Entrepreneurs are known to have many qualities—persistence, leadership skills and a never-say-die attitude, to name a few. But even with those skills, even the most successful entrepreneurs have made their share of mistakes—and sometimes catastrophically. Robert Jordan, author of How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America(RedFlash Press $24.95) spoke with 45 successful entrepreneurs to gain an understanding of what it takes to successfully launch and grow a business.
Among those featured is Joe Mansueto, founder of Morningstar, who sold the company for $2 billion, Raj Soin, who launched Modern Technologies Corporation (MTC) before selling it to BAE Systems for $425 million, and others who have taken their companies public in billion-dollar transactions. To be included in the book, they had to launch, grow and sell a company for approximately $100 million or go public for at least $300 million and had to be self-made, according to Jordan. “So the range ended up so that at the low end, Viresh Bhatia sold InstallShield for about $78 million and the high end was Dane Miller, who took Biomet private for $12 billion.â€
But what mistakes did these multi-millionaires make along the way and what can be learned from them? Read on... —Alan Hughes
