What do you think?
Rate this book
101 Crucial Lessons They Don't Teach You in Business School
Chris Haroun has had the opportunity in his career to meet with the top CEOs, entrepreneurs and investors in the world, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Marc Benioff and the CEOs of most large technology companies. This book is an amalgamation of business advice that Chris has compiled from his many meetings with successful business people over the past two decades as well as observations of why brilliant entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg have become incredibly successful. Business schools do a good job of providing students with theoretical and practical frameworks that can be applicable to real world problems but often miss teaching students some of the most crucial business lessons like how to network, how to find customers or how to get a job!
Chris Haroun is an award winning business school professor, venture capitalist and author. He is currently a venture capitalist at a prominent San Francisco Bay Area venture capital firm and has previous work experience at Goldman Sachs, hedge fund giant Citadel, Accenture and several firms that he has founded. He has raised and has managed over $1 billion in his career.
Chris teaches many courses online at www.Udemy.com/user/chris-haroun. He has an MBA in Finance from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Commerce Degree with a major in Management Information Systems and International Business from McGill University. Chris is also a frequent guest lecturer at several Bay Area business schools including Berkeley and Stanford. He is a McGill University Dobson Fellow. He has written numerous articles/been interviewed in Forbes, VentureBeat, Entrepreneur Magazine, Wired Magazine, AlleyWatch and Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK: Hong Kong's oldest and sole public service broadcaster). He serves on the boards of several Bay Area technology companies and charities. Chris Haroun is originally from Canada and currently lives in Hillsborough, California and enjoys playing baseball with his wife and three sons.
Chris Haroun is an award winning business school professor, venture capitalist and author. He is currently a venture capitalist at a prominent San Francisco Bay Area venture capital firm and has previous work experience at Goldman Sachs, hedge fund giant Citadel, Accenture and several firms that he has founded. He has raised and has managed over $1 billion in his career.
Chris teaches many courses online at www.Udemy.com/user/chris-haroun. He has an MBA in Finance from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Commerce Degree with a major in Management Information Systems and International Business from McGill University. Chris is also a frequent guest lecturer at several Bay Area business schools including Berkeley and Stanford. He is a McGill University Dobson Fellow. He has written numerous articles/been interviewed in Forbes, VentureBeat, Entrepreneur Magazine, Wired Magazine, AlleyWatch and Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK: Hong Kong's oldest and sole public service broadcaster). He serves on the boards of several Bay Area technology companies and charities. Chris Haroun is originally from Canada and currently lives in Hillsborough, California and enjoys playing baseball with his wife and three sons.
140 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
80 people are currently reading
575 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 3, 2016
Gosh, LinkedIn-LinkedIn-LinkedIn... why, for Christ's sake, people insist on sitting online and posting their meager achievements to LinkedIn. All, instead of doing something useful.
Minus for the LinkedIn Propaganda!
Avoid Burnout
Lesson #14: What to Do the Second You Return from Vacation
One of the best pieces of advice I have received in my life was from a client at Manulife Financial when I worked at Goldman Sachs. She told that the second you return from your vacation, open your calendar and look out 6 months and book your next vacation.
Of course I didn’t take this advice as I was in my 20s and felt like I had endless energy. Then I hit a wall and became incredibly unproductive. I had worked too many weekends and too many hours per day. In hindsight all I needed to do was take a few weekends off and a whole week every 6 months.
When you work too hard without taking breaks you burnout and become incredibly unproductive. If you work for 3 months, for example, around the clock without many breaks, then I am a firm believer that it will take you more than 3 months to “unburnout”. The results can be catastrophic for your career and even your personal life. Pace yourself and take breaks often.
A big plus for this one!
Stress will kill you; don’t be the gazelle. See stress as a challenge and not as a threat. Learn to take breaks. Don’t walk into the propeller. Hakuna matata!
Plus one!
Don’t procrastinate. Always tell yourself when you have a task at hand this: “I do it now. I do it now. I do it now.”
Plus one!
Keep in mind that when you give presentations you always know more about the presentation topic than anyone in the audience. You only feel nervous because you tell yourself you are nervous. Just be yourself and tell yourself that you really enjoy the company of the audience; pretend they are your life-long friends and family members and they love you and want nothing more than for you to be extremely successful.
Yep!
Unfortunately in business, confidence leads to perceived competence.
Yes!
Here are some incredibly inspirational examples of people that were fired. Thank goodness they were or we wouldn’t enjoy the benefits of their future business empire creations:
Tomas Edison was fired by Western Union.
Michael Bloomberg was fired which made him get his revenge by starting his financial empire Bloomberg. Without getting fired he wouldn’t have ever become the Mayor of New York.
J.K Rowling hated her job as an administrative assistant. She quit and found her passion, which was writing the Harry Potter books.
Walt Disney was fired by a publication he worked for.
Madonna was fired from Dunkin Donuts.
Robert Redford was fired from an oil company.
Lee Iacocca was fired from Ford. So he turned around and led Chrysler.
Uhhuh!
I have changed careers several times in my life. I have been fortunate enough to have embraced networking from a young age. I started out in the technology consulting business. I then changed careers post my MBA and worked on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs. I loved the people there but I also understood why so many successful politicians come out of Goldman. So I switched careers and worked in the hedge fund industry because I wanted to make a lot of money. I did ok but I was miserable. Don’t work because you want to make a lot of money! I hated the hedge fund industry because it was so short term focused. I wanted to be a long term investor so I started a firm that invested partially in private companies and I ended up getting a great gig as a partner at a prominent Bay Area venture capital firm. I love my business partners. They love what they do as well. They are wonderful family oriented people too. They have their priorities straight (family first). I am also a professor at night. I love helping students and I love sitting on boards and helping companies too. It took me many years to find happiness in what I do and it certainly is not because of the money…..it never is and it never will be.
D.T.A stands for “Don’t Trust Anyone”.
True to life.
Yeah, yeah, the author cringed a lot in chapters on... ahem... :)
It is Crucial to Be Paranoid...
Aha! It most definitely is.
You need to come across as confident when you are selling your product and service as perceived confidence more often than not leads to perceived competence, which should help you increase your selling success rate.
A list of very concise practical advices.
Minus for the LinkedIn Propaganda!
Avoid Burnout
Lesson #14: What to Do the Second You Return from Vacation
One of the best pieces of advice I have received in my life was from a client at Manulife Financial when I worked at Goldman Sachs. She told that the second you return from your vacation, open your calendar and look out 6 months and book your next vacation.
Of course I didn’t take this advice as I was in my 20s and felt like I had endless energy. Then I hit a wall and became incredibly unproductive. I had worked too many weekends and too many hours per day. In hindsight all I needed to do was take a few weekends off and a whole week every 6 months.
When you work too hard without taking breaks you burnout and become incredibly unproductive. If you work for 3 months, for example, around the clock without many breaks, then I am a firm believer that it will take you more than 3 months to “unburnout”. The results can be catastrophic for your career and even your personal life. Pace yourself and take breaks often.
A big plus for this one!
Stress will kill you; don’t be the gazelle. See stress as a challenge and not as a threat. Learn to take breaks. Don’t walk into the propeller. Hakuna matata!
Plus one!
Don’t procrastinate. Always tell yourself when you have a task at hand this: “I do it now. I do it now. I do it now.”
Plus one!
Keep in mind that when you give presentations you always know more about the presentation topic than anyone in the audience. You only feel nervous because you tell yourself you are nervous. Just be yourself and tell yourself that you really enjoy the company of the audience; pretend they are your life-long friends and family members and they love you and want nothing more than for you to be extremely successful.
Yep!
Unfortunately in business, confidence leads to perceived competence.
Yes!
Here are some incredibly inspirational examples of people that were fired. Thank goodness they were or we wouldn’t enjoy the benefits of their future business empire creations:
Tomas Edison was fired by Western Union.
Michael Bloomberg was fired which made him get his revenge by starting his financial empire Bloomberg. Without getting fired he wouldn’t have ever become the Mayor of New York.
J.K Rowling hated her job as an administrative assistant. She quit and found her passion, which was writing the Harry Potter books.
Walt Disney was fired by a publication he worked for.
Madonna was fired from Dunkin Donuts.
Robert Redford was fired from an oil company.
Lee Iacocca was fired from Ford. So he turned around and led Chrysler.
Uhhuh!
I have changed careers several times in my life. I have been fortunate enough to have embraced networking from a young age. I started out in the technology consulting business. I then changed careers post my MBA and worked on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs. I loved the people there but I also understood why so many successful politicians come out of Goldman. So I switched careers and worked in the hedge fund industry because I wanted to make a lot of money. I did ok but I was miserable. Don’t work because you want to make a lot of money! I hated the hedge fund industry because it was so short term focused. I wanted to be a long term investor so I started a firm that invested partially in private companies and I ended up getting a great gig as a partner at a prominent Bay Area venture capital firm. I love my business partners. They love what they do as well. They are wonderful family oriented people too. They have their priorities straight (family first). I am also a professor at night. I love helping students and I love sitting on boards and helping companies too. It took me many years to find happiness in what I do and it certainly is not because of the money…..it never is and it never will be.
D.T.A stands for “Don’t Trust Anyone”.
True to life.
Yeah, yeah, the author cringed a lot in chapters on... ahem... :)
It is Crucial to Be Paranoid...
Aha! It most definitely is.
You need to come across as confident when you are selling your product and service as perceived confidence more often than not leads to perceived competence, which should help you increase your selling success rate.
A list of very concise practical advices.
March 13, 2016
I don't like to rate books low because I know authors have to have courage to put themselves in the position to be critiqued by people they'll never meet. I respect the effort it takes to sit down and write something of length and the dedication required to complete it once started. With that said, I just couldn't rate this any higher. Most of the information in this book is either common knowledge, personal opinion, or just plain wrong. There were so many grammatical errors that I started to doubt the author's credentials. Now, there are certainly a small handful of good tips, but no where near the 101 that are promised in the title. I haven't read any of this author's other works, so maybe this book was the "poor showing" among a group of better works?
October 27, 2024
2.5/5 ⭐️
The intention is there but it’s very simplistic, too much to actually work. The examples are poorly chosen, Madonna was once fired, and so? No studies, no real research. It’s also common sense for some other advice or straight from Pinterest wannabe inspiring quotes.
The fact that he also keeps promoting his Udemy course put me off. One time, okay, i would have left it to the end of the book but alright but after each chapter! just leave me alone!
The intention is there but it’s very simplistic, too much to actually work. The examples are poorly chosen, Madonna was once fired, and so? No studies, no real research. It’s also common sense for some other advice or straight from Pinterest wannabe inspiring quotes.
The fact that he also keeps promoting his Udemy course put me off. One time, okay, i would have left it to the end of the book but alright but after each chapter! just leave me alone!
January 2, 2024
Ganske fin bog. Jeg føler dog det er en bog der henvender sig bedst til folk der er på vej ind i deres karriere uden nogen former for erfaring, frem for dem der har været i gang et par år.
En del af lektionerne er selvsagte, og nogen er ligefrem overflødige i min optik. Men udmærket bog, som vel fin mig til at tænke over en ting eller to trods alt.
En del af lektionerne er selvsagte, og nogen er ligefrem overflødige i min optik. Men udmærket bog, som vel fin mig til at tænke over en ting eller to trods alt.
March 29, 2019
You can find a lot of great advices in this book!
It’s for everyone and for both personal and business life.
Easy to read. Simple explanation but powerful!
It won’t take a lot of your time to read this book. However, , you will find some good takeaways.
It’s for everyone and for both personal and business life.
Easy to read. Simple explanation but powerful!
It won’t take a lot of your time to read this book. However, , you will find some good takeaways.
May 26, 2020
Easy read with incisive insights.
No theory, full of practical advices on finding a job, climbing the corporate ladder and starting your own company.
Some might seem like common sense but the best secrets are often simple. Execution is key.
No theory, full of practical advices on finding a job, climbing the corporate ladder and starting your own company.
Some might seem like common sense but the best secrets are often simple. Execution is key.
June 16, 2017
Good Actionable Advice on networking and business skills
August 5, 2017
Very insightful and educational. It's a must read!!!
January 4, 2018
Practical Guide
I found this book to be informative. The layout made it a fast read with practical examples and information. I was able to takeaway ideas to implement right away.
I found this book to be informative. The layout made it a fast read with practical examples and information. I was able to takeaway ideas to implement right away.
February 18, 2018
Interesting,crisp and highly informational
March 5, 2019
Wow
Very inspirational and a great read. I read this book in one sitting! It is definitely a page turner. I highly recommend this book!
Very inspirational and a great read. I read this book in one sitting! It is definitely a page turner. I highly recommend this book!
March 12, 2019
Few good lessons with lot of advertising to the writer's articles and udemy courses
Read
April 17, 2020Beginner
May 24, 2020
I really enjoyed reading through this! Life advice like this is best learned firsthand to really understand the impact, and a lot of the advice resonated with my own career experiences. An enjoyable read for anyone in business or going to business school.
July 5, 2020
Fantastic
I bought 3 courses and read this book I consider this man to be my mentor. Definitely a must read.
I bought 3 courses and read this book I consider this man to be my mentor. Definitely a must read.
August 18, 2021
You gotta read this if you're a business student!!
August 1, 2022
Great book, totally enjoyed it.
Great book, Facts, humor and expertise, all come together. This book really encouraged me to go after my dreams and believe I can do anything.
Great book, Facts, humor and expertise, all come together. This book really encouraged me to go after my dreams and believe I can do anything.
June 11, 2016
This quick, motivational read had exactly what I was looking for, advice and some history on what made him successful.
Marc Benioff spoke at my graduation and his alma mater, and yes, he is extremely inspirational as mentioned in the book. I understood where he is coming from.
Marc Benioff spoke at my graduation and his alma mater, and yes, he is extremely inspirational as mentioned in the book. I understood where he is coming from.
April 8, 2016
Good advice!
The book is written as a piece of advice at the top of the page and then one or two paragraphs on each page. It is a nice summary of advice most have heard before. No analysis or synthesis of ideas.
The book is written as a piece of advice at the top of the page and then one or two paragraphs on each page. It is a nice summary of advice most have heard before. No analysis or synthesis of ideas.
March 18, 2016
It was a good read. I just used it as a cheat sheet to check for how I am doing at my work
March 21, 2016
Really worth the time
Great quick read for business principals that aren't in a normal text book. Good supplement to Chris's udemy MBA course
Great quick read for business principals that aren't in a normal text book. Good supplement to Chris's udemy MBA course
March 29, 2016
I learned a lot of advices in this book the hard way.
Every fresh college graduate starting his or her first corporate job should buy a copy, best 10 bucks spent on self education.
Every fresh college graduate starting his or her first corporate job should buy a copy, best 10 bucks spent on self education.
March 29, 2016
i think this book good for read for bussines
July 27, 2025
Read it when I was starting out on my reading journey. Easy to read but misleading title. Every third page, the author tries to sell his udemy courses by providing the link to them.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews