E-book · PDF · 100 pages
Building a Business and Keeping Your Wealth
Lessons from ten business failures and ten business successes
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A practical guide for your first business. Its central argument: good decisions become easier when customers, cash, evidence and agreements are made visible. Ambition matters, but it needs a working method.
What's inside
- Ten businesses that failed, including Blockbuster, Webvan, Pets.com, Theranos and FTX, each followed by a page that applies the lesson to a smaller business
- Ten businesses that succeeded, including Apple, Amazon, Costco, Toyota, TSMC and Berkshire Hathaway
- Ten habits worth practising, drawn from the published letters of Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, without the legend
- Ten startup mistakes to prevent, from mistaking interest for demand to confusing profit with cash
- Protecting your first million: paper valuations, taxes, lifestyle creep, concentrated risk and debt
- Doing business with friends and family: ownership, roles, money arrangements and exit plans
- Business lessons framed as strategic questions from Sun Tzu's The Art of War
How it's written
Every case is dated and backed by sources listed at the back of the book. Worked examples use simple numbers you can check, and each part ends with exercises you can apply to your own business this week. No hype, and no promise that copying anyone will make you rich.
Written for first-time entrepreneurs and owners of young companies. It is an educational guide: for legal, tax or investment decisions, get advice suited to your own situation.