Check It Out

Business Brilliant: Surprising Lessons from the Greatest Self-Made Business Icons.
by Lewis Schiff.
New York: HarperBusiness, 2013.
Call Number: HF 5386.S378 2013
Available for 4-week check out with your SWC photo ID card

Author Lewis Schiff is the Executive Director of  Inc. Business Owners Council (a membership organization for Inc. magazine's top entrepreneurs) and co-author of The Influence of Affluence: The Rise of the New Rich and How They Are Changing America and The Armchair Millionaire.

This book is a fascinating, quick/easy-to-read (and frequently humorous!) statistical study contrasting the financial views of middle class workers and self-made millionaires. These two groups possess strikingly different views on saving vs. earning, innovating vs. imitating, what you know vs. who you know, win/win vs. win/don't lose, and the importance of success vs. failure.

Schiff asserts that, in the economic climate of the past several decades, regardless of our education and occupation, we are all "free agents" (entrepreneurs), whether we want to be or not. Using statistical data, he illustrates the importance of "do[ing] what you love, but follow[ing] the money." To support his argument, he presents fascinating profiles of successful entrepreneurs including Guy Laliberte (street performer who founded Cirque de Soleil) and John O'Hurley (Seinfeld's J. Peterman), and argues that financial pundits like Suze Orman have it all wrong.

Business Brilliant "doesn't promise to make you rich" but it is a fascinating, quick read that will inspire you to re-think your financial views.

Review by Rachael Smithey, SWC Librarian