“Business Made Simple” - a business book that actually provides value
TLDR; “Business Made Simple” is a must have for any entrepreneur's shelf, no matter what stage of business you are in.
“Business Made Simple” is TWR approved
it’s no secret that we launched the weekly rundown so we could eventually be acquired by FOX News The Daily Skimm. we thought we would just convince our head writer, Faisal, to write a recap once a week, and boom we’d be getting calls left and right. turns out, it takes more than a few quips in a weekly newsletter to build an actual business.
in our quest to turn TWR into an actual business, we stumbled upon “Business Made Simple” by Donald Miller.
on the cover of the book you’ll see a bold claim:
“60 days to master leadership, sales, marketing, execution, management, personal productivity, and more”
now, this is a bold claim. in reality, there is no way you can actually master all that in 60 days. however, the book does provide the reader with the framework that is required to master these concepts.
the different types of business books:
the different types of business books
the business book market is filled with 3 types of books:
common sense with case studies - 73%
practical manuals - six sigma, how to do X for dummies, etc. - 26%
combination of both - 1%
before we get cancelled by the business community, yes these are made up statistics.
common sense business books:
the vast majority of business books fall into this category - a weird mix of self-help and case studies make you feel productive for reading a book but don’t actually enhance your ability to run a business in any way. although the authors of these books would argue that mindset is everything, for entrepreneurs looking to grow a business you need more than mindset.
to be fair, most of these books are written with the target audience of the corporate manager. this person is not actually doing execution work, they get paid to make decisions. the top MBA programs make the case method a standard practice in their curriculum. this is where the students get a brief of a tricky business situation beforehand and have to justify the decision they would make if they were running the company. when they get to class the professor calls on random people to justify their decision and then adds more variables real-time to the situation and continues to ask random people in the class to react. the idea - so it seems - is to teach people how to think on their feet.
the Harvard MBA case classroom
the value of the case method is in collecting numerous data points in real-time. let me explain:
in order to create an effective machine learning algorithm, you need a foundational framework (logic that recognizes patterns) coupled with numerous data points that are constantly teaching the algorithm how to react to those patterns (hence the learning). the more data you have, the more accurate your algorithm will be.
Tesla collects data from millions of cars on the road and is constantly improving its self-driving capabilities. the more data received from actual drivers, the more the algorithm learns how to make better and better decisions.
the combination of the proper framework (business theory) and data points (perspective of all the students in the class) enables the students to sharpen their common sense. through this exercise, they are better suited to sit in board rooms and have debates with board members or different stakeholders.
but does today’s entrepreneur actually need to make real-time decisions in meetings? if you’re running your own business do you need to be able to make decisions quickly in meetings? do you even need to have meetings in the first place?
the problem with common sense books
the main problem with this genre of books is that while they still fall under the label of “business books,” the reality is that they are less and less relevant to the ever-changing landscape of modern entrepreneurship. how you make decisions as a director of a billion-dollar company is much different than how you make decisions when you’re struggling to pay payroll for your small 3 person team.
these books will provide a principle to add to your toolbox of decision-making frameworks and then use one or two case studies of multi-national corporations valued billions of dollars taking the principle and applying it.
building common sense - or said differently: making good decisions - is a function of having the right framework coupled with experience. the framework helps us make an initial decision and the results from carrying out the decision update our framework on dealing with the problem. the frameworks these common-sense books provide are most often through the lens of corporate leadership, so the modern entrepreneur is better off using trial and error to inform her mental models than spending her free time reading books.
practical business handbooks
these books are great when you’re trying to learn one particular skill. they give you the exact step-by-step formula you need to follow to do a certain task.
some popular examples of these types of books:
these books are jam-packed with the second important piece of building effective mental models: how to actually do an action to get the experience in the area you’re looking for. however, they often lack the high-level framework that explains why the entrepreneur should even spend the time doing that action.
if i’m starting a business, is it more important for me to implement six sigma best practices to optimize efficiency in manufacturing, or is it more important to build out a sales funnel that will pay for the manufacturing? since the focus of these books is often narrow, they don’t provide the entrepreneur with the framework need to properly run a business.
the combination of theory & handbook:
the ultimate book for an entrepreneur is one that has a good mix of theory, case studies, and actionable steps that the entrepreneur can take immediately to move their business forward. it equips the reader with both the framework needed to view problems and the steps to take action on that framework to get real data points on continuously improving that mental model.
why “Business Made Simple” is a must-read
“Business Made Simple” falls in the third category of business books - the combination of theory and handbook. not only does it explain theoretical business concepts (common sense) in language digestible by an 8th grader, it also provides actionable resources and frameworks for you to use immediately.
in the book, Donald Miller argues that one must learn the following skills to be an effective entrepreneur or business professional:
character
leadership
productivity
business strategy
messaging
marketing
communication
sales
negotiation
management
execution
the book is designed as a 60-day course with each day covering one specific topic. to make things even easier, the books comes with a free online video series that deliver the lessons straight to your email inbox every day.
if you are an entrepreneur or just want to level up in your career, this book is a must read.
link to the book: https://amzn.to/3ba2qHm