‘Crazy is a Compliment’ doles out practical advice for entrepreneurs

Some books on entrepreneurship, usually written by successful entrepreneurs, are of little practical use. They fall into that category of business primer once labeled by a managing director of McKinsey & Co. consultants as “how you can be more like me.”

Linda Rottenberg’s new book, “Crazy is a Compliment: The Power of Zigging When Everyone Else Zags,” is different.

Her descriptions of what it takes to succeed are based on her work with 600 fast-growing companies, which her business network Endeavor has been supporting and advising since 1997.

Although “crazy” is in the title of this book published by Portfolio, Rottenberg’s analysis remains sober. She is convincing on the need for entrepreneurship and offers the best ways to build new business ventures.

She has a wise take on the question of risk. “Pretending your job is safe and your company is stable leaves you dangerously exposed. If you think risk taking is risky, being risk averse is often riskier.”

This is not just a concern for smaller enterprises, of course. “Most of the world’s CEOs realize they have to disrupt their own organizations before others beat them to it,” she says.

But trying something new and being disruptive will mean challenging the status quo, group think and powerful incumbents. Then, accusations of craziness may follow.

But in her experience, “almost all entrepreneurs at one point or another have been accused of being out of their minds.”

Rottenberg has added to the gazelles and skunks already used to describe types of entrepreneurs. Gazelles are “fast-moving and high-jumping,” the start-up of legend and, occasionally, reality; skunks start from within a corporation and create a stink.

The author adds dolphins, who are contrarians in the not-for-profit and public sectors (kindly, do their own thing), and butterflies, who are small-scale, “lifestyle” entrepreneurs with tenacity (come in infinite varieties.)

What prevents more of us from branching out and taking greater commercial risk? It is what a colleague of Rottenberg calls the “pre-Bannister mistake” of self-limitation.

Before Roger Bannister broke the four-minute barrier for running a mile in 1954, no one thought such a feat possible. But three years later, 16 runners had done it. Your dreams may be “crazy” but they may also be worth pursuing.

As well as her own partners’ stories, the author points to other well known “crazy” successes with inherent lessons.

Sara Blakely launched her Spanx underwear business, with its “Don’t worry, we’ve got your butt covered” slogan, having been rejected as totally misguided by everyone in the industry. She pressed on regardless.

Richard Branson told an Endeavor conference that Virgin Cola had been a mistake, but it was a “contained disaster,” he said. “Make sure a single failure won’t ruin everything” is part of the Branson formula.

Bad times offer opportunities. More than half of today’s Fortune 500 companies were started during recessions or bear markets. “Entrepreneurs have to be masters of chaos,” the author says.

Experimentation is also vital. She suggests entrepreneurs should “minnovate” — take a lot of small steps.

Stand out from the crowd, Rottenberg says, and be ready to be rebuffed. “If they don’t call you crazy you aren’t thinking big enough.”

But remember you have a home life, she warns, and signs off with a message for her daughters: “I can be an entrepreneur for a short time, but I am a mommy forever.”

Stefan Stern is a frequent contributor to the Financial Times of London, in which this review first appeared.