Get A Life! An inside view of the lives of entrepreneurs – from around the world
Friday, 23 February 2007
Last Updated: Wednesday, 22 August 2007
By Professor Tom McKaskill
Wilkinson Publishing $29.95
Reviewed by Thomas Mann
With his Entrepreneur Series, Professor Tom McKaskill is threatening to become a one-man industry. Get a Life! has just rolled off the presses, but by May he’ll have published another two books; one on Acquisition Strategies, the other an Entrepreneurial Master Class.
With Get a Life! McKaskill focuses his attention on the lives of entrepreneurs as they attempt to negotiate the perilous balance between the consuming passion of their business and side issues such as family, friends and social lives.
Through a rich collection of anecdotes from a variety of business owners, McKaskill tells the stories of ordinary entrepreneurs. Many business guides focus on the Bransons and Gates of the world, but as McKaskill notes in his introduction “in every country some 5% of the population are active entrepreneurs”. Not all of these people can be eccentric multi-millionaires ballooning their way to fame as well as fortune. Through his interviews and personal experiences as a business owner, McKaskill presents the lives of the 4.99% of the population that are entrepreneurs and not constantly in the media spotlight.
Many of the anecdotes will be met will knowing smiles as readers recall similar issues in their own businesses. Other stories offer advice and a chance to learn from the mistakes made by other entrepreneurs. Perhaps the most interesting stories belong in the “Things could always be worse” file – the list of disasters that one enterprising businessman faced when trying to open an internet café in Vanuatu should be pinned to the desk of any grumbling business owner as an inspiration in difficult times.
Get a Life! reassures anyone driven to pursue the risks of the entrepreneurial life that they’re not alone. There’s a whole community experiencing similar ups and downs, and they can all improve their businesses by trading stories.
In this extract from Chapter Two – “Why Do it?”, McKaskill focuses on one of the motivations that drives people towards the entrepreneurial life
Being in control
In a modern western economy, most people have a choice of career. Certainly anyone with intelligence, drive and an interest in business can carve out a corporate career. Choosing the life of the active entrepreneur is therefore a very deliberate choice and says a lot about their desire for independence.
The desire to be in control is a common theme that you hear all the time when you work with entrepreneurs. A passive person and a non-entrepreneur might speak about being an entrepreneur as a type of career; not so the entrepreneur. When entrepreneurs talk about their choice of occupation, they do so with gusto and passion and they often talk about the freedom to follow their dreams or about having the choice as to what they do with their lives. Gavin expresses it well in this statement:
What people must understand is that, if you wish to become an entrepreneur and leave that secure full-time job, life will never be the same again. You will have one of the greatest roller-coaster rides of your life. Owning my company has allowed me to have the life that I want for me and my family. I wouldn’t change that for the world, but just think before you leap. It can be a scary and lonely road at the start and, depending on your level of success, will determine your length of loneliness. It may never end!
Gavin Jones
Director
RCL Developments Pty Ltd
Most entrepreneurs I know talk about creating their own future. Max discovered that he could take control of his own destiny simply by finding opportunities to trade. While he could readily make a career in several different industries, his talent is that he can create a business out of the most mundane activities.
I recently watched him create an internet business selling classic ties. He scoured large quantities of second-hand ties from the rag trade, sorted out the classic brands which he sold over the internet and sold the rest to a recycling company. The entire business was conceived and operational within a few weeks. Max likes the freedom to choose his own path.
I realised that it was not for the money, because if it was, I would still be in real estate or working for someone else making money for them and getting paid a salary. I learned a very valuable lesson which I see every day: You can make money out of anything if you just look around. So if you can make money out of anything, why don’t you do what you love?
Maximiliano Gacitua
New York
Get A Life! An inside view of the lives of entrepreneurs – from around the world.
Published by Wilkinson Publishing, $29.95.
www.wilkinsonpublishing.com.au
www.tommckaskill.com
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