Are you bored and baffled by spin doctors telling you how to succeed, how to make $1 000 000 or how to build the best business in just 30 days? Everyone claims to have the next best short cut or hack to help you along the path of entrepreneurship. It's all bullshit. In his business autobiography Do. Fail. Learn. Repeat. Nicholas Haralambous discusses the truth about the last 15 years of his entrepreneurial journey. ANYONE CAN START SOMETHING. Nic openly discusses his failures and sacrifices over the past decade and a half spent building businesses. There is advice all over the place about the rules to follow if you want to succeed, the do's and don'ts of running a company, the how-to of how-to do this, that or the next thing. There are also many personalities out there telling young entrepreneurs to hustle non-stop, risk everything and never sleep if they want success. YOUR CHANCE OF FAILURE IS ALMOST GUARANTEED. No one talks about how hard it is, how lonely it is and how difficult it is to build a business. No one is willing to forgo their ego and be honest. If nothing else, Nic Haralambous is honest about his journey. MOST PEOPLE WON'T LEARN. Nic has lived the hustle; he has pushed through physical pain, mental suffering, business failures, personal torment and relationship strife all in the name of building businesses. ALMOST NO ONE DOES IT AGAIN. Nic decided to write a big book of his failures so that entrepreneurs around the world can begin to understand that it is not always glamorous, easy or fun to build a business. If entrepreneurship is calling you then you absolutely cannot miss out on the truth, behind the business, written by Nic Haralambous.
I read the entire book in one sitting. This is not your standard "10 TIPS FOR MAKING MILLIONS TODAY" bullshit business book. It's a compelling, brutally honest story about what entrepreneurship really looks like from the inside. Nic talks about losing friends, destroying his health, and making mistakes. I found it a profound meditation on why we are driven to do what we do, and why finding joy in starting a business is a different journey to chasing success.
This book is the most refreshingly honest account of one's journey through entrepreneurship. I can't remember the last time I read a business book that resonated with me so deeply and that managed to so succinctly distil such wisdom on entrepreneurship and life. A must read!
An epic read! An impressive and inspiring journey told with remarkable honesty. Nic has packed a lot of living into a short space of time. He is definitely not a spectator in life!
I have a feeling that a mighty tome will be needed to tell his story by the time he is through.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Nic’s experiences and hearing him tell his stories in a direct and candid manner. Nic’s lessons learnt going from one business to the next (some which has been resounding success) is also super helpful and inspirational.
Having known Nic way back in the gtown days there was always something about him, something was driving him, something other than booze and woman. 15 years later and I met him on the prom with his dogs and enjoying the amazing distraction dogs offer from what is driving us. Nic writes well and weaves in business and life challenges into his own experience. This guy won't stop and many people after reading this book will have less fear of failure. So in my opinion this book is a success and not one of his failures. I am sure there will be more stories to be shared. Well done old pal. See you on the prom for some distractions.
A good source of sound business advice. Advice that is not Facebook pretty. Nic tells the real truth of what it is like to run a business - stomach ulcers and all. A read that makes you realize that you are not alone if running your business is keeping you awake at night.
Picked up this booking thinking it was just a typical business book but quickly realized it was a lot more than that. Nic shows us his ups and his lows, he gives us his honest advice and he certainly doesn't sugar coat anything. This book is definitely a business book but in many ways it's also a self-help book teaching from his mistakes. Loved it!
Loved all the "war" stories in Nic's book. Some big failures and 2 of the chapters made me feel super depressed myself after reading them, but the lessons learnt are really great. Was an emotional read!
Thoroughly enjoyed the style of writing in this business book. It's a bunch of stories of starting, failing and learning, rather than a self-help business book.
An autobiography book of Nicholas Haralambous. An “I,me,myself” kind of a book. If you are interested in the life of Nicholas Haralambous, then this book is for you. But if you are looking for a book that will actually help you overcome a failure in life, then look for another.
I wish the author was focusing more on the way he overcame failures in his life, failures with his startups, what helped him get up and start again. He was just jumping from one startup to another. I started skipping pages at the end and got endlessly bored.
I really don’t like rating books anything below 3 starts but a 4.47 rating for this book (that’s what it is at the time of writing this review) is so overrated. I see some friends of the author are giving this autobiography book a high rating but for me it was below average, I guess I just had high/different expectations due to the title.
Common entrepreneurial pitfalls and how to avoid them with personal anecdotes
A perfect mixture of humorous yet personal anecdotes and practical business advice for the aspiring entrepreneur. Much of the advice seems practical and universal with the exception of the unique economic dynamics and intricacies of African countries such as South Africa. Haralambous often comes across as someone who miraculously always falls upwards no matter how incompetent he is,so please take that into consideration when following his advice. He did however, manage to recruit and retain all these people that successfully managed his businesses,so he isn't that incompetent. It is worth a read if you enjoy learning more or less about the difficulties of starting and successfully maintaining a business which may or may not be beneficial to you.
I left my comfortable salary to start a business in 2017, oh boy what a challenge it has been. One thing that I find out about myself is how resilient I am, I believe God has given me the strength to push through the pandemic, the finance challenges which I still have today but the most important thing, I am still here. We learn from our mistakes and we keep pushing. I always liken my business experience to a game of cricket. At times you get 4s and 6s but at times you go through with dot balls and 1s, I always say as long as I don’t have an LBW, I keep moving. Thank you Nic for this great book.
Awesome story on how hard it can be to build a successful startup. It’s both motivating and sobering at the same time and something I think all entrepreneurially minded people should read!