Biznik Book Club: "The Way of the Guerrilla: Achieving Success and Balance as an Entrepreneur in the 21st Century."

If you've ever heard someone say "Small is the new Big" and felt like you didn't quite get what they were talking about, then this book is a must read.

In "The Way of the Guerrilla: Achieving Success and Balance as an Entrepreneur in the 21st Century", Levinson paints a picture of a world full of successful, satisfied, and unstressed one person companies.

Rather than hiring tons of employees to run their businesses, guerrilla entrepreneurs network with other indies and refer or subcontract jobs that they would rather not do themselves. (Sounds like Biznik, doesn't it!)

This is the book that finally (a year ago) convinced me that owning my own business was something I could actually enjoy, be successful at and still be able to live the lifestyle I wanted to live.

Read the book, or don't read the book, and join us for a conversation about how you are a guerrilla entrepreneur in your own business (or how you would like to be).

Here are a few excepts from the book where he describes what a guerrilla entrepreneur is:

"The guerrilla entrepreneur achieves balance from the very start. He builds free time into his work schedule so that balance is part of his enterprise."

"Guerrilla entrepreneurs do not accept stress as part of doing business and recognize any stress as a warning sign that something's the matter -- in the work plan of the guerrilla or in the business itself."

"The guerrilla entrepreneur understands the precious nature of time. He doesn't buy into the old lie that time is money and knows in his heart that time is far more important than money."

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  Posted by Dan McComb, Seattle, Washington | Sep 24, 2006

  I'm hunting for this book online and the title I'm coming up with is "The Way of the Guerrilla: Achieving Success and Balance as an Entrepreneur in the 21st Century." It's by Conrad Levinson, so presumably that's the title. Here's a link to the book on Amazon, where copies are available for $2.24 used.

  Biznik Business Networking
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  Posted by Rebecca Beltran, Seattle, Washington | Sep 25, 2006

  Good point Dan. I have updated the event to reflect the real name of the book instead of the fictional version my memory made up!

  Rebecca
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  Posted by Yani Wood, Seattle, Washington | Oct 03, 2006

  I'm considering getting/reading the book, despite the event being full... Would you say this book is more for the person who thinking about whether or not to start or business, or for the person who has already started a business and wants to make it successful?

  Thanks!
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  Posted by Rebecca Beltran, Seattle, Washington | Oct 12, 2006

  Good question Yana. Put it this way...

  I first read the book when I was wondering if being my own boss was a good idea or not. Because of this book, I realized that even though it's the social norm, I didn't have to lead a stressed out life just because I didn't want a steady 9-5 job.

  Now that I've lost my indie virginity, so to speak, and gotten my hands dirty in my own business for a while I'm reading it again for exactly the same reason.

  It inspires me to believe I can have it all.

  In fact, this book will probably be one of the few that 1) I will actually buy instead of borrow and 2) will not be donated to the library after one pass.
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  Posted by Dan McComb, Seattle, Washington | Oct 23, 2006

  I don't know HOW I failed to realize until today that we've got two simultaneous Biznik events happening tonight, and I'm going to be in Everett for the first happy hour up there with Lara - so it's with great regret that I'm going to have to miss this one. Have a great book club event, and let me know how it goes (take pictures!)

  Biznik Business Networking
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  Posted by Rebecca Beltran, Seattle, Washington | Oct 24, 2006

  Wow, what a cool group! Thanks for coming out last night.

  I thought this was an interesting 'coincidence' that one of the topics we were talking about showed up on biznik's blog today.

  This is Aaron Silverberg talking about finding your 'enough' and living happily with that. http://www.biznik.com/blog/2006/10/20/aaron-silverberg-i-work-with-clients-to-find-their-enough-and-live-it-bravely/

  Rebecca