The Intelligent Entrepreneur

By: Bill Murphy Jr.

Narrated by: Fred Berman, L. J. Ganser

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)

Current and helpful but too much HBS

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The audiobook is very well performed. The book is very helpful and I think gives a very unique and in depth exploration of what a entrepreneur really needs.

However I did not like the fact that although very deep, the author did not explore beyond a small subset of cases to study. All the people followed in this book graduated from Harvard Business School at around the same time and knew each other. The author very likely uses the word Harvard or HBS nearly every minute, making the book seem like one big advertisement for the Harvard Business School. Although I do not think this was his intent, it was very annoying, and the reasons why he restricted his studies to such a narrow focus were not very compelling.

Overall it is a very good listen with three interesting and beneficial stories, coupled with a lot of good advise about what people can do to improve their ability to become and entrepreneur.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I enjoyed Chris Michael due to the fact that he seemed real, honest, and very passionate. He reinvented himself and was able to achieve at something very different, while often having to learn from very difficult mistakes.

What does Fred Berman and L. J. Ganser bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

A soothing tone that helped reinforce important ideas to make them easier to remember.

Who do you think would benefit most from listening to The Intelligent Entrepreneur?

Someone interested in starting a new business.

Any additional comments?

If you can ignore the frequent comments about Harvard Business School, this is a rewarding read that is both interesting and insightful.

Loved it.

He follows three people from beginning to now. All different. Very current. Very good.

LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!

Where does The Intelligent Entrepreneur rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

LONG, but well worth the time!!!!

What did you like best about this story?

I liked that the case studies were so different and had their stumbles but came thru!

Any additional comments?

SO VERY GLAD that I took the time ... I really learned SO much!

Great Book

I really liked the book. however ever it had two authors reading a chapter a piece, I would rather have had one because of the continuing storyline. it runs and sounds better with one author. two authors throws the rythem off a little.

Inspirational and insightful

Well written and narrated. This some great insights into three successful entrepreneurs. It may not tell you how to become one, but thats not the purpose of the book. Well worth the read.

Very good

Where does The Intelligent Entrepreneur rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Found this to be very good particularly as I recently started my own business and you get a lot of different ideas, motivation from the stories the author has used in the book. Its one of the books that I would like to come back to once a year to recap and refresh.

Awesome Book!

This book was awesome, entertaining, useful, insightful, and motivating. It was exactly what I expected based on the title and synopsis of the book. It was very well written.

Worth the listen

If you could sum up The Intelligent Entrepreneur in three words, what would they be?

Follow the stories of three Harvard Business School graduates from 1998 class as they launch their startup ventures. The story takes you from their entry into HBS through eventual success, and drives home 10 key lessons critical to all entrepreneurial success.

It is a little bit of an HBS puff piece at times (I mean really, how many times can you use the phrase "elite business school" in a sentence with Harvard) - but is really quite well written with valuable content.

I would recommend to other readers.

Skip every other chapter, but good story

I agree with other reviewer it is a good book overall, but frequent advertising of HBS is really annoying. I got the idea that HBS is a good school, but maybe author could save it for another book. Story about three entrepreneurs are fascinating. Just skip these HBS advertising every other chapter.

20 hour ad for HBS, and three great companies

Personal stories were interesting; I am now a huge Marla, Chris, and Marc fan.
Has motivated me to apply to business school. Would be nice if the narrators could agree on how to pronounce Chris' last name!