Showing results by publisher "Ascent Audio" in Entrepreneurship

We all know a visionary leader when we see one. They're bold and prophetic and at the same time pragmatic. They don't just promote change - they drive it, while inspiring and mobilizing others to do the same. Visionaries like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos possess a host of innate qualities that make them extraordinary, but what truly sets them apart is their ability to turn vision into action. Here, Innosight's Mark W. Johnson and Josh Suskewicz introduce a new way of thinking and managing, called "future-back", that enables any manager to become a practical visionary.

Why are some people more successful in business than others? Why do some businesses flourish where others fail? Renowned business speaker and author Brian Tracy has discovered the answers to these profoundly puzzling questions. In this eye-opening practical audio guide, he presents a set of principles or "universal laws" that lie behind the success of business people everywhere.

Have you ever known that you needed to make a change but felt unable to do anything about it? Have you ever felt like you aren't where you are supposed to be and wondered how the people around you managed to find their purpose in life? After realizing that his well-paying, prestigious job was actually making him miserable, Adam "Smiley" Poswolsky started asking these big questions: How do you actually find meaning in the workplace? How do you find work that makes your heart sing?

In Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World, celebrated London Business School entrepreneurship professor, keynote speaker, and bestselling author Dr. John Mullins delivers an eye-opening and insightful exploration of what sets successful entrepreneurs apart from other business people and from those who fail to reach their goals. You'll discover a compelling argument that successful entrepreneurs exhibit one or more of the six break-the-rules mindsets revealed in this book.

In Problem Hunting: The Tech Startup Textbook, Brian Long offers a tactical approach to building a tech company based on his experience growing a multi-billion dollar software business and selling another business to Twitter for nine figures. This is a daily playbook that any budding entrepreneur will return to over and over again as a reference when building their business.

In Originate, Motivate, Innovate, accomplished entrepreneur Shelly Omilâde Bell and author Sheena C. Howard deliver an honest and engaging discussion of how to think differently about getting your business funded as a female entrepreneur of color. In the book, you'll find the mindsets, tools, tactics, and strategies you need to succeed in a venture capital environment that is largely designed by—and for—white males. You'll learn how to apply your own unique story and background and prioritize valuable relationships to create your own pathway to a fully funded business.

The Startup Checklist is the entrepreneur's essential companion. While most entrepreneurship books focus on strategy, this invaluable guide provides the concrete steps that will get your new business off to a strong start. You'll learn the ins and outs of startup execution, management, legal issues, and practical processes throughout the launch and growth phases and how to avoid the critical missteps that threaten the foundation of your business.

Tom Bulleit stood on a stage before a thousand people inside a tent the size of a big-top. It was both his 30th wedding anniversary and his birthday. But there was another thing to celebrate: the dedication of the new Bulleit Distillery in Shelbyville, Kentucky. His great-great-grandfather, Augustus, created his first batch of Bulleit Bourbon around 1830. A century and a half later, Tom fulfilled his lifelong dream, revived the old family bourbon recipe, and started Bulleit Distilling Company.

A comprehensive guide for entrepreneurs from one of the most successful business creators in recent years, The Reluctant Entrepreneur: Turning Dreams into Profits addresses the fears and misconceptions that many people have about starting their own businesses, walking prospective owners through the necessary decisions they need to make before even putting a business plan in place.

Johnson provides an eminently practical framework for understanding how a business model actually works. Identifying its four fundamental building blocks, he lays out a structured and repeatable process for reinventing an existing business model or creating a new one and then incubating and scaling it into a profitable and thriving enterprise. In a new chapter on digital transformation, he shows how serial transformers like Amazon leverage business model innovation so successfully.

David Cohen and Brad Feld, leading advocates for entrepreneurs and startups, team up to provide first-time entrepreneurs with the tools, insights, and experiences to help them do more faster. The authors share their decades of experience working with thousands of startup founders and have enlisted the advice of dozens of Techstars startup founders and mentors. Contributors include Tim Ferriss, Eric Ries, Matt Mullenweg (WordPress), Isaac Saldana (SendGrid), and other successful entrepreneurs.

What does the USA's number one online casket company, a nationally distributed sustainable sausage brand, and the company behind the editing system used by The Matrix have in common? These thriving ventures were founded by unlikely entrepreneurs whose journeys reveal what it takes to succeed in launching and growing a startup.

All in Startup is more than just a novel about eschewing temptation and fighting to save a company. It is a lifeline for entrepreneurs who are thinking about launching a new idea or for those who have already started but can't seem to generate the traction they were expecting. Entrepreneurs who achieve success in the new economy do so using a new "scientific method" of innovation. All in Startup demonstrates why four counterintuitive principles separate successful entrepreneurs from the wanna-preneurs who bounce from idea to idea, unable to generate real revenue.

"Empowerment" can be a mind-numbing topic, but in The 3 Keys to Empowerment, Ken Blanchard and his coauthors use concrete examples, a Q&A format, case histories, and entertaining comments to keep the discussion lively. The authors show that empowerment is not about giving people power, it's about releasing the power they already have.

You check email the moment you lift your head off the pillow in the morning. You bring work with you on vacation, sneak glances at your smart phone during family dinners, and take business calls and texts at your kid's sports games. It's as if you've been forced to make a choice between your company or your life, sacrificing time for yourself and family for the sake of career success. But it doesn't have to be that way.

Business, like any adventure, begins with a leap into the unknown. Brian Tracy's first dream was of a journey. Not a leisurely drive to the beach or a weekend campout-a wide open adventure that would take him 17,000 miles from his home on Canada's Pacific Coast all the way to South Africa. His journey - a harrowing series of false starts, long days, and narrow escapes- taught him about "becoming unstoppable," not only in pursuing adventure but in daily life and business as well.

With more and more professionals looking for alternatives to traditional corporate employment, Become a Franchise Owner! informs would-be franchise owners of the joys and perils of purchasing a franchise. Authored by a trusted, feisty, tell-it-how-it-is independent franchise industry insider, this book offers straightforward, step-by-step tips and advice on how to properly (and carefully) research and select a franchise business.

If you've ever dreamed of starting your own business, this book will give you the information, inspiration, and reassurance you need to get started. It encourages budding entrepreneurs to take the leap into the dark, while shining a bright light on the first six months of a successful start-up. It breaks down what appears to be an Everest-size challenge into a series of small hills for you to conquer.

It's easy for scale-ups, giddy from early startup success, to get ahead of themselves and stumble. It's even easier to be slowed down by the many forces of resistance working against them: drag, inertia, friction, and waste. Drawing on a mastery of lean-based methods for achieving maximum effect with minimum means, private equity operators Matthew E. May and Pablo Dominguez provide listeners with a powerful framework of universally applicable principles that enable any company to effectively accelerate its ability to scale and grow.

You've got a great idea that will increase revenue or boost productivity—but how do you get the buy-in you need to make it happen? By building a business case that clearly shows your idea's value. That's not always easy: Maybe you're not sure what kind of data your stakeholders will trust. Or perhaps you're intimidated by number crunching. The HBR Guide to Building Your Business Case, written by project management expert Raymond Sheen, gives you the guidance and tools you need to make a strong case.