The Mindful Entrepreneur: How to rapidly grow your business while staying sane, focused and fulfilled

If you've read "E-myth" or "Built to Sell," you'll want to read "The Mindful Entrepreneur." This book is like an additional compendium book to those best-sellers; it fills the gap so they finally make sense. Both those books discuss the purposeful organization of the business. "The Mindful Entrepreneur" talks about this, but also discusses personal mindfulness and how it relates to owning a business. "First of all, your business isn't a separate part of your life; it's part of an integrated whole." I absolutely agree with this sentence from the book. My mentor hammered this lesson into me time after time. "It's just a business" is an ugly myth. The string of broken marriages, nervous breakdowns and suicides caused by entrepreneurial pressure is long and widely publicized. It's not just business. It's your life and Joel Greschman makes an amazing job of explaining how you can integrate your business in your life and your personality into your business. A Single Fly in the Ointment The only tiny weakness in this super book is that there is too much "sugar" in it. At least, that was my impression. The turnaround that Howard, the main character, experienced was so rapid and complete that it seemed he really didn't struggle. His home life seemed almost idyllic. Everyone supported him and every improvement he tried to bring home was instantly accepted and made everyone at home happy. But maybe Howard's life is just sweet? I don't know. All the Goodness I can't properly highlight all the great features of this book. It's just too awesome! I can only hope that a few things I describe will attract you to the book and you read it and enjoy all its facets. 1. Fiction Story that Works. This book is a masterpiece. I've read hundreds of business and personal development books and not a single one came even close to this level of mingling the story with actionable steps. For example, I read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and I hated its guts! The story was captivating and fascinating, the main theme was significant, but Kiyosaki ruined everything for me when I discovered that it was a fake story. A real life story of such degree of impact would have been incredible. The fiction story was just that, fiction. I felt the same when I read any other business/ personal development books which tried to use a fiction story to illustrate the main point. Sometimes authors used real cases in their books. 90% of the time it felt clumsy, sometimes downright embarrassing. In "The Mindful Entrepreneur" Joel uses a real story and it really reads like a fiction book. You'll want to flip the pages and find out how the story unfolds. At the same time, the book is packed with resources, methods, big picture concepts and practical techniques that break the story into very manageable pieces and illustrate how to use them in real life. This is the perfect mishmash of a story and charts, diagrams, detailed lists and action steps. 2. Mindfulness. Life and business go hand in hand, but this simple fact eludes most of entrepreneurs. A business plan, systems and processes are not enough to move your business forward, if you are anxious and afraid of the future. Fixing your business is half the work. You also need to fix yourself and Joel tell you exactly how, in the same way he explains how you should improve your business: methodically and continually. It's so refreshing to see the same methodical approach applied to both life and business side of things. When the author of "The Mindful Entrepreneur" advises how to notice and correct your faulty thinking, he doesn't stop at a pep talk. You get step by step action plans, detailed and applicable in the same way the book provides business advice. Those mindfulness techniques are also included in the storyline, so you can relate to them better. You see another human being struggling with the same demons you struggle with and how he face them and win them. 3. Habits. One additional point about the mindfulness techniques Joel teaches in the book that I love: they all come down to a regular practice. You cannot change, if your habits won't change. It's not enough to check yourself once when stupid and dark thoughts attack you. You need disciplines and rituals to overcome them. I'm a habit coach, so I appreciate the approach illustrated in "The Mindful Entrepreneur" very much. Whatever you try to incorporate into your life to improve yourself, you need to do it regularly. This applies to your physical health as well as to your mental and emotional health. 4. Resources. I'm very impressed by the way the author presents all this awesome advice. It's all actionable, put in a sensible order, clear and concise. "The Mindful Entrepreneur" is filled with diagrams and tables that illustrate the relevant points. You don't need to guess or look for explanations in external sources. Everything is one place and makes sense. I started by mentioning "E-myth" and "Built to Sell;" I read those books and I think "The Mindful Entrepreneur" is better than them when it comes to implementation. You simply can't go wrong following the book's guidelines. You won't be confused or lost on what to do next. This is awesome! 5. Solid Business Advice. Joel starts with the mission and vision for the business. It's a different way of thinking for entrepreneurs when it comes to their day to day business activities. Businessmen care about the bottom line, not about visions! Yet, it's the best advice a small business owner can get. Companies that have a mission, vision and values incorporated into their daily functioning outrank their competition by over 10 times. When you know your why, you will figure out your how and what without problem. It applies to personal life as well as to professional life. And it's just a single example out of dozens. "The Mindful Entrepreneur" does it all the time. It teaches the right things in the right order, so you can stop putting out fires in your business and actually start enjoying being an entrepreneur. 6. Timespan. Another thing I loved about this book is how it deals with the overnight success myth. It took Howard well over a year to fix his business. There are no magic potions that will change everything in your business next week. What'smore, Howard's business functioned in the market for 10 years before he met Joel. He capitalized on his whole rich experience, he didn't create something from nothing. Because he had a business that worked for years, he could improve it. This book is a gem. I can give you one more reference - "Work the System" by Sam Carpenter. Both books tell a story and teach how to convert a business from a chaotic endeavor into a profitable and reliable one. Only Joel Greschman does it in 5 times less words. Don't get me wrong, Sam's story is still a powerful testimonial of the ordering power of systems. It can inspire you. But "The Mindful Entrepreneur" provides the tools you need to morph this inspiration into actionable steps. If you apply what this book tells you, you won't be an overnight success, but you will be a success. It's flatly impossible to list all the good points about this book. My final piece of advice is: if you already have business, read this book to find out how to make it better; if you don't have one, read it for the inspiring story.

Hallelujah! Finally, a book that differentiates itself from the usual ho-hum self help business books out on the shelves. Truth is, the title looked interesting enough (Mindful is quite the word these days) but I wasn't sure I could gain from reading ANOTHER business book of how the author succeeded and I THE READER ,obviously yet had not despite having read other books like this before.! ...But here I was wrong as it is off the beaten path and different from other books in its genre!. It takes off quickly and soon enough I was hooked. I was intrigued to discover that I loved careening wildly down the path of Howard's slippery slope of a journey as he almost burns and crashes...and then gets back up again to watch his business grow and inner life flourish. The insights were real, and valuable (thank you Howard for baring your soul) and his simultaneous juggling the balls of business and family without losing his mind were enlightening . The colleagues he consulted with during the roller coaster of change to keep the business afloat, provided, high level, practical tidbits I could grasp without needing the handy MBA calculator, ensuring a smooth, uplifting and enjoyable read. DON'T MISS IT!!!

This is the first self help business guide that I simply could not put down. The Mindful Entrepreneur takes you on a journey of one man’s struggles in business and in his personal life. The author’s approach is so refreshing in a sea of self help business books, and the advice is so digestable that I found myself bookmarking so many sections, that I later re-read with pen and paper, writing notes and ideas that pertain to me in my business and in my own life. I found myself engaged throughout this fresh text. The honesty of Howard’s narrative, and the weaving in of thought provoking, yet digestable, ideas left me wanting more. This book is pitched at the small business owner. Its tone is gentle and not at all preachy, yet the messages are delivered powerfully. I have already put in place some of Joel and Aryeh’s suggestions, and I’m glad to say (and somewhat shocked as I am quite the sceptic) that these pieces of advice have already shown themselves as useful in a really meaningful way. As a small business owner I have to say this book is a MUST READ. The authors’ approach will not only help you in your business, but will help you to align your business self with your personal self. I eagerly await their next title.

I look forward to implementing the strategies to find my purpose, and that of the business I'm in. I see what value the advice in this book can bring to a seat-of-your-pants style run business, to make it one with systems, predictable cash flow and an outlook for the future, not just day-to-day survival. While I'll not follow the mindfulness principals, the concepts touched on, reminded me to take more from the meditation method I'm already familiar with, to develop my self-awareness. So I still appreciate how this book looks to integrate personal well-being, with business growth.

This isn't a particularly challenging book to read, but it’s harder to understand. Not because of the language or story, but because you need to figure out how you are going to approach the book. It’s part story, part warning tale, part guide to running a successful business, part personal journey. You don’t expect all these things, or even all these things to work, but they come together in the most unexpected ways. I’ve read other entrepreneur type books which are focused solely on smashing people who work the 9 to 5, or where the author writes for hundreds of pages about how amazing they are, or like Trump’s books are pompous and self-aggrandizing. But The Mindful Entrepreneur is none of those things. IN most of the book Howard is failing. At his job, at his life even. It is honest, sometimes brutally so, and speaks to the problems that all of us really grapple with - the price of success. Fortunately for Howard he meets Aryeh, his spiritual guide for want of a better term, who helps him turn things around. Although we can’t all be lucky enough to meet an Aryeh, the book does a pretty fantastic job of giving us the next best thing. Can't recommend this enough. It's inspiring and practical, real and personal. It will change the way you see your business and maybe even your life.

I've just finished reading The Mindful Entrepreneur and found it to be a truly excellent experience. I appreciated it from two perspectives, one as well written text, engaging and action packed and two as an extremely useful management guide. Howard's story is fascinating and makes great reading, it shows the stress and pressure of running an enterprise, but also the creative pleasure he derives from his business. Joel's coaching awakens a deeper understanding of purpose which changes Howard's approach from being technically involved with every aspect of the business, to being able to remove himself from the nitty gritty to a position where he can turn the enterprise around and actually lead it to success. Aryeh adds an even deeper level of functioning to Howard's life, taking spiritual truths and packaging them into a functional system that allows Howard to improve his life appropriately. A holistic approach to work-life balance comes across. The difficulty is acknowledged, Howard understands that it is at critical times that a person needs to drill deeply into themselves to keep this holistic approach as a real way to cope with the ups and downs of running a business. I have found this text very useful, not running my own business but rather being involved in management, Joel has given wonderful systems and tools to assist anyone in the business world in making a success of one's situation. I will be reading this text numerous times as have found it a useful tool in dealing with the difficulties inherent in management. The book is a fantastic read, a great tool and will help anyone who has the courage to allow themselves to look deeper into tier life circumstances. Howard's story is inspiring and shows how a person,who has a mission to achieve can do so, can overcome giant hurdles and above all, not allow the pressures of running a business destroy their family lives. It's all about mindfulness as Aryeh, the proponent of this concept,brings across once again brilliantly. I believe that reading this text has benefited me theoretically and plan to put this into practice in my own life. I am sure many others will follow suit. Thanks to Joel,Aryeh and Howard for a wonderful journey from cover to cover. Bracha V Hatzlacha.

The majority of business books I've read have been full of MBA double talk and theory's we've all seen and heard time and time again. The difference here is the authors didn't waste my time with the same old, same old. They synergistically illustrated both the theory and more importantly the practical application of running your business and your life. It's an easy read, I finished it over the weekend, it was written in more of story format so it kept pulling me in. Refreshing!

What spoke to me most was the genuine honesty and vulnerability that all of the authors put into creating this book. It's practical, thoughtful and resonates with my own personal ethics. This combination of personal and purposeful makes it a brilliant resource. Highly recommend this to anyone looking for some inspiration - and not just business owners. It might just make you think about taking a leap and starting your own business.

Good info. Easy read. No extra bs. Just good content. Mostly I liked the story telling format as it's easier to relate.