Hello, and welcome back to Kyrabe Stories where this time we are here to do a book review on “Building Blocks – Case Studies of a Serial Entrepreneur” by Gary Shamis. Many thanks to Farrow Communications for sending me a copy to review. The opinions are that of my own!
This blog may have affiliate links. This means that, at no extra cost to you, if you so choose to participate in some of the learning opportunities here, we at Kyrabe Stories may receive a commission as gratitude from the partnering companies. Thank you sincerely for your support and for your desire to learn and grow!
The book has two dividing sections: My Story of Building and Lessons Learned. The lessons specialize more towards the niches of consulting practices, accounting, non-profits, and management.
The book reads mostly as an advisory autobiography. There are some amazing tips concerning having an Entrepreneurial mindset, though the first two-thirds of the book I did catch my attention drifting a bit solely due to my personal niche being drastically different from that which was focused within these pages. Now, the advice itself was not bad. It just has more of a focused relevance agenda to the topics mentioned earlier. If your specialty lands within those fields, then this read might be more fitted for you!
Part two of the book: Lessons Learned – which completed the final third of the book – held my attention way more strongly! The advice was able to expand more broadly towards my specialties!
Below are some notes of wisdom quoted from within these pages! If these lessons interest you as well, then please go support Gary Shamis’s book. I hope that you find this book review on “Building Blocks: Case Studies of a Serial Entrepreneur” extremely helpful.
“Failure is an inevitable part of success. The important thing is not letting your ego lead the project.” pg 156
I knew I had to start the quotes off with this one as soon as I read it! Looking back, I cringe at all the times I’d quit something because I was afraid to fail: gymnastics, martial arts, band (in my defense, I didn’t care much about the clarinet anyways, so this one’s a partial regret).
But how often do we decide to pursue a dream just to hit what we perceive as an indestructible dead end? Many of us just quit and halfheartedly declare, “Well, I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”
Failure is a part of the journey. It’s a part of the learning curve. No one is expected to know EVERYTHING, so why should we expect ourselves to do everything perfectly? Trust that the lessons learned from the mistakes will bring you closer to your goal!
“Internal education is a critical for any business.” pg 70
I pity the fool that declares, “I’ve learned enough.” To put this in perspective, imagine someone declaring this back in the 90s after they mastered how to troubleshoot floppy disks…or rotary phones.
Our environment is constantly changing, so we must be constantly learning! Heck, I will confess that I didn’t even know that Social Media Marketing was a thing until 2018! Never convince yourself that “you know enough” because what’s trending today might be considered outdated in just a decade!
“Keep in mind that you don’t have to do it all alone. In fact, you shouldn’t. Even if you are at the very beginning of your business, it’s a good idea to work with a trusted consultant in areas where you aren’t knowledgeable.” pg 143
We are all given 24 hours in a day. We can only do so much within that limited time frame. This is something that I’ve had to lecture to myself time and time again:
It’s not a weakness to ask for help. It’s called delegation.
Ask a friend to help manage the social media pages. Ask your significant other to take care of some of the house chores so that you can focus on research. Personally ask a professional for advice on a topic instead of just stubbornly searching Google for hours for the answer! One of the best things I’ve done recently was to begin accepting guest posts! That alone has freed up a few hours to go work on other projects! Also, it has exposed me to new insights that I wouldn’t have had the experience to write about myself!
“I shifted my thinking from ‘come find us’ to ‘here we are.’ That required research.” pg 64
I think I found this section of the book intriguing due to the very short time I worked in Sales. Although I was FAR from comfortable with their direct approach methods, in hindsight I can see this importance. There is too much competition out there to sit around waiting for our targeted audience to hopefully stumble upon our business. And coming from someone who deals with social anxiety and has broken down in tears from an anxiety attack from, in lack of a better term, “stranger danger”, I am still here to say that we must expose our business to the world ourselves if we wish to be found!
As mentioned in the quote, this does indeed require research. My saving grace was post promotions in some cases, but I’ve also worked with my nerves to attend conferences and conventions. I’ve started carrying business cards and will hand one to anyone that shows the slightest interest that I’m a Blogger. Unless anyone has an unlimited budget for marketing costs, we have to get out into the world and personally express our existence.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the book is filled with a lot of meaningful information if you are interested in consulting practices, accounting, non-profits, and management. Although I do not specialize in these fields, it was still helpful to read a “behind-the-scenes” explanation as to how these companies are established and what challenges might be waiting down the road.
If you’ve enjoyed this book review on “Building Blocks – Case Studies of a Serial Entrepreneur” by Gary Shamis, please go support his release! If you have read this book already, I would love to read your opinions on this case study in the comments below!
And as always, remember to just live your life one story at a time!
Take care,
Kyndall Bennett From Kyrabe Stories
More posts
Why Should You Learn How To Calculate Interest Rates?
How To Tell If You Are Being Exploited At Work
