These days, it seems, just about everybody wants to be an entrepreneur or part of a fast‐growing entrepreneurial venture. Most large companies say they want to be more entrepreneurial, too, though most don't like the risk and uncertainty that comes with the territory. Sadly, however, most entrepreneurial ventures fail—some sooner, some later—so the entrepreneurial path, whether for those who lead the journey or those who participate therein, is typically rocky at best.

“Entrepreneurs and the counter-conventional mindsets they embrace are different from most other businesspeople in some fundamental ways—six ways, as it turns out.”

With that reality in mind, a couple of years ago, I was taking stock of what I'd learned over my many years of both having been an entrepreneur—with a win, a draw, and a loss to my name—and having studied entrepreneurs of all shapes, sizes, and aspirations during this, my second career as a business school professor. A picture—an epiphany, perhaps—emerged: Entrepreneurs are different from the rest of their peers in the business world. I'd seen it. I'd heard it. I'd felt it. You may know it to be true, too. Duh! Entrepreneurs and the counter‐conventional mindsets they embrace are different from most other businesspeople in some fundamental ways—six ways, as it turns out. But, so what? Why might my discovery be of interest to a reader like you?

My Epiphany: It's Your Mindset That Can Take You Where You Want to Go

From my ringside seat, I've observed closely how many of the world's most successful entrepreneurs think and act. How they take in information and what they do with it. How they respond to circumstances that come their way. In short, I've observed that what's different about successful entrepreneurs is not their drive, as most are no more or no less driven than many leaders in the corporate world are. It's not their personalities, as they are all as different as you are from me. It's not their willingness to take risk, because what the good ones do is find ways to offload the ever‐present risk onto others or mitigate it. They manage risk. They don't take risk, at least not willingly.

So, what's the difference? It's their mindsets that cause entrepreneurs to think and act fundamentally differently from many of their peers in large, well‐established businesses. Moreover, these mindsets fly in the face of much of what we teach—and have taught for decades—in business schools. They fly in the face of what we have come to accept as near‐universal truths about how business works. They fly in the face of what most people think one should do to lead and manage a successful business. In short, they break the conventional rules.

“These mindsets fly in the face of much of what we teach—and have taught for decades—in business schools.”

Thus, in this book, you'll read about these counter‐conventional, break‐the‐rules mindsets, six of them, to be exact. They will be brought to life by the stories of well‐known and iconic entrepreneurs like Tesla's Elon Musk, Bharti AirTel's Sunil Bharti Mittal, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and others. They'll also be brought to life, perhaps surprisingly, by the stories of inspiring entrepreneurs who are much like you. Men and women who have created and led unsung, little‐known entrepreneurial ventures to sometimes modest, sometimes astonishing levels of success. Even people who have broken the conventional rules to get things done inside large established businesses like Nestlé.

A book was needed to bring the mindsets they so viscerally demonstrate to life so you, too, can put their lessons into your entrepreneurial persona, so the world can benefit from what you create and deliver. With your new mindset in hand, you'll be well prepared to embark on or ramp up an entrepreneurial journey to wherever you'd like to go, whether your journey begins in a co‐working space, in your kitchen or garage, or deep inside an established organization!

Making Their Mindsets Yours

I'll introduce the book in Chapter 1, where I'll tell one such story and provide an overview of the six counter‐conventional, break‐the‐rules mindsets that characterize some of yesterday's, today's, and I expect tomorrow's most inspiring entrepreneurs. In Chapters 2 through 7, I'll then dig deeply into each of the six mindsets, one chapter and one mindset at a time, drawing from these remarkable case studies the lessons that readers like you can learn and put into practice.

“Breaking the conventional rules is not rocket science. It's an attitude. A mindset.”

Happily, in my work with thousands of entrepreneurs from all over the world, I've discovered that the six mindsets can be taught, and, even better, they can be learned and applied in business and other organizational settings of all sizes and kinds. Breaking the conventional rules is not rocket science. It's an attitude. A mindset. It's what's enabled so many entrepreneurs to transform the way we live, work, and play today. Their mindsets—and yours—hold the key that can sometimes make the impossible possible.

Who Should Read This Book?

If you are someone who wants to start or grow your own entrepreneurial venture or work in a fast‐growing company, one that's going to make the world just a bit better in one way or another, this book is for you.

Similarly, if you're the leader of a larger and more established, and perhaps slower‐growing, business and you're trying to find people who are—or teach people to be—more “entrepreneurial” than the sometimes set‐in‐their‐ways employees who make change so difficult to carry out in organizations like yours, this book is for you, too.

As observer Bill Joy noted nearly two decades ago, in describing what was happening in large companies at that time in a short but profound op‐ed piece in Fortune magazine, “Innovation is happening everywhere. But mostly elsewhere.”¹

So, let me be clear. Who is this book for?

• Aspiring entrepreneurs of any age and any level of business experience who are considering setting forth on an entrepreneurial journey into what is always the unknown. I don't have to tell you that you'll face long odds. This book will help you confront them.
• Those already walking the entrepreneurial path with dreams of scaling up. The sad reality is that most start‐ups remain small forever. They simply don't scale, for one reason or another. This book's insights will help you be among those whose businesses do.
• Anyone else in business, anywhere, who wants to make their part of the business—or all of it, if you're its leader—more “entrepreneurial.” And, in so doing, change the world, or at least your small part of it.

Why John Mullins?

For more than 30 years, I've had the good fortune to rigorously study what makes entrepreneurs tick and their ventures thrive—or fail. I've done this in three ways, each of which has served as an important source of the insights into entrepreneurs and their mindsets that this book delivers.

The first way is by having researched and written three trade books, each chock‐full of captivating and insightful case studies, from which I've learned so much. Each of those books focused on one crucial aspect of the entrepreneurial journey: assessing opportunities, so you pursue an attractive one and don't waste your time on the pursuit of a no‐hoper (The New Business Road Test); figuring out a business model that will actually work (Getting to Plan B); and finding a way to finance your venture without selling your soul—and your freedom and control—to business angels or venture capital investors (The Customer‐Funded Business). These three books, taken together, have set the stage for the insights in this one.

“The process of developing all these case studies has afforded me an intimate ringside seat.”

The second source of my “entrepreneurs are different” epiphany and the insights that comprise it, and the one to which I've devoted most of my research and writing time, is the case studies I've developed on more than 50 entrepreneurial companies and their founders. The process of developing all these case studies has afforded me an intimate ringside seat into what's driven their entrepreneurial journeys—some phenomenally successful, others less so.

The third source, and perhaps the richest, is the opportunity to have led engaging case discussions with thousands of highly motivated, high‐powered entrepreneurs over the past 20 years. Thanks to my role as an entrepreneurship professor at one of the world's top business schools, I've been privileged to develop and deliver executive education programs for members of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) and the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) annually since 2003.

The learning that goes on within such learning communities—whether peer to peer, professor to participants, or, most importantly, in the creation of this book, participants to professor—is a highlight of my work, year after year. This book would not exist without the knowledge I've gained from and about so many YPOers and EOers. It's their embodiment of these six counter‐conventional, break‐the‐rules mindsets that we can thank for whatever lessons you take away from this book.

Off You Go!

If you are among those who are eager to be a leader and change maker, whether in a new venture of your own choosing, in a fast‐growing start‐up that looks like it might be on a glide path to the moon, or in a much larger enterprise that's seeking to become more entrepreneurial, adopting any of these six mindsets into who you are will be well worth your time and effort. I promise. Are you intrigued? Turn the page and get started on breaking the rules!