A few months ago, I had the opportunity to meet longtime entrepreneur and author Barry Moltz in our shared hometown of Chicago.  Barry has founded and run small businesses for more than 15 years, and he’s a nationally recognized expert on entrepreneurship who has given hundreds of speeches to audiences ranging from 20 to 20,000.  Not surprisingly, he was recently elected to the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.

When Barry sent me a copy of his new book, Bounce, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I’d heard it was good, but I’ve read dozens of good books on entrepreneurship and leadership.  But Bounce was particularly entertaining and memorable.  It did two things for me that few books have done – it made me feel better about my personal experiences with achievement and failure and gave me hope for whatever may happen in my future. 

Barry uses accounts from his personal journey as well as interviews with dozens of business executives and real-world analogies from one-hit wonders and comic book heroes to space missions and indigenous peoples to demonstrate practical points about the natural ebb and flow of all business careers.  In his description of widely accepted archetypes of success (making something from nothing, the rich get richer, and the extraordinary comeback), Barry eschews the notion that the path to success is predictable and repeatable.  And by advocating that your overall process matters much more than any one outcome and teaching entrepreneurs and business leaders to develop resiliency, Bounce provides a framework for moving forward from just about any negative event. Barry’s prescription for building business confidence includes advice on the following:

·         Humility: We all screw up, and randomness and luck play a large role in success, so “right size” your ego.

·         Fear of Failure:  It’s okay to be afraid, but make the nervous butterflies act in formation.  If you can handle the potential outcome, act.  Experience builds confidence.

·         Risk Taking: Know if the reward will be worth the risk.  Enlist others to help you in making that decision. 

·         Measurement: Money does not buy happiness.  For you, what does?

If you’re an ambitious soul working in the business world, you’ll be better off for having read Bounce.  I am.