Ten rules of entrepreneurship interwoven with three inspiring stories makes The Intelligent Entrepreneur a fun and exhilarating read.  Meet Chris, Marla and Marc.  All are Harvard Business School graduates who have graduated from HBS and built firms that generated at least $50 million a year in revenue and/or netted their founders more than $20 million in personal profit.  The stories of each are exciting, candid and thoroughly engaging.

Bill Murphy does an excellent job of telling each story in relation to the 10 rules of successful entrepreneurship.  While I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in entrepreneurship, I realize some are more interested in a cliff notes version…  here are the ten rules:

1. Make the commitment.

As anyone who has tried to launch a company knows, becoming a successful entrepreneur is hard.  Without a firm commitment to the company and idea, the success of your new venture is doomed to fail.  Making a commitment is not just about standing behind your idea, it’s an analysis of your life situation as well:

• What other obligations will compete for your time and resources?
• What kind of support systems do you have?
• What is the opportunity cost?
• What is your record of achievement, creation and reinvention?
• What is your tolerance for risk?

2. Find a problem, then solve it.

There is a great quote in the book from a top partner at a venture capital firm: “Pain businesses are those that solve a significant problem, and people will rarely hesitate to pay money to solve that problem. Pleasure businesses solve less urgent problems.  They can sometimes be great, but the success rate is much lower.”

What problems do you have?  Is it a pain problem or a pleasure problem?  How can you solve it?  Will anyone care?

3. Think big, think new, think again.

Thinking big means pursuing ideas that have enough potential to be worth your time.  Ideas with scale, scope and the potential for huge financial returns.  “We only get one life” as Murphy puts it, “and the successful entrepreneurs I interviewed were determined to spend their limited time on this earth wisely by pursuing plans that would make it possible for them to have as much impact as possible.”

Thinking new means bringing a new perspective to an industry that has always done something a certain way.

Thinking again is about recognizing that your first problem and solution are probably not the best.  The best entrepreneurs are serial innovators.

4. You can’t do it alone.

Successful entrepreneurs have what academics and Murphy call “social capital.”  These are networks that have been developed to help identify and pursue opportunity. Secondly, entrepreneurs recognized their own strengths and weaknesses and put together teams that would help them complement their talents and experience.

Supporting the idea of not being able to do it alone is the first item on Paul Graham’s list: The 18 Mistakes that Kill Startups.

So how do you find people to help with your entrepreneurial adventure?

• Use your existing networks – alumni organization? family or friends to lean on?  church groups?
• Decide where you want to work – go do whatever interests you and if you can’t do it, get as close as possible to it as you can.
• Use technology – obviously social networks can help, but keep in mind, it’s about quality not quantity
• Don’t waste time building useless networks – networking is not an end in and of itself.  Make 10 quality connections instead of a 150 useless ones.

5. You must do it alone.

While a partner (or partners) in your entrepreneurial adventure is important, it’s also all about you.  It’s your idea, the team you have recruited, you are the one they look to for guidance and in the end, you’re the one who will likely reap the most substantial rewards.  So, do you believe in yourself enough to pursue your goal?

Developing a healthy dose of confidence is important. Confidence in yourself and confidence in your venture.    Murphy gives a couple of suggestions for developing a healthy sense of confidence:

• Get to know other entrepreneurs – their successes and their failures will prove invaluable.
• Inventory your own successes – develop a reservoir of confidence, never sell yourself short
• Read about the great entrepreneurs and their successes – Ben Franklin, Michael Dell, Ray Kroc and The Intelligent Entrepreneur.

6. Manage risk.

How risky is entrepreneurship?  Is it as riskier than everything else you will do in your life? It depends.  A well planned company with a solid business plan might be a lot less riskier than other things in life.

It will be rare to find a risk free business to start.  But it’s not necessarily about finding a risk free venture.  It’s about finding ways to manage the risks.  It’s a delicate balance between managing risk and exercising too much caution – which leads to inaction.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Some tips from Murphy on this topic:

• Understand finance and accounting (or find someone who does)
• Incorporate
• Have a plan B
• Liquidity is your friend

7. Learn to lead.

Leadership of a startup will come down to how well you can communicate your vision and motivate your partners and employees to adopt that vision as well.  Without a successful leader, your venture is doomed to failure.  So how do you learn to lead?

• Learn to communicate well – can you get your point across clearly?  are you a good listener?
• Clarify your vision – what is the end goal?  How clear is it and how easy is it to describe to the people you are working with?
• Put your ego aside – learn to delegate when necessary.  Find ways to empower other people
• What do you want to do in the company?  – do you want to start or run the company?  Be rich or be king?

8. Learn to sell.

As soon as you become and entrepreneur, you become a salesperson.  You’re constantly selling, even before you figure out which problem you are going to solve.  “Sell today, sell tomorrow, sell all the damn time.  First and last, you’re an entrepreneur.  But in between, you’re all about selling.”

Two things can help you sell your new business: passion and credibility.  Be passionate about the product you are offering and how it can help solve your customers problems, but balance your passion with credibility.  Selling anything to anybody, isn’t the objective.  Don’t compromise your credibility (pushing the truth) to make a sale.

9. Persist, persevere, prevail.

The three stories of Marc, Marla and Chris in Bill Murphy’s book illustrate the importance of persistence.  At some point during each story, the entrepreneurs are faced what seem to be huge obstacles.  A combination of skill, knowledge and sheer persistence help them push through these difficult times.

You, like Marc, Marla and Chris will also encounter challenges during your entrepreneurial adventure.  Stick with it.  You will be much better off persisting and hopefully prevailing.  Whatever you do, learn as much as you can from your successes and failures and carry that knowledge on to future projects.

10. Play the game for life.

As I learned from reading this book, the entrepreneurial venture isn’t entirely about cashing in on a great idea for a substantial sum of money.  It’s about finding fulfillment in life.  It’s about answering the question: “Why am I here?”

As Murphy states: “What matters most is finding a true measure of fulfillment – one that leaves you feeling that you have used all your talents to accomplish something worthwhile, make a difference in people’s lives and leave a legacy for those who follow.