Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"The evangelist of entrepreneurship" ( The Economist ) reveals the true stories about how a range of entrepreneurs created their successful start-ups: hint, many of them never began with a business plan.

Business schools teach that the most important prerequisite for starting a business is a business plan. Nonsense, says Carl Schramm in Burn the Business Plan , who for a decade headed the most important foundation devoted to entrepreneurship in this country. Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Google are just a few of the companies that began without one.

Schramm explains that the importance of a business plan is only one of the many misconceptions about starting a company. Another is the myth of the kid genius--that all entrepreneurs are young software prodigies. In fact, the average entrepreneur is thirty-nine years old and has worked in corporate America for at least a decade. Schramm discusses why people with work experience in corporate America have an advantage as entrepreneurs. For one thing, they often have important contacts in the business world who may be customers for their new service or product. For another, they often have the opportunity to strategize with knowledgeable people and get valuable advice.

Burn the Business Plan tells stories of successful entrepreneurs in a variety of fields. It shows how knowledge, passion, determination, and a willingness to experiment and innovate are vastly more important than financial skill. This is an important, motivating look at true success that dispels the myths and offers invaluable real-world advice on how to achieve your dreams.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. xi)
• Chapter 1 Burn the Business Plan (p. 1)
• Chapter 2 Twelve Things Every Aspiring Entrepreneur Should Know (p. 29)
• Chapter 3 Why Start a Company? (p. 51)
• Chapter 4 What Motivates Entrepreneurs? (p. 73)
• Chapter 5 Can You Survive the Entrepreneur's Curse? (p. 99)
• Chapter 6 Big Companies Can Be Schools for Startups (p. 117)
• Chapter 7 Copycat Entrepreneurs (p. 137)
• Chapter 8 Preventing Failure Before It Happens (p. 159)
• Chapter 9 Don't Waste Time Doing Things That Don't Work (p. 187)
• Chapter 10 Planning for Success (p. 207)
• Chapter 11 Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur (p. 227)
• Acknowledgments (p. 247)
• Notes (p. 249)
• Index (p. 257)

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Burn the Business Plan Preface How can real, practical information help potential entrepreneurs? I have started companies, managed small and large entities, been a venture investor, consulted with big firms and governments on innovation, and spent time as a professor. For ten years, I was privileged to run the Kauffman Foundation, the "Foundation of Entrepreneurship" in Kansas City. Along the way, I was lucky enough to spend time with many successful entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, investors, and business visionaries. These experiences made me realize that many of the popularly held ideas about how, when, and why people start companies probably are wrong. As an economist, I began to look skeptically at the powerful underlying memes--the largely unexamined but widely accepted ideas that shape our view of the world--especially those applicable to new business success. The entrepreneurship memes seemed to be little more than an assortment of stories and case histories that had crystallized into a rubric. So, in 2002, I embraced the opportunity to direct the Kauffman Foundation. The Foundation was a nearly $2 billion endowment established by Ewing Marion Kauffman, an innovative Kansas City pharmaceutical company founder, and was the world's largest philanthropy dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship. This was an irresistible challenge: I knew that a continuing stream of new businesses was critical to society's growth and advancement, and that what entrepreneurs really do is too important to be described by glittering narratives that are not based on evidence. After all, innovative businesses bring us unimagined products and services, create most of the new jobs in our economy, and are the most important force driving growth and creating expanding welfare. Entrepreneurs are too valuable a national resource to be subjected to a potpourri of unsubstantiated aphorisms dressed up as good business advice. The Kauffman Foundation provided the platform to recruit a small army of brilliant economists to initiate serious research on how new businesses really get started and grow. The team extended the work of Joseph Schumpeter 1 and William Baumol, 2 two influential economists who had examined entrepreneurship well before almost anyone knew how to spell it, much less what it meant. Research inside Kauffman and scholarship supported by the Foundation produced a torrent of empirical research on entrepreneurs, which resulted in insights that people now seem to think that we've always known. For example, it was not previously well understood that young firms create more than eighty percent of all new jobs in our economy, or that new business formation plays such a significant role in economic expansion. Now, happily, entrepreneurship is embedded in every discussion about economic growth. The Kauffman team was the first to inject intellectual, empirical rigor into research about how new firms are created. Because of this work, we know much more about how businesses are formed and how they grow and what is likely to improve your chances for success. This book seeks to translate many of these findings, and the experiences of some of the thousands of entrepreneurs whom I've met, into practical guidance and lessons. It is intended to illustrate how businesses really start, grow, and prosper. The first four chapters speak to the "what" of business startups, the following four to lessons learned by those who have gone before you, and the last section is devoted to data-derived facts, not myths, and realistic guidance from successful entrepreneurs. Excerpted from Burn the Business Plan: What Great Entrepreneurs Really Do by Carl J. Schramm All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Schramm is University Professor at Syracuse University and former president of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which was founded by a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and is the primary advocate for the promotion and support of entrepreneurship. He has written several books on entrepreneurship and capitalism (e.g., The Entrepreneurial Imperative) and is recognized as a tireless advocate. Here, the author's thesis is that each entrepreneurial effort is unique and difficult to categorize. He feels that a tool such as a business plan is often not the ideal solution for designing an entrepreneurial venture. The unpredictability of the various elements of a business start-up are examined in depth with examples in several diverse fields. Schramm believes that work experience and the knowledge of when to change or adapt are most important and difficult to plan for. He notes that years of business experience and practice is most often the key to successful start-ups. VERDICT The author's expertise and candid presentation make this a valuable addition for public and university libraries.-Littleton Maxwell, formerly with Robins Sch. of Business, Univ. of Richmond © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Schramm (Inside Real Innovation), a professor at Syracuse University and former president of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, applies his experiences in the academy to this thoughtful study of "how businesses really start, grow, and prosper" and dispels quite a few business myths along the way. For one, he provides compelling evidence that strategic planning and the ubiquitous business plan "[make] no sense in the context of entrepreneurial startups." Schramm also writes that, despite disproportionate media representation, youthful founders don't represent the future for startups but rather represent "the unicorns or supernovas-beautiful to behold but rare." A book about entrepreneurs wouldn't be complete without some stories from high-profile founders, and here these include James Dyson, designer of the bagless vacuum cleaner, and Howard Head, inventor of the first successful aluminum ski. There is so much dense information in Schramm's book that end-of-chapter summaries, as well as charts, graphs, or graphic call-outs, would help reinforce key information. Still, the book finishes big, with 10 encouraging reminders, including "Make Innovation Happen" and "Build Your Company As Your Life." Addressed most directly to budding entrepreneurs, this guide drives home Schramm's advice to "chart a different path to becoming an entrepreneur" by burning the business plan. Agent: Alice Martell, Martell Agency. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* This business book lives up to its billing. Schramm, author of The Entrepreneurial Imperative (2006), understands well the nature, pitfalls, and demands of entrepreneurship, having led the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (a nonprofit specializing in the subject) for years. Now he sets forth in real, practical, down-to-earth ways his knowledge of everything from debunking myths to identifying actions for success. Every one of his tenets is backed by research and a slew of notable and quotable case histories. For example, motivation references eight sources and profiles the founders of Yeti coolers (the Maserati of fishing equipment), Pink Stork (morning sickness remedies), and old-reliable GEICO insurance. Readers can review Schramm's six-question survey to determine if franchising is the goal, from identifying a niche-stable market to available expert advice. His statistics alone fascinate; for instance, a Johns Hopkins study underscores the disproportionate number of individuals with dyslexia who are forming businesses. And the average entrepreneur, far from Silicon Valley stereotypes, is 39 and has worked in corporate America for at least a decade. Remember Richard Branson's definition of an entrepreneur, Someone who jumps off a cliff and builds an airplane on the way down. --Jacobs, Barbara Copyright 2018 Booklist