cover image For Better or for Work: A
Survival Guide for Entrepreneurs and Their Families

For Better or for Work: A Survival Guide for Entrepreneurs and Their Families

Meg Cadoux Hirshberg. An Inc. Original (Greenleaf, dist.), $23.95 (260p) ISBN 978-0-9839340-0-4

After Cadoux Hirshberg published the article “Hitched to Someone Else’s Dream” in Inc. magazine in 2008, which described the challenges of being married to the highly driven entrepreneur Gary Hirshberg, cofounder and CEO of Stonyfield Yogurt, the article yielded such a response that it grew into a regular column about entrepreneurs and family—and, finally, this book. When people start businesses, they rarely consider how much the business will take over their lives and sap their time and energy, much less that of their families. Hirshberg shares her story and others’, speaking powerfully and emotionally about the trials and tribulations of an entrepreneur marriage. She covers the challenges of relatives investing in the business, layering a professional relationship onto a personal one, keeping romance alive for spouses who work together, caring for and providing attention to children, passing the reins within the family, and surviving the failure of the relationship or the business itself. Along the way, she suggests marriage-saving rules and offers cool-headed advice, making the book an indispensable tool for those living—enthusiastically or reluctantly—for a spouse’s dream. (Mar.)