| Everyone loves to read other peoples success | | | | Another interesting thing that was mentioned in three |
| stories. It provides us with evidence that amazing | | | | of the ten stories is the fear of being blindsided by |
| things do happen to normal people. By learning what | | | | an opponent that they can't see coming. They all talk |
| they did to succeed we come one step closer to | | | | about the proverbial kid in his basement or garage |
| success ourselves. Such is the case with the ten | | | | that comes up with the technology that puts them |
| stories told in Net Entrepreneurs Only - 10 | | | | out of business. When talking about Mark Cuban, |
| Entrepreneurs Tell the Stories of their Success by | | | | Todd Wagner said: |
| Gregory K. Ericksen and Ernst & Young. | | | | "I know Mark worries, among other things, about the |
| Ericksen interviewed ten of the most successful | | | | proverbial 12-year-old in the garage [coming up with |
| entrepreneurs at the turn of the century and | | | | technological breakthroughs] and us being blindsided." |
| presents their stories with a unique but effective use | | | | This commonality is particularly interesting, and I |
| of lengthy quotes from the entrepreneurs. The | | | | suspect it comes from the fact that many of these |
| quotes leave you with a feeling of having actually | | | | entrepreneurs WERE THAT KID and they fear the |
| interviewed the entrepreneur yourself rather than | | | | second coming of themselves more than anything |
| reading a story about them. Each story is about 20 | | | | else. They probably fear that this "kid" will have the |
| pages long but reads more like 10 pages because of | | | | same passion and determination that they once had, |
| the big print and free flowing pace. | | | | and that, more than anything else scares them. |
| The 10 entrepreneurs chronicled in the book are Jay | | | | If I had read this book when it was written I would |
| S. Walker (priceline.com), Mike McNulty and Mike | | | | certainly have recommended it to any young |
| Hagan (VerticalNet), Christina Jones (pcOrder), William | | | | entrepreneur. However, years later I recommend it |
| Porter and Christos Cotsakos (E*Trade), Gregory K. | | | | EVEN MORE. I think that it's a must read for anyone |
| Jones (uBid), Russell Horowitz (Go2Net), Ken | | | | looking to go into business or currently in business. |
| Pasterna (Knight/Trimark), William Schrader (PSINet), | | | | The thing that you can do now that you couldn't do |
| Pierre Omidyar (eBay), and Mark Cuban and Todd | | | | when the book was written is find out what's |
| Wagner (broadcast.com). | | | | happened to these entrepreneurs and their |
| Each entrepreneur has a unique story of how and | | | | companies in the time that has passed since the |
| why they saw the internet as a viable place to start | | | | book's publication. One of the biggest joys of reading |
| a business, and each had a different way of getting | | | | this book was trying to guess whether or not these |
| there, but after reading all ten stories you can see | | | | companies still existed and whether or not the same |
| some common threads between these extremely | | | | entrepreneur was still running them. |
| successful net entrepreneurs. Although this book was | | | | Knowing that there was the dot-com boom and |
| written at a time when internet business success | | | | subsequent crash around that time, I figured there |
| was substantially easier (the book was published in | | | | was less than a 50/50 chance that these businesses |
| 2000), many of the core competencies that these | | | | were still around. I'm not going to ruin the individual |
| entrepreneurs possess can be applied in any era to | | | | surprises, but there was a fairly vast array of |
| any industry. | | | | directions that these companies and entrepreneurs |
| Each is extremely passionate about what they do to | | | | went after the dot-com crash. |
| the point that they inspire others around them to | | | | Some of the entrepreneurs we've all heard of (Mark |
| have the same passion. Each is not afraid to take a | | | | Cuban), and some of the companies we know still |
| risk, regardless of whether or not other people | | | | exist and are very successful (eBay), but many the |
| disagree with it. Along with that, each knows that | | | | average reader won't be familiar with. Doing the |
| failure is inevitable when taking risks and understands | | | | research to find out where they are today adds an |
| that future success depends on the ability to learn | | | | extra dimension to the book that a reader wouldn't |
| from failure and move on. | | | | have experienced if they read it when it came out. |