Bill Aulet
24 Steps to Success!
Disciplined Entrepreneurship will change the way you think about starting a company. Many believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught?? but great entrepreneurs aren??t born with something special ? they simply make great products. This book will show you how to create a successful startup through developing an innovative product. It breaks down the necessary processes into an integrated?? comprehensive?? and proven 24-step framework that"industrious person can learn and apply.?
You will learn:
Whether you??re a first-time or repeat entrepreneur?? Disciplined Entrepreneurship gives you the tools you need to improve your odds of making a product people want.
Author Bill Aulet is the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship as well as a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
For more please visit http://disciplinedentrepreneurship.com/
Amazon.com Review Why did you name the book Disciplined Entrepreneurship?
I love the name because in two words it captures the dichotomy that makes for a successful entrepreneur: the fearless spirit of a pirate with the execution skills of a Navy SEAL Team Six. At the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship we help our student entrepreneurs strike this balance.
Why did you decide to write this book now?
The book came about because MITs Howard Anderson and I were teaching an introductory entrepreneurship class and over time the class grew from five teams of four students to over 100 teams. We worked very hard to put materials together to help us teach the class in a scalable manner and I soon realized that this was a pervasive problem that could cause a real crisis and halt the progress entrepreneurship was making in society. That was why I started writing the book.
What does it take to be an entrepreneur?
I get this question everywhere I go. Many people have the misperception that successful entrepreneurs are born not made with a history of high achievement. Other misperceptions are that entrepreneurs are mercurial individualists that they love risk and that they are undisciplined. In most cases it is quite the opposite; research has been proving more and more that entrepreneurship can be taught and that should be considered a legitimate profession and discipline. Entrepreneurship is a team-sport where ideas are much less important than the teams ability to execute in a highly focused manner.
What makes you qualified to write a book on entrepreneurship?
In my 15 years of doing and teaching entrepreneurship Ive gained a lot of wisdom from the scar tissue of failure. Its not that Im a guru its that I figure out what works and I pass on that knowledge. Im fortunate to have this fabulous position at MIT from which I can foster a community where people can learn from each other.
After working at IBM for 11 years I started my first company which failed. This failure was so visceral and so real and I learned a tremendous amount while crashing and burning. Above all I became aware that the team that you work with is critically important. You need to collaborate with someone you can trust and who works in a way that is complementary to you.
Is there anyone who has been a particular inspiration to you?
During my time at IBM I was amazed by the late Thomas Watson Jr. who was able to scale a company in a way few others have done. The person who has probably inspired me even