This September at the CorePurpose Business Blog, we’ve seen some great business books we grown ups can take advantage of as the kids head back to school.
At the beginning of the month I shared a peek into Amilya Antonetti’s The Recipe: A fable for leaders and teams and Professor Robert Sutton’s Good Boss, Bad Boss two books that share great stories about leadership in their own unique way. Marty Zwilling asked Are You Ready to Be An Entrepreneur while Rebel Brown shared how to challenge the status quo and Defy Gravity.
We have looked into the pages of books on leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Now let’s look at a real life story by two entrepreneurs, Clate Mask and Scott Martineau, co-founders of Infusionsoft.
I first met Clate and Scott in 2006 when Infusionsoft was the very first company to step up to the plate to help OTEF with a new fundraising venture to support helping at-risk populations find a path to economic sustainability, The Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference. (The conference is now in its fifth year and Infusionsoft has been there to support us EVERY time!) Our paths crossed again in 2007 when as CEO of the Arizona Small Business Association it was my honor to hand the award for being an Arizona Company to Watch to Clate and Scott as they accepted it on behalf of the Infusionsoft team.
Both of these leaders are serial entrepreneurs with a proven track records. Little did I know that with all their experience, they, like the rest of us, were dealing with the day to day chaos of entrepreneurship. But instead of letting chaos win, they built a business designed to help other entrepreneurs Conquer The Chaos – here’s a clip where they share some of their experiences…
Video Link to Clate and Scott talking about Conquer The Chaos courtesy of John Wiley and Sons via YouTube.com)
About Conquering Chaos
In the video, Clate shares that every entrepreneur should ready this book. Well, you might be thinking, he would say that, he wrote it! As it turns out, Clate is not the only one who thinks so. Michael Gerber, one of the all-time best-selling authors worldwide on the subject of entrepreneurship thinks so too and he says so in the foreword he wrote for the book.
In the book you find an honest account of how they struggled not just to build a business, but to do so in a way that they could be proud of and enjoy doing. And because they recognized what it took in the form of commitment from not just them but also from the team they make a point of reminding us that we need to be sure that we build up and maintain a good supply of emotional capital as well as financial reserves if our businesses are to succeed and we are to survive the journey it tales to get there.
Clate and Scott share six strategies for breaking free of the chaos:
- Have enough Emotional Capital
- Practice Discipline Optimism
- Declare Entrepreneurial Independence
- Centralize and simplify to clear out the chaos
- Follow up systems provide stability for your business
- Automate – you will never get off the treadmill of you don’t.
Want to know more? Pick up Conquer The Chaos and please plan to join us November 17, 2010 in Phoenix, Arizona for the Fifth Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference. Clate and Scott will be there along with members of the Infusionsoft team when Clate joins this year’s great line up of speakers. It’s your chance to get the story right from the source.
Thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned…
Joan Koerber-Walker