The Intelligent Entrepreneur

By: Bill Murphy Jr.

Narrated by: Fred Berman, L. J. Ganser

Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Written with the cooperation of Harvard Business School, here is an instructive and inspiring book for anyone who dreams of starting a highly profitable business.

In 1998, three Harvard Business School graduates - two men and one woman - turned down six-figure salaries at big corporations, bet on themselves, and launched their own new companies. By their 10-year reunion, their audacity had paid huge dividends. They'd made many millions of dollars, created hundreds of jobs, and left their mark on the world.

The three entrepreneurs: Marc Cenedella (TheLadders.com), Marla Malcom Beck (Bluemercury.com), and Chris Michel (Military.com, Affinity Labs).

Based on dozens of interviews with highly successful entrepreneurs, Harvard Business School professors, and HBS alumni, The Intelligent Entrepreneur tells the compelling and instructive story of how these three young founders developed ideas, assembled teams, built ventures, and achieved their dreams. Along the way, they learned that starting great companies requires much more than a ferocious work ethic or good timing. Their hard-won insights distilled into 10 key rules that will help anyone become a successful entrepreneur. What they teach you at Harvard Business School is that intelligent entrepreneurship can be learned. In that spirit, Bill Murphy Jr. uses a unique combination of vivid storytelling and lucid instruction to tell would-be entrepreneurs how to improve their odds of creating dynamic, lasting businesses.

This audiobook includes an exclusive roundtable discussion with Marc Cenedella, Marla Malcom Beck, and Chris Michel.

©2010 Bill Murphy (P)2010 Audible, Inc

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Winner - Best Business/Educational Audiobook, 2011

"This is an excellent, thought-provoking overview of entrepreneurship... that uses actual cases to describe the challenges of starting a business and realizing success." ( Booklist)

"Narrators Fred Berman and L.J. Ganser split the narration, chapter by chapter, with one delivering the true-life accounts of three entrepreneurs who attended HBS while the other delivers the theoretical lessons to be learned from attending HBS." ( AudioFile)

Disappointing

If you are a HBS Alum or in some way associated with HBS - then you will love this book. This is really a story about the lives of three Harvard Business School Alums starting businesses and their experiences in the HBS Program. I guess I was looking for less of an advertisement and more of a guideline for successful strategies and characteristics of entrepreneours. Narration was average, the material was simply lame or even corny in many parts of the book.

HBS Commercial

This book was not sincere--it seemed to be a Harvard Business School commercial--I couldn't get into the book because chapters 1-6 were an obsequious, one-sided dialogue about HBS--and how HBS is responsible for the success of not only the 3 entrepreneurs who were the main focus, but also, countless others. That may be true but why not offer a balanced approach. For instance follow one from HBS, one from Babson, and one without formal education. I felt tricked--I believe HBS hired this journalist to write a book that put their program for entrepreneurship in a good light--allowing them to compete with the other more established schools in this area.
The journalist admits to being a failed entrepreneur so is he really qualified to write this book, and do university entrepreneur programs actually create the best entrepreneurs. I thought I'd get awesome insight and ideas for my small business--instead I got a commercial and wasted one of my Audible credits.

Recruiting tool for Harvard Business School

The story is about three Harvard Business School graduates who started their own businesses. Some good applicable information, but overall not very usable. The teaching boils down to "Go to Harvard Business School, and learn how to be an Entrepreneur." and "If you aren't starting the next google, you're not really an entrepreneur."

There are plenty of better books for Entrepreneurs.

What the hell?

What would have made The Intelligent Entrepreneur better?

A focus on business and not the backstory of the entrepreneur. Sure, some details might be interesting, but I do not need to hear a solid 5 minutes about subject Y's apartment hunt or that subject X read romance novels in 7th grade math class.
The author's idea to make the subject of successful entrepreneurs more interesting by getting to know them before and after their success is such a complete failure that it actually makes me angry.

Has The Intelligent Entrepreneur turned you off from other books in this genre?

Yes.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Narrator #2 is fine but narrator #1 is possibly the worst ever. The way he pronounces the word ENTREPRENEUR could make a nun punch an elderly woman in the face. He says the word with a w in it. Like, "entreprenewer." He actually adds a syllable. The word has 4. He says it with 5.
The word is in the title of the book. No one checked the guys pronunciation? It's in the title. It's the main topic! He says it a thousand times!! And please don't respond with any excuses about dialects or accents. There is a correct way to pronounce the word. You want to hear one of the wrong ways? Buy this audio book.

What character would you cut from The Intelligent Entrepreneur?

The author.

Any additional comments?

I want my money back.

Terrible waste $ and a lot of time

This is my first time ever writing a review. I am taking the time to do this to save you, the stranger I don't even know the horror of this lame and useless book. Hours and hours of droning on about these few boring people who magically were successful after going to Harvard Business School!? Give me a break, this book is insulting to me and to all the men and women who start businesses with little formal eduction, credit cards for financing and their spare room as an office. Instead of this pile of cow dung go read Rich Dad/Poor Dad before you quit your job, The 4 Hour Work week by Timothy Ferris, Rework by Jason Fried, The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, and The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. Unless you went to Harvard Business school, then read this and call all your friends and laugh about how fun it is to part of the ruling class in this country. Bill Murphy, you have brought shame on your family... fall on your sword.

cum se-quitor cum sa-wbones (title required)

Any additional comments?

This book contained some high-level ideas, but never drilled down into what was involved in starting and running a business and making it profitable. Mostly it was war stories about Harvard Business School grads in their ventures to hit their numbers, make millions, and feel fulfilled for creating hundreds of jobs. Sometimes those jobs lasted, and paid well; sometimes they did not and made unreasonable demands on the people that worked them.Looking at it one way, Harvard Business School exists to train talented people to go out into the world and make it a better place by creating employment and technological improvements. Looking at it another way, HBS is a cross-section of people who become multimillionaires by working their asses off night and day, making tons of mistakes, burning through capital like paper in a blast furnace, and doing whatever they have to do to make their number!At times, the book seemed like one long advertisement for Harvard Business School.One of the best parts was the interview with the Entrepreneurs themselves at the end. They became more human at that point - not just two-dimensional hoop-jumpers.I found this book useful because it helped show me how to instill motivation in characters when writing a novel. Which is a form of entrepreneurship in itself.
This is the only reason I am not returning it to Audible for an exchange.

For the hardcore Entrepreneur

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Well, I have to say, that whiles I thought that I am sort of an entrepreneur, because I run my own little business, I learned that I am in no way in the league of this book. It was way over my head. So it was a waste of my time now, but it may be useful later.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Not sure yet

What three words best describe Fred Berman and L. J. Ganser ’s voice?

wonderful , clear and articulate

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

If it is a movie, rather that a documentary , then yes.

The Unintelligent Writer

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Who would enjoy this? Possibly someone with 12 hours of to kill...

Has The Intelligent Entrepreneur turned you off from other books in this genre?

Just about...certainly I hope to never hear anything from this author again

How could the performance have been better?

I need a thesaurus to look up additional phrases meaning "i got pwned"

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Narrator should be congratulated for getting through this drivel...

Any additional comments?

The author was obviously very pleased with himself for making contact with his 3 subjects. So much so that the entire 12 hours is devoted in the most excrutiating detail about their ho-hum stories with little in the way of lessons for the listener to glean. Proof once again that original writing is rare and original thinking even more so...An absolute botch...

An Infomercial for harvard business school

This book had the chance to be a fascinating set of case studys but is sadly just an elitist advertisement for harvard business school and its graduates. As if no successful company had ever been built without the blessing of HBS Alumni.

Just a Harvard Business School infomercial

Almost ALL HBS infomercial, and a lot of personal stories that have nothing to do with becoming an entrepreneur or HBS, strange and very boring. You will be SICK of hearing “HBS, HBS, HBS,” quickly. But you will listen to the whole thing thinking he will get to the entrepreneur part, but he never really does. The author’s unhealthy infatuation is with HBS, not with being an entrepreneur.

A truly “Intelligent Entrepreneur” will take this warning to heart and not buy this book.