Comments on: The Author’s Dilemma – Why Most Business Books Suck http://www.infochachkie.com/whybusinessbookssuck/ Entrepreneur infoChackies for business success Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:37:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Doug G http://www.infochachkie.com/whybusinessbookssuck/comment-page-1/#comment-1748 Doug G Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:47:41 +0000 http://www.infochachkie.com/?p=204#comment-1748 Love this. I've become fully adapted to buying business books and reading 1 to 3 chapters then setting them aside. Most really seem to be articles that are extended to book length. And, being designed to "sell", they follow formula not brilliance. That being said, a few have been quite influential to me. I kicked off my marketing career with "Competitive Strategy" by Michael Porter. Of course, that's a very difficult and deep book. The typical "book pub market" would never let that one out. But his depth is what made it compelling reading. Love this. I’ve become fully adapted to buying business books and reading 1 to 3 chapters then setting them aside.

Most really seem to be articles that are extended to book length. And, being designed to “sell”, they follow formula not brilliance.

That being said, a few have been quite influential to me. I kicked off my marketing career with “Competitive Strategy” by Michael Porter. Of course, that’s a very difficult and deep book. The typical “book pub market” would never let that one out. But his depth is what made it compelling reading.

]]> By: Mike Thompson http://www.infochachkie.com/whybusinessbookssuck/comment-page-1/#comment-1176 Mike Thompson Sun, 30 Nov 2008 14:44:04 +0000 http://www.infochachkie.com/?p=204#comment-1176 I enjoyed John Mullins's "The New Business Road Test." http://www.amazon.com/New-Business-Road-Test-entrepreneurs/dp/0273663569 I enjoyed John Mullins’s “The New Business Road Test.”

http://www.amazon.com/New-Business-Road-Test-entrepreneurs/dp/0273663569

]]> By: Jon Gillespie-Brown http://www.infochachkie.com/whybusinessbookssuck/comment-page-1/#comment-1037 Jon Gillespie-Brown Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:41:48 +0000 http://www.infochachkie.com/?p=204#comment-1037 I do like the style of this blog and felt the same way about mine when I started writing it. Short text notes in blog format helping people on a wide range of topics that can be searched seems so much better than a book. In the end however, if you want to get ideas across it sometimes needs the author to carefully think through a total topic and capture that thought process into a book to make it more widely available to certain demographics and to have people follow a longer set of thoughts - this is why I ended up writing a book as well as the blog. Having read 100's books on entrepreneurship I also have to agree about many really being far too many words to cover the basic concept and "nuggets" from the book. However again I have to defend the authors as I found it very hard to condense my ideas into 40K words and threw away a further 40K to get my book on entrepreneurship done! In any case, if you want to see if I did a good job of keeping the topic to the point check it out: http://www.tobeanentrepreneur.com/ So you want to be an Entrepreneur? is a fast and fun way to find out if you can make it as an Entrepreneur. Jon I do like the style of this blog and felt the same way about mine when I started writing it. Short text notes in blog format helping people on a wide range of topics that can be searched seems so much better than a book.

In the end however, if you want to get ideas across it sometimes needs the author to carefully think through a total topic and capture that thought process into a book to make it more widely available to certain demographics and to have people follow a longer set of thoughts – this is why I ended up writing a book as well as the blog.

Having read 100′s books on entrepreneurship I also have to agree about many really being far too many words to cover the basic concept and “nuggets” from the book. However again I have to defend the authors as I found it very hard to condense my ideas into 40K words and threw away a further 40K to get my book on entrepreneurship done!

In any case, if you want to see if I did a good job of keeping the topic to the point check it out: http://www.tobeanentrepreneur.com/

So you want to be an Entrepreneur? is a fast and fun way to find out if you can make it as an Entrepreneur.

Jon

]]> By: Sean Murphy http://www.infochachkie.com/whybusinessbookssuck/comment-page-1/#comment-1018 Sean Murphy Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:28:55 +0000 http://www.infochachkie.com/?p=204#comment-1018 I found "Four Steps to the Epiphany" full of practical advice for starting a software company. I do agree that many business books are a good magazine article that's been expanded unnecessarily, this is not one of them. What's strange is that I would be willing to pay the same amount for a much shorter write-up boiled to essentials with a few examples than a 180-250 page book. Perhaps 10-25 pages would do for most. I found “Four Steps to the Epiphany” full of practical advice for starting a software company. I do agree that many business books are a good magazine article that’s been expanded unnecessarily, this is not one of them. What’s strange is that I would be willing to pay the same amount for a much shorter write-up boiled to essentials with a few examples than a 180-250 page book. Perhaps 10-25 pages would do for most.

]]> By: Iman Aghilian http://www.infochachkie.com/whybusinessbookssuck/comment-page-1/#comment-246 Iman Aghilian Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:31:37 +0000 http://www.infochachkie.com/?p=204#comment-246 I liked the "I'm not going to list those books here." joke. I liked the “I’m not going to list those books here.” joke.

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