Young Guns: The Fearless Entrepreneur’s Guide to Chasing Your Dreams and Breaking Out on Your Own

Quick Overview: This book is about Entrepreneurship and what it takes to be an Entrepreneur in this current economic climate.  Robert’s timely advice and guidance given in this book is a good solid base for anyone who is looking at being or wanting to be a future entrepreneur.

The way I would break this book down if I was using this as a text to study from or a learning guide would be like you see below.  I will also pull out some important points for you from the chapters that I think the author did a great job of illustrating in this book.  Please note these are only teasers you will have to read the book to get the full value of these points.

Phase One: (Thinking Phase)

Chapters 1 thru 3

• The Power of making decisions.
• Resilience
• Enthusiasm and Energy
• Persistence
• Commitment
• The Big Idea

Phase Two: (Getting Started and Moving toward your Dreams Phase)

Chapters 4 thru 8

• Keeping an Open Mind
• Mentors
• Partners
• Gut-Check Moments
• Taking Action
• Communicating
• Staying Balanced
• You Are The Company

Phase Three: (Pushing your business forward and Servicing your Customers Phase)

Chapters 9 thru 11

• Communication
• Relationships
• Ongoing Service
• Follow-through
• Service
• Customer First
• Selling Light and Performing Heavy

Phase Four: (Building your Team and Vendor relations Phase)

Chapters 12 thru 14

• Shared Values
• Reward for Improvement
• Empower the Best, Lose the Rest
• Give People Credit
• Celebrate Failure
• Bouncing Back
• Vendor Relations

Phase Five: (Money Phase)

Chapter 15

• Know When to Show a Loss
• Good Accounting Software
• Stay on Top of Your Books

Phase Six: (Review and Wrap up Phase)

Chapter 16 and Online Resources

• Why Not You?
• Online Resources for Book

My Thoughts: I could see this book being used as a text book for Entrepreneur courses in University’s across the country.  This book is very well written and is a very inviting and easy to read.  I found myself wanting to read it from cover to cover without putting it down but as we all know most of us don’t have that luxury.  Robert is very engaging and spaces his writing out with stories that help to illustrate the lessons he is trying to teach the reader.  The lessons in the book are not only current but they do a great job of bringing some people to the fore front that you might not have known about before you read this book.  Also the Online Resources that Robert adds to the end of the book are great and I think it was a great idea to leave the reader with some resources they can use to not only better themselves but that they could also share those resources with others as well.  I loved the use of the “Reality Checks” sections throughout the book it not only helped you draw into the underline lessons being taught by Robert but it also helped to draw the book together as a whole. Robert’s insight is not only timely but is also written from a person’s view that has been on the ground and started running a business from the ground up.  I have read many business and entrepreneur books in the past from some of the greats like Robert Kiyosaki and others, and Robert Tuchman is definitely on the same level as these other great authors.  I look forward to reading his future books.

About the Book Author: Robert Tuchman is the Founder of TSE Sports and Entertainment, a company that he started out of his one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan at the age of 24.  TSE has appeared in such great entrepreneur magazines as INC.  Robert himself has been a frequent guest on CNN, CBS Morning News, and BET.  He has also had numerous articles published about him in newspapers such as USA Today, The New Your Times, and The Wall Street Journal.  He currently lives in New York.  This brief background on the Author was provided by Alice Northover of the Amacom Company.  Alice may be reached at the following phone number and e-mail address if you would like more information about Robert Tuchman.  Alice’s phone number is 1-212-903-7951.  Alice’s e-mail address is (anorthover@amanet.org).

Buy it at Amazon!

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This is a guest book review written by Chris Schenk. Chris is a SVP of Healthcare at 3-D Technology, Inc., a Vice President of the Board at Military Pride USA a (Military Non-Profit focusing on our soldiers and their families), a Healthcare Technology Consultant, and owns and operates his own Artist / MMA Management company. If you would like to know more about Chris Schenk you can either find him on Linkedin at http://www.linkedin.com/in/ccschenk or you can also follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/chrisschenk.

TPE Book Cover

If you have not heard about the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur (TPE) book yet either on this website or others, then you must be living underneath a rock! TPE is a brand new book that hits the virtual shelves today on Amazon and other places.  I should note that I have emailed a bunch with the author, Mike Michalowicz and also produced a great podcast with him. My experiences with Mike have been great and this book is no different. I got a review copy a little while ago and wanted to post up a review and my thoughts on the book on the day of its launch.
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I’ll start by saying that the book is hilarious. I mean anytime you take a book about a topic people are passionate about and then relate it to taking the biggest crap of your life and realizing you have no TP, you know it is going to be a good read.

However, this is definitely not your bathroom read. Be sure to be sitting down and have either a highlighter and some sticky notes ready or a notebook to write down all the key points and helpful information that you will take away from the book.

The book does a great job of illustrating key points and enforcing tips and tricks through hilarious stories about plumbing issues, getting it out fast, or enjoying your time in solitude. Each chapter also features different action items at the end which you can take on and accomplish. Doing these tasks will not only keep you up with the progress of the book, but it will, well, uh duh, help your business! So look out for the 3 or 4 action items.

Another great resource in the book are the TPE Tips. These are just quick tips or tricks that are thrown into the mix. They can be anything from free sites to make conference calls at, resources for research, ways to get services for free, and more. Here are a couple that I picked out.

Virtual Meetings – Need to talk and gawk? DimDim.com offers free virtual meeting software. The best part is that you don’t need to install it on anything; it runs right off the Net. No untimely computer crashes! Yeah!!!

And…

Research – While you’re at the library, check out the reference desk. Reference librarians know where to find everything. Best of all, they love a challenge. Don’t pay for research. Do some yourself and get the reference librarians to help with the rest. Find out where your state library is located, because there you will find top-notch research material, including extensive mailing lists and statistical information.

Curious if the book is worth reading or if you should just use the pages as toilet paper? Well, I am publishing this review on launch day for the book..yet in the evening. The reason? I wanted to see how it performed on Amazon on its first day. Well, I am happy to report that the marketing and all the pictures of Mike on the crapper paid off, because by before dinner time this evening, Amazon was already out of stock. Plus it also made it into the top 11,000 in the Amazon.com sales rank.

So, to my friend Mike Michalowicz, I say…congrats on an awesome book and even better book launch! Best of luck with it all!

For everyone else…you can buy the book on the TPE website at www.toiletpaperentrepreneur.com.

6 Career Secrets That No One Ever Told You:

1. There is no plan
2. Thin strengths, not weaknesses
3. It’s not about you
4. Persistence trumps talent
5. Make excellent mistakes
6. Leave an imprint

The story that the characters go through to learn the different advice is comical and will have you laughing at some points throughout the book. Some of the drawings are also funny, however, there is nothing overly thrilling coming from the book in my point of view.

Sorry for the short review, but I just don’t think I can say too much about it. It is a good nice easy read if you are interested in something to just pass the time – I read 1/3 of the book in the bookstore before I bought it. Yet, I also returned it 3 days later for Suze Orman’s Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny. Just to make it clear, I did not buy the book for myself, but as a Mother’s Day gift for my mom. However, if it is good, maybe I’ll read it later on just to write a review about it.

Hope everyone has a good week and does well in the blogging and business worlds! Congratulations to those universities that are having their commencement ceremonies! Now, I go back to the overcast weather at the beach and to by other book, Rules for Renegades.

Over the past week while cruising through the Caribbean, drinking beer, talking with the bartenders, enjoying the sun and different paces of life, and of course getting some sun burn, I found the opportunity to read through about half the book. If we had more time on the boat then I would have made it further – sorry but I had to experience the island excursions during my time as well.

Anyway, the book is a must read for student entrepreneurs and students in general! If you are looking for ideas on how to automate your life, work less, outsource your routine tasks, and evaluate what you really want out our your professional and personal lives, please get your hands on a copy today.

Keep an eye out for a full review of the 4HWW coming soon, hopefully within the next couple weeks. I intend to continue reading the book as much as possible over the next week to finish it up.

In the mean time, I do have a post coming up about how I am changing my thoughts on time management based off of some suggestions in the book, so look for that soon.

To be sure you know when the full book review gets posted and different posts about how I am putting into place the books tips, be sure to subscribe to the Dorm Room Biz RSS Feed!