Synopses & Reviews
"Long before I became a millionaire entrepreneur, I was a punk with a juvenile criminal record, street gang experience, and a lot of emotional scarring...My teenage years were hardly the typical starting point for a normal, productive life, let alone a successful business career. Turns out, that didn't matter."
Ryan Blair knows about building a business from the ground up. Like many entrepreneurs he had no formal business education. But he had great survival instincts, tenacity, and above all, a "nothing to lose" mindset.
Blair's middle-class childhood came to an abrupt end when his abusive father succumbed to drug addiction and abandoned the family. Blair and his mother moved to a dangerous neighborhood, and soon he was in and out of juvenile detention, joining a gang just to survive.
Then his mother fell in love with a successful entrepreneur who took Ryan under his wing. With his mentor's help, Blair turned himself into a wildly successful businessman. He started his first company, 24/7 Tech, at the age of 21, and since then has started and sold several companies for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Now Blair shows readers how to start and grow their own profitable businesses by following his often contrarian philosophies:
* In juvenile detention, if you let someone take your milk the first day, they'll start taking it every day. The same is true in business.
* When you're dealing with an investor's money, you have to act as if God himself wrote you the check.
* Most business plans aren't worth the paper they're written on.
* Efforts don't pay the rent. Have no sympathy for employees who talk about how hard they're trying.
* Entrepreneurship is great because you can set your own hours -- any 17 hours of the day, 7 days a week. But if you're doing what you love, it doesn't drain you as much as the 9 to 5 death cycle.
This book is an inspirational guide for people who are willing to put in the hard work, time, and dedication needed to see their vision through to the end. Blair shares lessons from his mentors and advice from his own life- changing experiences, and provides readers with a road map for entrepreneurial success.
Review
“We all seek excuses to keep us from greatness. Ryan Blair takes your excuses and punches them in the mouth. This book grabbed me by my shirt collar, forced me into a chair, and wouldn’t let me up until I saw how it ended.”
—Chris Brogan, coauthor of Trust Agents and The Impact Equation
Review
“Ryan Blairs story proves how success is a choice—and finding the right mentors can change your life and destiny. Devour this book and share it with someone young you love and mentor—today!”
—David Bach, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Automatic Millionaire and founder of FinishRich.com
“Ryan is one of the most innovative and enthusiastic young men Ive met. He is always one step ahead of others, which means there is much we all can learn from him.”
—John Wooden, UCLA Hall of Fame head coach
“I can think of no better person to offer advice on how to handle a ‘nothing to lose moment than Ryan Blair. He has absolutely made the most of those times in his life. Anyone who is considering tough career decisions needs to grab hold of his book and these lessons.”
—Dale Brown, LSU Hall of Fame head coach
“We all seek excuses to keep us from greatness. Ryan Blair takes your excuses and punches them in the mouth. This book grabbed me by my shirt collar, forced me into a chair, and wouldnt let me up until I saw how it ended.”
—Chris Brogan, coauthor of Trust Agents and The Impact Equation
Synopsis
The incredible story of a gang member who became a multimillionaire CEO. Ryan Blair's middle-class upbringing came to an abrupt end when his father succumbed to drug addiction and abandoned his family. Blair and his mother moved to a dangerous neighborhood, and soon he was in and out of juvenile detention, joining a gang just to survive. Then his mother fell in love with a successful entrepreneur who took Ryan under his wing. With his mentor's help, Blair turned himself into a wildly successful multimillionaire, starting and selling three companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
This book will inspire and guide people who are willing to do whatever necessary-hard work, long hours, sweat equity-to take their vision from paper to pavement. Blair gives readers a road map for successful entrepreneurship.
Synopsis
Like many entrepreneurs, Ryan Blair had no formal business education. But he had great survival instincts, tenacity, and, above all, a “nothing to lose” mindset. His middle-class childhood ended abruptly when his abusive father succumbed to drug addiction and abandoned the family. Blair and his mother moved to a rough neighborhood, and soon he was in and out of juvenile detention, joining a gang just to survive. Then his mother fell in love with a successful entrepreneur who took Ryan under his wing. With his mentor’s guidance, Blair started his first company, 24/7 Tech, at age twenty-one. He has since created and sold several companies for hundreds of millions of dollars. This is an inspirational guide full of powerful stories and lessons and a road map for entrepreneurial success.
Synopsis
The New York Times bestseller by a former gang member turned multimillionaire entrepreneur
Like many entrepreneurs, Ryan Blair had no formal business education. But he had great survival instincts, tenacity, and, above all, a nothing to lose” mind-set. His middle-class childhood came to an abrupt end when his abusive father succumbed to drug addiction and abandoned the family. Blair and his mother moved to a bad neighborhood, and soon he was in and out of juvenile detention, joining a gang just to survive.
Then his mother fell in love with a successful entrepreneur who took Ryan under his wing. With his mentors help, Blair turned himself into a wildly successful businessman. He started his first company, 24/7 Tech, at the age of twenty-one, and since then has created and sold several companies for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Now Blair shows readers how to start and grow their own profitable businesses. Sharing lessons from his mentors and advice from his own life-changing experiences, Blair provides an inspirational guide for people willing to put in the hard work, time, and dedication needed to achieve entrepreneurial success.
Synopsis
Stories, inspiration, and practical advice on how entrepreneurs can grow their companies rapidly without sacrificing their ethics (or Mother Earth), from the founders of Yes To, the #2 natural beauty brand in the U.S. after only a few short years.
Synopsis
Get Big Fast and Do More Good is a guide to modern entrepreneurship and accelerated brand-building from the founders of Yes To Inc, the company behind the breakthrough natural beauty brand Yes to Carrots.
and#160;
Ido Leffler and Lance Kalish, two 29-year-old Australians with very different backandshy;grounds and skills, cofounded their company in 2006 with little more than a dreamand#8212;and made it big. Yes to Carrots has become one of the biggest natural beauty brands in the world and is one of the fastest-growing skincare brands. Leffler and Kalish have accomandshy;plished it all while maintaining solid principles, investing in meaningful business relationandshy;ships, giving back to the community, and still making it home in time for dinner.
and#160;
The authors started their business with nothing but chutzpah and great instincts for products with potential. Theyand#8217;ve since made lots of great decisions and some really, really bad ones, and are ready to share their hard-won secret to success: a strong, resilient, trustandshy;ing partnership coupled with a great sense of humor.
About the Author
Ryan Blair is a self-made multimillionaire and serial entrepreneur, who established his first company, 24-7 Tech when he was twenty-one years old, and has since created and actively invested in multiple startups. Currently, as the CEO of ViSalus Sciences, in the year of the 2008 recession, Blair turned the company around and took their revenue from near failure to more than $10 million a month in only 15 months. He has appeared on CNBC, MSNBC, and Fox Business, amongst others, and has been featured in
Time, BusinessWeek, Sports Illustrated, the
Wall Street Journal, and
Forbes, amongst other major media. Blair lives in Hollywood, California with his son Reagan.
Visit www.NothingtoLose.com
Table of Contents
Introductionand#8194;viiand#160;and#160; 1.and#160;And in the Beginning .and#160;.and#160;.and#8194;1
and#160;and#160; 2.and#160;Time to Rideand#8194;31
and#160;and#160; 3.and#160;The Secret Formulaand#8194;41
and#160;and#160; 4.and#160;Partnershipand#8194;57
and#160;and#160; 5.and#160;Yes Who?and#8194;73
and#160;and#160; 6.and#160;Catching Your Waveand#8194;85
and#160;and#160; 7.and#160;The Investor Dating Gameand#8194;127
and#160;and#160; 8.and#160;The Nuts and Bolts of Getting People to Careand#8194;135
and#160;and#160; 9.and#160;The Most Screwed-up Screw-upand#8194;155
and#160;and#160; 10.and#160;Putting It All Togetherand#8194;163
and#160;and#160; 11.and#160;The Letting Go Chapterand#8194;183
Conclusion: Riding the Momentumand#8194;203
Acknowledgmentsand#8194;205
Indexand#8194;207