cover image Way of the Guerrilla: Achieving Success and Balance as an Entrepreneur in the 21st Century

Way of the Guerrilla: Achieving Success and Balance as an Entrepreneur in the 21st Century

Jay Conrad Levinson. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), $19.95 (242pp) ISBN 978-0-395-77018-4

Levinson, who has written 12 books on various ""guerrilla"" business techniques, writes in a brash, staccato style, setting up and demolishing various 20th-century straw men-workaholics, for example. He postulates that 21st-century entrepreneurs will find success more assuredly than today's counterparts. The entrepreneurs of the future, he promises, will better blend work, health, family and fun, and they will enjoy the longevity required to appreciate their achievements. Levinson predicts customers will become all-important, and business will respond to and anticipate their every need, paying strict attention to quality and details. The author's dynamism carries the reader along, and he emphasizes that, to thrive, one must above all be flexible. And guerrillas never make changes simply for the sake of change. Balance is crucial: between changes and the status quo, between doing and delegating. Downsizing is key, from narrowing the focus of one's mission statement to decreasing the number of hours one works. Those looking to gear down from the fast track will find Levinson's encouragement bracing. (Jan.)