100 Great Businesses and The Minds Behind Them

A book review on 100 GREAT BUSINESSES AND THE MINDS BEHIND THEM from the cool hunter:

The typical business success story starts like this: Mr X has a brilliant idea in the bath one morning. He calls a friend, and together they build the invention in the garage. Then they go out and sell it from the back of Mr X’s car, and before they know it, they are both millionaires. We like these stories because they make us think we could easily do the same thing. All we need is that great idea, right?
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As the one hundred businesses in this book all demonstrate, the real talent lies in knowing what to do next: how to finance and build the product, when and how to market it, and—most importantly—how to persist with it and continue to believe in it through the inevitable difficult times.
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If nothing else, reading through the one hundred profiles here demonstrates that there is no single path to becoming an entrepreneur and no single type of successful business. Nor is there a “correct” way to make a business work. Each entrepreneur has their own set of circumstances, their own personality, quirks, and survival skills. They develop their own leadership style to suit their circumstances to learn to succeed. When opportunity knocks, they listen. The simple truth is that there are as many ways to succeed in business as there are great businesses.