Dan Priestley’s book is a really insightful book packed with useful knowledge for creating an outstanding business idea, from a man who has been there and done that and been very successful. So what is the entrepreneur revolution? Priestley starts this book by stating that it is the change from the industrial revolution to a new age where most of the population will work for themselves or as part of a small entrepreneurial team. This is the training guide for us to ready ourselves for the new dawn.
A point I particularly liked when reading this book was that he angrily dismissed the usual answers people give to the question “what do you do for a living?”. Almost everyone gives the answer of what their job is or main source of income, but why not state what you want for your life and what drives you to stay alive? Why not say a future software business founder for example? To give your job is not what you live for, what you live for is your passion, purpose and visions. When you think bigger you will do bigger. I think this is a lovely point to make as it will help you see yourself not as a cog in a wheel but you are bigger than any job and are going to follow your dreams and aspirations.
Priestley goes on to generate a list of 10 challenges to help improve what he calls the “Empire Builder mindset”. These all have specific purposes and areas to train you in which he goes into detail in the boom but the brief outline is;
- Make three calls-not to friends or family but to 3 people who may advance the idea you have. See what gems of information come up from these calls, you may learn something invaluable.
- Get your monkey brain a bank account-set up a new bank account and put 10% of your income there which helps you feel safer when taking risks.
- Stop spending time with people who bring you down-Get rid of any proverbial dead wood of friends that don’t inspire you. Spend more time around people who bring the best out of you.
- Carry £1000 cash on your person at all times-gives you power over the reptile brain as you needn’t worry about money when you can afford pretty much anything you see in a shop.
- Buy two lunches per week for people you don’t yet know-this helps build a good network of people and you a great chance to get amazing contacts for the future.
- Tune out from the news-if the news is relevant then you will hear about it from someone and don’t need traditional news to give you all the irrelevant
- Keep a journal-make lists of tasks, write down goals, draw pictures, note down projects for the future.
- Plan your holidays first-this forces you to take the time to rest instead of just saying you will go on holiday but never give yourself the time off.
- Get structured-make appointments with accountants and lawyers to discuss business and wealth-building plans.
- Get your team in place-build a good team of people around you who can help implement ideas and achieve the big goals for the future.
Dan goes into more detail in the book, but these are the basic concepts which in my opinion are a really useful guide to building your business.
The major crux of the book for me and why I found it such an excellent resource for wannabe startups like myself was his talk of his ascending transaction model or ATM. This was a series of progressive things that your business should offer. With claims of turning a personal trainer from a £50k salary to £200k salary in just one year and a consultant go from £80k to £500k this seems to be a proven system-although no one ever mentions the losers! There are 4 parts of this model discussed in detail in the book and it is worth buying just for his discussion of this. These 4 parts are,
- Gifts-free items to the world without expecting anything in return.
- Products for Prospects-product for people who want to try you without committing too much money or time.
- Core product-The products you are famous for.
- Logical next step-an extension on from the core product that carries on your business with a client in a logical way.
He describes these in great detail on how they all work together to turn your idea into a great business as well as going into the rules for creating each one. I can only urge you to buy this to find out how this system works as I think it is a brilliant suggestion from a man who knows a thing or two about business.
This is a real gem of a book and greatly recommend for wannabe startups anywhere, it has loads more knowledge not discussed in this post.
5/5 rating!
WannabeStartUp 