Monday, September 2, 2013

Another Book from the Shark Tank

Robert Herjavec is best known for his roles on the reality television shows Dragon's Den and Shark Tank. In these shows budding entrepreneur's approach self-made millionaires for capital to help seed the growth of their business.

Robert Herjavec's "The Will to Win" is less of an autobiography (although he does talk about his upbringing and background) and more of a book packed with business advice and career tips. Robert is the son of a Croatian migrant who immigrated to Canada as a young boy. His father was stuck at a dead end job for his entire life sweeping factory floors because it was difficult for a non-english speaking immigrant to get decent work. Despite his father's bleak job opportunities, he was happy to move to a country where people were free to express their political opinions.

Robert started from humble beginnings and from that developed a strong work ethic and drive to succeed. Robert's initial source of wealth was a security software company he started. Later as his wealth grew he invested in various other things.

This book contains a lot of tip lists such as:
- Ten ways to measure productive fun
-  How salespeople can handle rejection
-  Three ways good leaders handle communication

I found that the tone of this book was sometimes that of a lecturing parent and sometimes the advice was a bit lofty and abstract. Something that any football coach would yell, like "work hard", "don't cheat", etc... . I found that the most interesting bits were the actual stories he told about his work experiences and the deals he's made. If you like the show Dragon's Den and/or Shark Tank than you'd probably like this book. Also, there is a book available by Kevin O'Leary another Dragon/Shark that you'd probably like (Kevin O'Leary).

Here's a short clip about the book: