Paul Hawken demonstrates that the answers to small business problems
today cannot be solved by college degrees, training or money--but only
by you.
Nearly everyone harbors a secret dream of starting or owning a business.
In fact, a million businesses start in the United States every year.
Many of them fail, but enough succeed so that small businesses are now
adding millions of jobs to the economy at the same time that the Fortune
500 companies are actually losing jobs.
Paul Hawken--entrepreneur and bestselling author--wrote Growing a
Business for those who set out to make their dream a reality. He knows
what he's talking about; he is his own best example of success. In the
early 1970s, while he was still in his twenties, he founded Erewhon, the
largest distributor of natural foods. More recently, he founded and
still runs Smith & Hawken, the premier mail-order garden tool company.
And he wrote a critically acclaimed book called The Next Economy about
the future of the economy.
Using examples like Patagonia, Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, and
University National Bank of Palo Alto, California, Hawken shows that the
successful business is an expression of an individual person. The most
successful business, your idea for a business, will grow from something
that is deep within you, something that can't be stolen by anyone
because it is so uniquely yours that anyone else who tried to execute
your idea would fail. He dispels the myth of the risk-taking
entrepreneur. The purpose of business, he points out, is not to take
risks but rather to get something done.
