The Intelligent Entrepreneur : How Three Harvard Business School Graduates Learned the 10 Rules of Successful Entrepreneurship

"An invaluable guide to those who might follow in the footsteps of these remarkable young entrepreneurs."―William Sahlman, Professor, Harvard Business School

In 1998, three Harvard Business School graduates―two men and one woman―turned down six-figure salaries at big corporations, bet on themselves, and launched their own new companies. By their ten-year reunion, their audacity had paid huge dividends. They'd made many millions of dollars, created hundreds of jobs―and left their mark on the world.

Based on dozens of interviews with highly successful entrepreneurs, Harvard Business School professors and alumni, The Intelligent Entrepreneur tells the compelling and instructive story of how these three young founders developed ideas, assembled teams, built ventures, and achieved their dreams. Their hard-won insights―distilled into ten key rules―will help anyone become a successful entrepreneur.

What they teach you at Harvard Business School is that intelligent entrepreneurship can be learned. In that spirit, Bill Murphy Jr. uses a unique combination of vivid storytelling and lucid instruction to show would-be entrepreneurs how to improve their odds of creating dynamic, lasting businesses.

Bill Murphy Jr. is the author of The Intelligent Entrepreneur: How Three Harvard Business School Graduates Learned the 10 Rules of Successful Entrepreneurship and In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point's Class of 2002. Previously, he worked as Bob Woodward's research assistant on the bestselling State of Denial. An inveterate entrepreneur who was on the founding teams of three separate start-ups, he is also a former military officer, lawyer, and Washington Post reporter.