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Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future

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How to succeed at work and life—in an increasingly unpredictable world

In a world where you can no longer plan or predict your way to success, how can you achieve your most important goals? It’s a daunting question. But in today’s environment, where change is the only constant, it’s a question everyone must answer. This is true whether you are an innovator or an entrepreneur, a manager or a newly minted graduate.

The first step, say the authors of this book, is this: “Just start.” In other words, take action now and learn as you go.

Written by a trio of seasoned business leaders, Just Start combines fascinating research with proven practices to deliver a reliable method for helping you advance toward your goals—despite the uncertainty that is all too common today. Babson College President Leonard Schlesinger, organizational learning expert Charles Kiefer, and veteran journalist Paul B. Brown share their own deep and varied experiences and draw from a source where striving amid constant uncertainty actually works: the world of serial entrepreneurship. In this world, people don’t just think differently—they act differently, as well.

Using this novel approach, Just Start will help you:

• Determine the best strategy and tactics when the future is uncertain
• Minimize financial risk in every decision you make
• Attract like-minded people to what you want to do (and learn why this is important)
• Understand why “Act. Learn. Build (so you can) Act again” is the best course of action when facing the unknown

So throw out your forecasting tools and shrug off that nagging frustration that comes with constant uncertainty. Just Start distills for you the very essence of what makes people successful in today’s volatile environment. This book is your guide to achieving your goals—whether your project is professional or personal, or somewhere in between.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2012

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629 people want to read

About the author

Leonard A. Schlesinger

15 books5 followers

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5 stars
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78 (28%)
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34 (12%)
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
Profile Image for Cara.
Author 21 books101 followers
April 16, 2013
This is a pretty simple book. The idea is that when you can't predict the future, act quickly (take the first small step) with the means at hand within your acceptable loss. Look at what happened and learn. Repeat until you get where you want to be, or you no longer feel like pursuing this.

For situations that are predictable, traditional analysis is still the way to go. But for situations where there are a lot of unknowns, this is better. The authors call it creaction. It's the one thing successful entrepreneurs have in common.

Notes:
p. 31
One key is desire. If you don't want it enough, you won't do it. "Love, as we define it, is the yearning for the realization of what you seek to create on its own terms. Love is caring enough about the creation that you will do what it takes for it to become real."

p. 33
What makes people pull the trigger vs. just talking about their idea at cocktail parties forever?
"The answer boils down to this: when you want something, have the means at hand to get it, and the next step is within your acceptable loss, the most natural thing in the world is to act. In fact, it's almost unnatural not to."

p. 165 how to explain to get others on board:
"Fred, I wold like to be able to create or accomplish X. Doing so would be really meaningful to me for these reasons: A, B, and C. This is why I want to do it. I can't predict right now if this is going to work. But in teh situation I'm in, action is really much smarter than doing nothing. So I want to act.
"It's reasonable to act now because the cost is low. And maybe you've got some ideas about me lowering it further. And it's not just me by myself. I have these other people around who want to help me.
"So, that's what I want to do. And I think you could play a big part by doing Z."
28 reviews2 followers
October 15, 2019
Summary:
1. Know what you want
2. Take a smart step towards that desire as quickly as you can - act with the means at hand; stay within your acceptable loss and bring others along with you if it makes sense
3. Make reality your friend. Accept what is and build off what you find
4. Repeat step 2 and 3 until you accomplish your goal or until you decide it’s impossible.

-

Thinking (differently or otherwise) is great but absolutely nothing changes until you act.

Before you act, you need to know what you want. If you don’t eventually develop a strong desire, odds are you will never see your idea through.

-

Why desire is SO important?
4 questions to ask before starting any new venture:
1. Is it feasible within the realm of reality?
2. Can I do it?
3. Is it worth doing? Will there be a market for what I want to sell? Is there potential to turn a profit? Will people appreciate what I’m trying to do? Does it make sense to put in all this effort?
4. Do I really want to do it?

-

To assess your acceptable loss:
1. What are my assets?
2. What can I afford to lose?
3. What am I willing to lose in the worst case?

-

Action always leads to evidence and learning; thinking does not.

Profile Image for John.
31 reviews9 followers
December 29, 2013
Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations took 8 years to become a best selling book. I expect the same thing will happen with this ground breaking book.

The conventional wisdom is that business startup depends on market research and careful, formal planning.

Every college and university teach those working with startups to ask, "Have you written a business plan?"

If this conventional wisdom was valid we'd have a planned economy, not a market economy.

What's driven the phenomenal growth of this country until the early 70s was the fact that nearly all startup were boot strapped, there were not written business plans.

That fact was clearly demonstrated with the research of Dr. Amar Bhide, documented in a series of articles in the Harvard Business Review and culminating in his book "The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses" in 1994, at which time the publisher of Inc Magazine said it was the most important book about startup ever written.

He was also influence by the first hand experience he had growing up with a successful entrepreneur, from how he could observe what he calls in the book "opportunistic adaptation." We spent a day on the University of Denver campus talking with instructors and visiting classes, the way he would explain the process, "you don't want to buy this lamp, here, how about this rug."

Bhide's book was well researched, well documented, well written, but still it was ignored by the Small Business Administration, the tax-funded mechanism set up in 1953 by big businesses with the intention, I believe, to snuff out the entrepreneurial spirit of America, along with the entrepreneurship educational network across the country.

More recently Sarah Sarasvathy has reached similar conclusions to Bhide using a different research methodology.

The authors give credit to Sarasvathy, but not to Bhide. When I asked them about this on a webinar, Len admitted he knew Amar, had taught with him at Harvard, he was very much aware of his insights, and that it was a mistake not to have given him any credit at all.

What are the Bhide/Sarasvathy insights that are incorporated into this book? That in past years when the USA economy was flourishing, successful business did not start the way the SBA has said since 1953 that they should start. This SBA drumbeat has been picked up by every college and university entrepreneurship program. Show me one that requires Bhide's book to be read. Outrageous!

Insights include the fact that successful entrepreneurs in the past did not do formal market research or engaged in formal planning. The business plan competitions are an enormous was of time and money, and they teach the wrong lesson.

Insights include the fact that successful entrepreneurs bootstrap, they don't try and borrow money. As Mark Cuban has said, "only a fool would borrow money to start a business," yet students of startup today are being taught about how to impress venture capitalists.

Insights include the fact that successful entrepreneurs don't think long range, they for sure don't have an exit strategy when they are just starting. Recently a survey found that 87% of business owners do not have a exit plan.

So where does Just Start fit in? This bold book is a radical attempt to right the wrong, the festering wound that erupted in 1970 when Nixon went to China, the culmination of the disease that was spread by the SBA, that was perhaps was first allowed to infect this country in 1910 when Harvard awarded the first MBA.

And it has been virtually ignored. It should have been at the top of the best seller list, and in my opinion, as I said earlier, I believe that could still happen.

What will bring that about would be a changing of the guard at the Kauffman Foundation. Marion Kauffman was an entrepreneur very much in the classical mold, starting a very, very successful business out of the trunk of his car. He died, and it appears his well intentioned widow, now deceased, was misled, and a mechanism for pouring gasoline on the academic approach to entrepreneurship that is killing startup in this country just as surely as some see the academic approach to poetry is killing of real poets and poetry (see Epstein's column in last April 1st Wall Street Journal.)

There is hope. Steve Blank and his student Eric Ries have moved away somewhat from the academic approach to startup, at this point it's hard to tell if Startup Weekends, Global Entrepreneurship Week, Tech Stars, etc etc are helping or hurting.

What is clearly the major problem is the Small Business Administration. When I asked Steve Blank what he thought of the SBA startup efforts, the whole complex of activities from SCORE (I've suggested they should change their name to SQUASH), SBDCs (Small Business Development Centers) across the country that disseminate the SBA research/planning propoganda, a network created by virtually bribing local chambers of commerce. Blank has told me that from his perspective at Stanford, he didn't know anyone who has anything to do with the SBA.

That may be true for the Stanford crowd, but the deadly network is having an impact, it is clear.

For proof of the deadening effect, the smoking gun, the statistics that show our stagnations, see Nobel economist Edmund Phelps recently published, very fine Mass Flourishing. When Phelps was introduced at Oxford, it was said the book will, "transform economics." Some have said it's the most important book since The Wealth of Nations.

Phelps effectively demonstrates that what he calls corporatism combined with socialism have just about killed off the new economy that build this country, research and planning have choked off the vitalism and dynamism that we saw from about 1840 or so to 1970.

Phelps offers some remedies worth considering, for one thing study groups in Washington DC that would take up his book, and I'd suggest they also read Bhide and this book that is under consideration here, Just Start.

As a matter of fact, I suggest that the DC study groups start with Just Start, or at least read the one page summary in the back. What do we want? To restore vitalism and dynamism into our economy. What are the smart steps we can quickly take in that direction?

The first thing let's do, let's kill the SBA!

If you are serious about startup, skip the SBA. Instead buy this book, take an afternoon and digest it, then the next morning Just Start!

The book suggests bringing other people along. I always suggest that those starting check with a good CPA before investing a lot of time or money. A good CPA will help you quickly see the financial implications of what you are considering, and they will make sure that you can skip going to a lawyer until you are further along.

But don't expect encouragement. For that attend one of our Small Business Chamber IDEA Cafe Startup Workshops. Or at least watch The Startup Show, live by 5 p.m. Mountain each day on my JohnWren.com or YouTube Live Events or Google + Live Hangouts.

This life is very short, so Just Start!

Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change

Profile Image for Ywun.
37 reviews2 followers
August 21, 2019
To say it honesty, I don't like it. The book starts pretty impressive with mentioning that the authors have studied many serial entrepreneurs regarding with their actions in their ways to successful businesses. To my surprise, I didn't find much information regarding to the actual, successive experience of these serial entrepreneurs whom I expect to see them linking with the important notes respectively. The book not really is in line with its concept throughout the book where it frequently mentions like a hundred times that creation can provide evidences which is kind of an advantage of creation compared to prediction, but the book doesn't include much evidence about the successful stories of creation itself while it should have indeed.
Profile Image for Jenny.
46 reviews10 followers
October 10, 2018
This is one of those books that I read at the perfect time in my life! It motivated me to take action on the things that I've been thinking about doing forever - opening my Etsy store, moving my mom out of the house to live a better life. Lightbulbs turned on various times throughout this book. Things I overwhelmed myself with now have been lifted off my shoulders because they're no longer on my to-do list. Very grateful for this book and will be keeping to read again down the road for when I need that lightbulb to turn back on.
58 reviews
January 10, 2018
The premise of this book is so simple. Aim and Fire. However, most of us have been programmed to need so much data to act that it cripples us before we begin. I like this book's challenge to get started and learn early on what is going to work rather than trying to plan everything out and being wrong. you haven't lost much by taking that first step.
Profile Image for Gary Corless.
4 reviews
February 24, 2024
Why isn’t this book on school’s required reading list?

Too often entrepreneurialism is glamorized yet not explained. This book debunks many myths that keep people from becoming ‘creators’. Take the nest step before you overthink it…and read it.
Profile Image for John Scargall.
39 reviews3 followers
February 7, 2018
If you're a procrastinator or a perfectionist, this book could be the kick in the butt you need to just get started on creating your dreams!
Profile Image for Dash Dhakshinamoorthy.
34 reviews8 followers
June 7, 2021
Life Changing

This is one of the best books on entrepreneurship I’ve read. It’s not just about how to launch a venture but how to start anything.

Explains effectual principles in a simple and effective way. The authors call it creaction. Creaction or Effectuation, this is a book you want to have when you are ready to start something - just start!
Profile Image for Kaija.
662 reviews
August 5, 2016
Full disclosure, I read this book for work and am not currently trying to be an entrepreneur.

It is a very quick and fast book. That pertains to reading it, and to how it goes through their version of entrepreneurship. As the book repeatedly says, it's not "ready, aim, fire", it's "aim, fire". All I could think about when reading this book was "ACTION!"

If you are a motivated person looking for a book on how to be an entrepreneur, this is the book for you. It doesn't bog you down with lots of studies, and endnotes. It gives their version of creation and prediction and many examples.
If you are a person who likes to consider their options and think this book isn't for you. Unless you want to change your way of thinking to be an entrepreneur, according to them.

Overall, it's fine. If you're thinking entrepreneurship might be for you, this might be a good place to start.
A formatting note, I hate how this book (and others) include examples of whatever they're talking about in a separate box that continues for maybe half a page, or a page, right in the middle of a sentence. This book is terrible for that.
Profile Image for Gregory.
625 reviews12 followers
February 6, 2016
As the authors state in Chapter Six "how is this different from ready, aim, fire." The authors answer that it's more about aim and fire. They then spend an inordinate amount of time trying to convince you that this is something new. It's not.

The basic premise is that you can plan but you have to use what you have at hand to take action. Not a bad premise but many better books have already been written along this same arc.

The authors also have a word mashup of creation and action or "creaction" as their hook. To me it is unwieldy and a failed gimmick. The best story in the book is in the beginning about how "The Black Eyed Peas" formed a band, read that and you will have gotten the best parts.

90 reviews3 followers
July 23, 2012
I highly recommend this book to anyone thinking about starting their own business. The authors take research about and interviews with successful entrepreneurs (two or more successful businesses started) and come up with a fascinating premise about the way they think and the way the rest of us were taught to think. They also claim that when we were babies and small toddlers we did think like entrepreneurs but society changed that in a hurry.
Very interesting and definitely a 5 star read for budding business owners.
Profile Image for Abdurrahman AlQahtani.
92 reviews171 followers
June 7, 2013
Can't call this a book! I felt as if I'm hearing a gossib over a coffee table, and at most it can feed a blog with few posts. "Just Start" and don't do extensive planning is the idea that the auther is hammering again and again without a clear framework or consistent flow!
I felt this would be the result after reading the introduction when the auher changed the way he looked at the subject, and I felt it's going to be a mess.
Profile Image for Tammy.
86 reviews22 followers
November 19, 2015
The concept of the book was helpful and appreciated for someone like me, especially the fact that they're not pushing for "creaction" to be something that substitutes prediction, but merely a method of engaging with unknown outcomes. It was an extremely easy read with short sections and summary points. There wasn't anything particularly extraordinary about this book.
36 reviews
June 9, 2012
This book is a clear call to action. It creates a new kind of action, a CreAction, which neatly blends creation through action. It's a good read if you need inspiration to start something, inspiration given to you by seasoned entrepreneurs.
Profile Image for David Silva.
16 reviews26 followers
January 25, 2015
Very interesting guide and framework to create actions that you can apply in everyday, not only for businesses or startups, but for those areas of life in general with high uncertainty levels. Is pretty short, worth the read.
Profile Image for Cora Reilly.
4 reviews3 followers
Read
May 2, 2012
I didn't finish this book, it was boring so I just stopped reading it, -10 stars.
Profile Image for Prabhat Sharma.
2 reviews
May 20, 2012
‎After a long time comes a Path Breaking book that rises above the so-called 'Conventional Wisdom' & that is Contemperory to the Uncertain Times, that we live in today...! 4 Stars from me...!!!
3 reviews1 follower
July 9, 2013
The main take away is inspiring and delightfully simple. However, I felt like it was adequately conveyed in the first couple chapters making the rest of the book a bit of a chore to wade through.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews

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