Never Get a "Real" Job: How to Dump Your Boss, Build a Business and Not Go Broke

by Scott Gerber

Young serial entrepreneur Scott Gerber is not the product of a wealthy family or storied entrepreneurial heritage. Nor is he the outcome of a traditional business school education or a corporate executive turned entrepreneur. Rather, he is a hard-working, self-taught 26-year-old hustler, rainmaker, and bootstrapper who has survived and thrived despite never having held the proverbial "real” job. In Never Get a "Real" How to Dump Your Boss, Build a Business, and Not Go Broke, Gerber challenges the social conventions behind the "real" job and empowers young people to take control of their lives and dump their nine-to-fives—or their quest to attain them. Drawing upon case studies, experiences, and observations, Scott dissects failures, shares hard-learned lessons, and presents practical, affordable, and systematic action steps to building, managing, and marketing a successful business on a shoestring budget. The proven, no-b.s. methodology presented in Never Get a "Real" Job teaches unemployed and underemployed Gen-Yers, aspiring small business owners, students, and recent college graduates how to quit 9-to-5s, become their own bosses, and achieve financial independence.

Genres: Business, Self Help, Nonfiction, Personal Development, Finance, Entrepreneurship, Psychology

265 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 2, 2010

Reviews

[Eric]

I'm really glad I didn't pay any money for this. The book starts out promising enough, with some nice snarkiness about the curse and affliction of "real jobs." That part's fun. When the author gets to the actual advice about starting up a business, the book turns stale and uninteresting. Why? Because the advice is so pedestrian. For example, when attempting to make a difficult decision, the author advises making a list of pros and cons. Who knew? Also, when you're looking to partner with someone in your start-up, pick someone dependable and trustworthy. Gosh, I never would have figured that out.

To be fair, I'm probably not the author's target audience. I'm too old. He's going after college-age folks who probably were never taught such basic common sense in high school. Trouble is, as someone stuck in a "real job," I was hoping for a bit more than that.

[Emmanuel Ayeni]

I joined this amazing book courtesy of the blinkist app. It shares amazing ways to quit your job and start up your business with proper planning and preparation that ensures that you don't join the statistics of failed businesses.

[Martha Channell]

I wish I could tell you how many time this book tells the reader to move in with your parents, start your business in your parents basement, think smaller, don’t try to start something new or unique, ask your parents for help…

[Drew]

Uhmm while the info given was not so bad, I did not like the feeling that I was being reprimanding the whole time for "being so stupid". Every other page was filled with the assumption that I thought I knew what I was talking about in "thinking" I wanted to go into business for myself.

A lot of what was stated in the book is info readily accessible in just about any other book with lots of online resources sprinkled in. But hey what do I know? I am far from a serial entrepreneur.

~Erika

[Michael]

The hard part about this book is sifting the few valuable nuggets from the over-the-top ongoing ranting. I admire candid guidance, but the ongoing negative diatribe seems more aimed at discouraging people from becoming a competing entrepreneur than helping them toward success. The best part was actually the one paragraph business plan.

[Saajan Ali]

I was expecting much more but unfortunately it didn’t satisfy me. Well, the book has got no practical advices instead it is full of theoretical knowledge.

[Becky]

I was pretty disappointed in Never Get a "Real" Job: How to Dump Your Boss, Build a Business and Not Go Broke. It contained a lot of generalizations about how bad "real" jobs were and how great owning your own business is, without much data to back up the claims or details to explain these claims. For one thing, the author seems to assume that everyone working a real job is working long hours, while everyone who owns their own business has freedom when it comes to time. With (many) exceptions, I have generally observed the opposite. Most people who I know who own their own business seem to be a slave to that business. Everyone I know who has not taken a vacation in over 5 years owns their own business. I know this is not true for everyone, though, so I was hoping for some information on what type of business ownership would be more likely to provide the freedom he talked about. But there was no specific information of any kind given. Just general business platitudes that most people already know. Like be careful who you go into business with. Choose your partner wisely. Or look at the cost before you jump in. Or do research first. It's crucial to keep costs low and to focus on generating revenue. It all seemed pretty vague.

[Butterfly92]

This book was the perfect read after attending a seminar on starting a business. I could compare what I learned during the seminar with the content of the book and get some great ideas on how to survive the crutial first 1-2 years. I feel more comfortable that it might actually work. I still haven't reached the point of starting my own business yet but I will use the time to prepare as best I could. If you are in a similar situation this book could help you out a lot.

[Geoffrey]

I lived and/or do live this life and I can tell you that 97% of this book is very accurate. I was looking for something with a bit more story and less just listing resources, etc. - so that was a turnoff as far as readability goes. At the end of this day, this book has the information that you need to go off on your own, but the inspiration will need to be found elsewhere.

[Amy Sasser]

Was very meh for me. I don’t quite know what I was expecting, but I feel like nothing in this book was very prolific. There were a few chapters here and there or a few little snippets that I was like oh this was useful let me write this down or it sparked an idea, but was mostly background noise.

[Danessa]

Not as informative as I thought it would be. Mostly “rants” and sharing of common-sense knowledge.

[Tim Lee]

Terrible advice from start to finish.

[Anders]

A surprisingly good book about entrepreneurship. I have read a lot of books on the subject but this one is one book I will return too again and again

[Radu Vunvulea]

Well, not in top 50 of my personal taste. Good concepts, presented in a wrong way.

[Vinicius]

It is a great normal book, trying to inspire and leverage your capacity of not getting a "real job" and create your own opportunities

[Jennifer]

Part of my Book Fest 2023! Tons of info. Notes in my book journal.

[Daniel Laufer]

Pretty interesting read, but it's ...very... optimistic about some of the ways to "hack" your life.

[David Boee]

A bit outdated.

[Tara]

Meh

[Alycia]

Only got through half. "Suggestions" of websites and vendors felt like a sales pitch. I might recommend to an aspiring entrepreneur.

[angeline]

This felt like a hard-push entrepreneurship manifesto: stop waiting for permission, stop relying on employers, stop romanticising the “safe job,” and build something yourself.

It didn't land for me.

I think there were some genuinely useful entrepreneurial advice around execution, testing demand, keeping costs low and not waiting forever to start. But the anti-job/hustle framing is overly simplistic, aggressive and full of survivorship bias. It treats entrepreneurship as morally or strategically superior to employment when the reality is much more nuanced. Useful nuggets, weak overall philosophy...

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0 ★ — DNF
Usually a did-not-finish. Either I had no interest in continuing, or I actively disliked the reading experience.

1 ★ — Bad
Very little to redeem it. I disliked most of it and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

2 ★ — Bad, but salvageable
Still didn’t like it overall, but there was something there...potential, an interesting idea, decent writing, or a few redeeming qualities that saved it from being a 1 star.

3 ★ — Enjoyed the ride
Decent. I enjoyed reading it, but it wasn’t particularly memorable or life-changing. Wouldn’t reread it, but I don’t regret reading it either.

4 ★ — Really liked it
A genuinely good read. I may or may not recommend it depending on the person, and it may or may not stick with me long-term. Probably wouldn’t reread, but I’m very glad I read it.

5 ★ — Loved it
Memorable, impactful, and something I’ll actively recommend to other people. I won’t forget it, and I can see myself rereading it in the future.

[Erline.]

What's not to love about this book? Scott Gerber provides readers with practical tips they can use to get their businesses started even with the tightest of budgets. He uses plain and simple language and illustrates his points very clearly. The one downside if I can even really call it that is most of the sources/websites he recommends to use as tools are US based and some are unavailable or not relevant to others (I live in the UK) but honestly that isn't a big deal, you can do your own research to find tools local to you.

All in all, a good read if you're serious about starting your business, if not then this REALLY isn't the book for you...trust me.

I noticed some comments about the authors use of swear words and downgrading their rating because of this, honestly if that's all you took from this book then it really wasn't for you.

[Joél Steinmann]

this book really inspired me to take immediate action. not only to start a business it seems highly applicable also to improve your current job, remove bad habits and find ways to get successful after all. Scott Gerber shows easy ways to really start a business. He questions very hard the use of business plans that are gone from worst to best case scenarios. Since you will never be right anyway with your guesses, who needs business plans anyway. In exchange he shows you what helps you to start a business like to structure your selling process and create revenue from the very first day in business. His main statement is cash flow, cash flow and once again cash flow. you need to generate immediate revenue to be successful and survive. but more on that in his very easy to read book.

[Upom]

A solid book of advice on how to pursue entrepreneurship, but like all advice, should be taken with a a grain of salt. The author's tone could be best described as "dickhead," which can be irritating. His advice is also often contradictory, such as when he states one should be bluntly honesty in business, and then goes on to illustrate several examples where subterfuge seemed to serve him best. Nonetheless, Gerber illustrates offers some solid tips, especially on how to make a small business seem far more legitimate on a shoestring budget. Though the book is primarily aimed at those who are bootstrapping, its a decent guide for anyone who wants to start entrepreneurship.

[Matthew Bradley]

Without a doubt, written by a hardened New Yorker!

Pretty decent, honest, no-BS, real book about entrepreneurship. It goes in the opposite direction of most books and takes a realistic--bordering on pessimistic--view of life as a start-up founder, which is absolutely fantastic. By shattering illusions and delusions, better decisions can be made.

My only qualm with this book is it seems to take the middle view: don't aspire to big things, aspire to something between greatness and shittiness, while still turning a profit over the long-term. There's nothing wrong with it in and of itself, and there are definitely some lessons to be learned when starting a company of any size.

[Marc]

Actually a pretty good "no-nonsense" primer to what it takes to start a personal-scale business. Most of the advice was most applicable to service businesses like tutoring, video/photo, web, consulting, etc.

But there were some great nuggets of strategy and framework for how to think about your business, and also a good selection of current resources (mostly web-based) that can help out the entrepreneur.

[Yodamom]

Fantastic kick in the pants motivational book. His advice, get off you rear and do it, start something. You don't have to plan it to death, or have bog bucks you just have to do it, make it work then make it grow. Ok, I know, duh we all know that. but do we all do it ? No, we over-plan over finance, over prepare for something before we even give it a try.
I really enjoyed this in your face book. I plan on reading it again.

[Shaila Luther]

Insightful raw transparency behind the dirty work of being an entrepreneur. One paragraph startup plan vs. spending unnecessary time building it out before getting the product/service out there. Start testing and see what works. Suggestions for efficient ways to work (splitting time into buckets: strategic planning, internal operations, revenue generation) and finding out how and when you are most productive.

[Joel Kimble]

“In tomorrow’s world, being an entrepreneur will be a requirement for success.” This is beginning to ring true in the world today and will only be highlighted more in years to come. As life gets increasingly difficult on our society’s working class the only way to get ahead is through entrepreneurship. This book is great for developing a mindset to get into entrepreneurship.

[Rick Thomchick]

Cheeky and unvarnished, Scott Gerber takes a "Fight Club" approach to entrepreneurial coaching. This book is obviously targeted at Gen-Yers who need constant overstimulation to hold their attention, but it's a fascinating and entertaining read nonetheless.