition of Studs Terkel's Working, this book presents the lessons and challenges of entrepreneurship from business owners' own voices. The world is full of books in which authors give their views about entrepreneurship, including several written by me.

Each chapter offers essential insights and lessons on successfully starting and growing a business, captured within the context of the business and personal challenges entrepreneurs face daily. What has been most rewarding about compiling the interviews for this book is the mosaic they create about the actual reality of being a business owner. Most interviews are more about what it is like to be an entrepreneur than simply storytelling how they started and grew their business.

The raw material from the long-form, open-ended interviews is distilled down to important themes faced by all entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs. Hours of editing result in practical insights that can guide the reader through the challenges they face in their businesses. The interviewees all stress how learning has contributed to their success. They openly and honestly share these lessons.