Customer Reviews

Bulldog: Spirit of the New Entrepreneur

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Anyone who has any notions of being an entrepreneur, or even climbing the ranks within a larger organization needs to read this book. It is filled with stories that inspire and motivate but also help you see the barriers and challenges of business in a new light. You don't have to read the book cover to cover but can pick and choose whatever catches your attention. I particularly liked the references to film, literature and poetry that provide insight and perspective as well as entertainment in the sidebars. If you manage teams, don't forget the chapter called THE TO DO LIST OF ARCHITECTS AND HEROES.

As a fellow 20 year entrepreneur with 200 employees, I loved how Ellie Rubin turned the word entrepreneur into a verb! How cool is that?? (For all of us who actually do it on a daily basis, day in and day out).

Yes, there is an element of "touchy feeley" in the book, but since when is entrepreneuring a science? Being a great entrepreneur has everything to do with your instincts, creating something incredible when all the other rational people tell you it can't be done. Most of the "aha" ideas I've had for my company came from the kinds of things Ellie talks about in her book. If you want to know how to start or grow a company, those things are the things you should be thinking about.

Ellie Rubin's brilliance is proven by the fact that even the book that she has written about her own business has turned her in to a brand herself! I see all over the place that the Ellie Rubin brand is doing speaking engagements at business schools, creating supplemetary materials and so on. In essence, Ellie seems to have created another business out of her book about her original business! That is pure genius as far as I'm concerned. And why didn't I think of it myself, dammit!

Cudos to Rubin for shedding light on the ups, downs and excitment of running your own business. Although many of us have dreamed of being an entrepreneur there are few that are brave enough to take the leap of faith. Combine Rubin's tenacity and balls for starting a business in a mostly 'male dominated' industry with the strength and wherewithall to relive the experience and transcribe it into a book and you have nothing short of a modern day hero. Building a business from an office of two in Canada to securing major investors and partners in Silicon Valley and LA, Bulldog is the story of a modern day success driven by ambition, smarts and confidence. Using her insights to help guide us on this incredible journey called 'entrepreneuring' Rubin not only creates a new language for those voyagers who are brave enough to embark on the trip, but also provides the ABC's of how to believe in yourself enough to succeed. Rubin is insightful while still allowing the reader to feel like they have entered her world -- if you are someone who has always dreamed of starting your own business then don't even think about it unless you read this book first.

The only question Rubin leaves us asking is: when is her second book coming out and what will she entice us with next???

This is the worst business book I've ever read, and I've read many. I actually returned it for a refund.
How does a woman transform a graphic design company into a digital asset management company? You would be hard-pressed to find out reading this book. Does Rubin have any programming experience? How does she recruit and manage her team? How do they design the product? How do they combat competition? How do they get clients? These are questions the reader are interested in, and it would have been enlightening if Rubin answered them. She doesn't.
What she did instead was recycle a lot of platitudes, buzzword-laden advice that you can get from magazines. She should have shared more of her experiences, in greater detail, rather wax philosophical on the idea of entrepreneurial spirit. It's the standard "entreprenuers are risk-taking forward-thinking heroes, and aren't I great as one" pablum.
When I flipped through the book in the bookstore, I was excited to see a chapter that talks about going to "Mecca" (Silicon Valley). Finally, I thought, here's an account of how an outsider (a Canadian) establishes herself in Silicon Valley. After reading the chapter, I am no more enlightened than before. She simply writes that she made a lot of connections and that the experience was enriching, leaving one to ask: who? when? where? what? how?
I can't remember the exact details of her Postcard Visualization exercise, but it's something like visualizing your life in 5 years as it would appear on a postcard. This is exactly the kind of touchy-feely "advice" that pervades the book. There is not a single original insight or concept. For this I should pay money to read?

"Entrepreneur" is a verb in Bulldog: Spirit of the New Entrepreneur. Rubin built her company, The Bulldog Group, from a small graphic design company to a multimillion-dollar software company in Silicon Valley. She relates her experiences, along with the stories of other well-known entrepreneurs, to help readers cultivate the state of mind needed to succeed.

An excellent read for entrepreneurs or anyone in a management position. The tips, facts, and quotes in the margins add interest and information, as well as increase the overall value of the book.