Book Review: “Entrepreneurial Leadership: The Art of Launching New Ventures, Inspiring Others, and Running Stuff” by Joel Peterson
How did I get this book?
This is the last of my Ollies Bargain Discount Store finds. The title caught me and so I flipped it open and saw that the author had been the CEO of JetBlue and taught at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. That intrigued me. I wanted to know what he had to say.
In addition to that, some of the chapter titles piqued my interest as he talked about boards and hiring and firing and so forth.
What’s it about?
I would say that this is a mini course, or maybe an overview of what is taught at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
He starts by defining terms, making a distinction between different kinds of leaders: administrators, managers, presiders, pure entrepreneurs and what he defines as a the rarest leader, an “entrepreneurial leader.”
The book is broken up into four main sections: “Build Trust,” “Create a Mission,” “Secure a Team,” and “Deliver Results.” Each of those sections have a handful of chapters all dealing with various aspects of leadership in business, from the very personal and private to the very public and corporate. There’s everything from self-talk and working on yourself, to family issues, to how to lead a board of directors.
In the midst of the book are several jaw-dropping examples of business situations that he’s been in, ventures he’s funded, students that he’s invested in, boards he’s served on and so forth.
He closes the book talking about life, a person’s whole life. He gives his basic concept of life that he draws largely from Frederick Buechner: “in all our dreaming, planning, hoping, and striving, our lives will ultimately find joy and meaning if we succeed in discovering only three things:
A person to be
Someone to love
A work to do”
What did I think?
I found this book enormously helpful. I really appreciated each page and chapter. He obviously enjoys being a leader, understands the dynamics and has a lot of wisdom and experience to share. In my mind, there are a lot of direct parallels to ministry leadership.
Highlights for me were the chapter on family and the vision for the family. I found him to be a lone voice and brilliant. I took a lot from the chapters on building alignment. I’m planning on reviewing the chapters on hiring and firing. The chapter on how to use a board has given me the most to think about so far.
So, I’m planning to hang on to this book. There are several pages that are dog-eared. I’d like to review some of it again in the future.
Conclusion:
The big mystery for me was how this ended up at Ollie’s instead of on airport store shelves. For me, this was a treasure trove.
If you’re a pastor, or in ministry leadership, what book or resource (outside of the Bible) has been the most helpful for you?