Heart, Smarts, Guts, and Luck: What It Takes to Be an Entrepreneur and Build a Great Business

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Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck is a personality-filled, research-based playbook for entrepreneurs and business builders. It begins by helping readers assess their leadership traits and ends with a roundup of practical business wisdom. In between, the book offers both a framework for thinking about the sources of business success, and compelling stories of success and failure. The book is organized around what the authors have identified as the four key traits of successful entrepreneurs: Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck. HEART is passion, excitement, obsession, and ultimately, contagiousness. Most founders of great businesses and other organizations possess it in abundance. But by itself heart is not enough to build a business. SMARTS go beyond what it takes to get an MBA. Entrepreneurs need street smarts, intuition, emotional and conceptual intelligence. And smarts only gets more important as a business grows bigger. GUTS is a willingness to take risks, to stand tough in the face of adversity and uncertainty. It comes in different forms, which are appropriate for different circumstances LUCK isn’t just about probability. It’s a product of humility, intellectual curiosity, and optimism. And it can be cultivated. After describing the four traits in depth, and providing examples of all of them, the book offers a guide for assessing and balancing the reader’s own entrepreneurial strengths and weaknesses. It concludes with a set of “true north” questions for reflection, and a set of “wisdom manifesto” principles for doing business successfully. Reviews “This book contains some valuable self-help advice…” ­The Economist “In examining what they regard as the four key aspects most often associated with successful entrepreneurs, they have understood the importance of clear messages to help people apply their findings.” Management Today (Australia) About the Author Anthony Tjan CEO and managing partner of the venture capital firm Cue Ball Capital. Tony was the founder of ZEFER, a pioneering Internet advisory and development firm. He is a longtime senior adviser to business and remains vice chairman of the consulting firm The Parthenon Group. He is also a regular blogger for hbr.org. Richard Harrington Recognized for leading the transformation of media giant Thomson Reuters. As CEO of Thomson Corp. for 11 years, Dick led the company from traditional publisher to electronic media leader. He is now chairman and general partner of Cue Ball, and serves on the boards of Xerox, Aetna, and several other corporations. Tsun-yan Hsieh Chairman and chief counselor of LinHart Group, a firm that advises CEOs and boards on succession and leadership, and a director of Sony Corporation and Bharti Airtel. In a 30-year career with McKinsey, Tsun-yan founded the firm's Leadership Services globally and led its Organization practice.