Click Here To Purchase 6 Secrets to Startup Success: How to Turn Your Entrepreneurial Passion into a Thriving Business

Author: John Bradberry

Publisher: Amacom

ISBN-13: 978-0-8144-1606-8

Coincidental to my review of 6 Secrets to Startup Success, I learned that a friend had a start-up idea for a retail enterprise, so I read John Bradberry’s advice while applying it to the details I learned about this real scenario. I was interested to see how my friend, a seasoned businessperson, would fare through some of the processes outlined in this book, knowing that she had been successful with previous startup ventures.

In Part I, Bradberry does not mince words in painting a less-than-rosy picture of any business startup. It would have never occurred to me that having a passion for an idea or product could backfire on an entrepreneur—I thought that was an essential requirement to starting any business! It turns out that would-be business owners can fall into what the author calls the passion “trap”—which he then illustrates with six negative impact categories that take shape in a pattern of four interdependent steps. While reading this part of the book, I thought it all sounded quite disheartening--until I got to the end of Part I, where I discovered that, thankfully, Part II would explain how to overcome these issues. When I could mentally compare the caveats as applied to my friend’s startup idea, it was apparent to me that she had gotten through the first three phases: attachment to an idea; investments and actions; and feedback or results. It also seemed she was not getting stuck at step 4, biased interpretation, because she was still seeking feedback and hadn’t invested any money--yet.

Part II, which goes into great detail on the application of the success principles, made me realize that the business my friend was hatching was nowhere near getting off the ground! She had passed the Founder Readiness section with flying colors, having launched two successful businesses previously, but because she was venturing into a type of business with which she was unfamiliar, she had only gotten as far as the second of the six principles, dealing with attaching to the customer, not to the idea. I knew she was working on this attribute because she had told me she needed to pick my brain as a potential client—something Bradberry suggests as a way to learn the market when it is an unknown. I also knew she was looking for the game-changing partner, which the author mentions as a way to provide an early edge in the marketplace.

Beyond this chapter, the book delves into such topics as money issues, how to be flexible, and dealing with the human elements: partners, investors, and personnel. I thought one of the most valuable sections to an aspiring entrepreneur might be the Start-up Readiness Tool. It is a comprehensive list of questions based on the chapter headings that should provide the basis for a successful business if addressed honestly and completely. At this point, I don’t know where my friend’s startup idea will lead, but I am going to be sure she has a copy of this book, because I think Bradberry has done a thorough job of laying out the strategy for starting on the right foot.


Click Here To Purchase 6 Secrets to Startup Success: How to Turn Your Entrepreneurial Passion into a Thriving Business