Description
Book SynopsisYoung serial entrepreneur Scott Gerber is not the product of a wealthy family or storied entrepreneurial heritage. Nor is he the outcome of a traditional business school education or a corporate executive turned entrepreneur. Rather, he is a hard-working, self-taught 26-year-old hustler, rainmaker, and bootstrapper who has survived and thrived despite never having held the proverbial real job.
In
Never Get a Real Job: How to Dump Your Boss, Build a Business, and Not Go Broke, Gerber challenges the social conventions behind the real job and empowers young people to take control of their lives and dump their nine-to-fivesor their quest to attain them.
Drawing upon case studies, experiences, and observations, Scott dissects failures, shares hard-learned lessons, and presents practical, affordable, and systematic action steps to building, managing, and marketing a successful business on a shoestring budget.
The proven, no-b.s. methodology prese
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments xiii
Foreword Michael Simmons xvii
Introduction: Never Get a “Real” Job 1
Who Needs the 9-to-5? 4
I Know You 6
What You Can Expect to Get from This Book 7
All Aboard the Death to the “Real” Job Express! 8
Part One The Breakdown 11
Chapter 1 Everyone Poops. Yours Isn’t Special 13
College: The Drunken Road to Easy Street 16
Dude, Where’s My Dream Job? 17
Welcome to Your “Real” Job, Mr. Janitor 18
The Broken Promise 24
Chapter 2 No One Cares About You—Unless You Make Them Care 29
You are Not Special 32
Claiming to Be a Winner Does Not Make You One 33
You’re Brilliant . . . So What? 34
Lifestyles of the Poor and Vain 34
Shut Up, Pinocchio 35
Put It on My Tab 36
Chapter 3 Darwin + Murphy = Reality 39
Your Business is Not the Exception to Any Rule 42
The Worst-Case Scenario is the Only Scenario 48
No One Will Invest in Your Idea 50
Part Two Building a Foundation 55
Chapter 4 Get Off Your Ass and Start Up! 57
Get Real with Your Finances 60
Those Who Reinvent the Wheel are Doomed to Be Run Over by It 65
What Do You Know, Anyway? 68
Keep It Simple, Stupid 71
The Bottomless Money Pit 74
Can Your SWOT Team Do CPR? 77
Chapter 5 Business Plans Suck 81
Toss the Old-School Business Plan 84
The One-Paragraph Start-Up Plan 90
Chapter 6 To Partner or Not to Partner 99
The Worst Partners for Your Start-Up 102
Don’t Consider Letting Worthless Flaky People Try Out 105
Never Jump Right In: The Water’s Not Fine 110
Part Three From the Ground Up 113
Chapter 7 Act Like a Start-Up, Stupid 115
Surviving a “Real” Day in the Life 117
Get Your Head in the Game, Chump 123
Design Your Entrepreneurial Life 128
“Mind” Your Business 136
Chapter 8 Shoestrapping (Because the Boot is Too Damn Expensive) 145
Fake It ’Til You Make It 147
The Only Team Your Money Can Buy 155
Do What Makes Cents 164
Cash Flow or Die! 166
Chapter 9 Those Phones Won’t Ring Themselves: The 15 Principles of a Power Seller 173
Come Out! Come Out! Wherever You Are! 175
Sell Like There’s No Tomorrow—Or There Won’t Be 179
Chapter 10 Facebook Isn’t a Marketing Strategy 203
Message before Platform 205
Think Guerrilla, Not Godzilla 220
Conclusion 237
Index 241
