
Burn the Business Plan
What Great Entrepreneurs Really Do
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Tom Parks
-
By:
-
Carl J. Schramm
About this listen
"The evangelist of entrepreneurship" (The Economist) reveals the true stories about how a range of entrepreneurs created their successful start-ups: hint, many of them never began with a business plan.
Business schools teach that the most important prerequisite for starting a business is a business plan. Nonsense, says Carl Schramm in Burn the Business Plan, who for a decade headed the most important foundation devoted to entrepreneurship in this country. Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Google are just a few of the companies that began without one.
Schramm explains that the importance of a business plan is only one of the many misconceptions about starting a company. Another is the myth of the kid genius - that all entrepreneurs are young software prodigies. In fact, the average entrepreneur is thirty-nine years old and has worked in corporate America for at least a decade. Schramm discusses why people with work experience in corporate America have an advantage as entrepreneurs. For one thing, they often have important contacts in the business world who may be customers for their new service or product. For another, they often have the opportunity to strategize with knowledgeable people and get valuable advice.
Burn the Business Plan tells stories of successful entrepreneurs in a variety of fields. It shows how knowledge, passion, determination, and a willingness to experiment and innovate are vastly more important than financial skill. This is an important, motivating look at true success that dispels the myths and offers invaluable real-world advice on how to achieve your dreams.
©2018 Carl J. Schramm (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reservedListeners also enjoyed...
-
Give and Take
- A Revolutionary Approach to Success
- By: Adam M. Grant PhD
- Narrated by: Brian Keith Lewis
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For generations, we have focused on the individual drivers of success: Passion, hard work, talent, and luck. But in today’s dramatically reconfigured world, success is increasingly dependent on how we interact with others. In Give and Take, Adam Grant, an award-winning researcher and Wharton’s highest-rated professor, examines the surprising forces that shape why some people rise to the top of the success ladder while others sink to the bottom.
-
-
Give ‘Til it Helps - Your Company
- By Cynthia on 04-15-13
-
Gambler
- Secrets from a Life at Risk
- By: Billy Walters
- Narrated by: Billy Walters
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anybody can get lucky. Nobody controls the odds like Billy Walters. Widely regarded as “the Michael Jordan of sports betting,” Walters is a living legend in Las Vegas and among sports bettors worldwide. With an unmatched winning streak of thirty-six consecutive years, Walters has become fabulously wealthy by placing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in gross wagers, including one Super Bowl bet of $3.5 million alone. Competitors desperate to crack his betting techniques have tried hacking his phones, cloning his beepers, rifling through his trash, and bribing his employees.
-
-
Good but
- By Amazon Customer on 08-30-23
By: Billy Walters
-
The Power Law
- Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future
- By: Sebastian Mallaby
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Innovations rarely come from “experts.” Elon Musk was not an “electric car person” before he started Tesla. When it comes to improbable innovations, a legendary tech VC told Sebastian Mallaby, the future cannot be predicted, it can only be discovered. It is the nature of the venture-capital game that most attempts at discovery fail, but a very few succeed at such a scale that they more than make up for everything else. That extreme ratio of success and failure is the power law that drives the VC business, all of Silicon Valley, the wider tech sector, and, by extension, the world.
-
-
An Excellent Modern History Book
- By BikerDave on 05-06-24
-
The Lean Startup
- How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
- By: Eric Ries
- Narrated by: Eric Ries
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.
-
-
Informative, mature but not original or essential
- By Jason Comely on 02-19-13
By: Eric Ries
-
The 1-Page Marketing Plan
- Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd
- By: Allan Dib
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To build a successful business, you need to stop doing random acts of marketing and start following a reliable plan for rapid business growth. Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and time-consuming process, which is why it often doesn’t get done.
-
-
You Need to buy Book to get key info
- By Rosie's mom on 10-23-18
By: Allan Dib
-
Build
- An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making
- By: Tony Fadell
- Narrated by: Tony Fadell, Roger Wayne
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tony Fadell led the teams that created the iPod, iPhone and Nest Learning Thermostat and learned enough in 30+ years in Silicon Valley about leadership, design, startups, Apple, Google, decision-making, mentorship, devastating failure and unbelievable success to fill an encyclopedia.
-
-
Best guide for start up founders, ever!!!
- By Curly Beard on 05-28-22
By: Tony Fadell
-
Give and Take
- A Revolutionary Approach to Success
- By: Adam M. Grant PhD
- Narrated by: Brian Keith Lewis
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For generations, we have focused on the individual drivers of success: Passion, hard work, talent, and luck. But in today’s dramatically reconfigured world, success is increasingly dependent on how we interact with others. In Give and Take, Adam Grant, an award-winning researcher and Wharton’s highest-rated professor, examines the surprising forces that shape why some people rise to the top of the success ladder while others sink to the bottom.
-
-
Give ‘Til it Helps - Your Company
- By Cynthia on 04-15-13
-
Gambler
- Secrets from a Life at Risk
- By: Billy Walters
- Narrated by: Billy Walters
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anybody can get lucky. Nobody controls the odds like Billy Walters. Widely regarded as “the Michael Jordan of sports betting,” Walters is a living legend in Las Vegas and among sports bettors worldwide. With an unmatched winning streak of thirty-six consecutive years, Walters has become fabulously wealthy by placing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in gross wagers, including one Super Bowl bet of $3.5 million alone. Competitors desperate to crack his betting techniques have tried hacking his phones, cloning his beepers, rifling through his trash, and bribing his employees.
-
-
Good but
- By Amazon Customer on 08-30-23
By: Billy Walters
-
The Power Law
- Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future
- By: Sebastian Mallaby
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Innovations rarely come from “experts.” Elon Musk was not an “electric car person” before he started Tesla. When it comes to improbable innovations, a legendary tech VC told Sebastian Mallaby, the future cannot be predicted, it can only be discovered. It is the nature of the venture-capital game that most attempts at discovery fail, but a very few succeed at such a scale that they more than make up for everything else. That extreme ratio of success and failure is the power law that drives the VC business, all of Silicon Valley, the wider tech sector, and, by extension, the world.
-
-
An Excellent Modern History Book
- By BikerDave on 05-06-24
-
The Lean Startup
- How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
- By: Eric Ries
- Narrated by: Eric Ries
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.
-
-
Informative, mature but not original or essential
- By Jason Comely on 02-19-13
By: Eric Ries
-
The 1-Page Marketing Plan
- Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd
- By: Allan Dib
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To build a successful business, you need to stop doing random acts of marketing and start following a reliable plan for rapid business growth. Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and time-consuming process, which is why it often doesn’t get done.
-
-
You Need to buy Book to get key info
- By Rosie's mom on 10-23-18
By: Allan Dib
-
Build
- An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making
- By: Tony Fadell
- Narrated by: Tony Fadell, Roger Wayne
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tony Fadell led the teams that created the iPod, iPhone and Nest Learning Thermostat and learned enough in 30+ years in Silicon Valley about leadership, design, startups, Apple, Google, decision-making, mentorship, devastating failure and unbelievable success to fill an encyclopedia.
-
-
Best guide for start up founders, ever!!!
- By Curly Beard on 05-28-22
By: Tony Fadell
-
Second Chance
- for Your Money, Your Life and Our World
- By: Robert T. Kiyosaki
- Narrated by: Tim Wheeler
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few would argue with the fact that on many fronts, we are a world in crisis. And there are two sides to every crisis, be it a leadership crisis, an economic crisis, an education crisis, or a moral crisis. The two sides to crisis are danger and opportunity. Robert Kiyosaki's new book, Second Chance: for Your Money and Your Life, uses the lessons from the past and a brutal assessment of the present to prepare listeners to see - and seize - the future.
-
-
Err... Not impressed.
- By Robert on 07-20-15
-
Zero to One
- Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
- By: Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
- Narrated by: Blake Masters
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.
-
-
Seems Insightful Until You Think A Little Deeper
- By Mark Brandon on 10-31-14
By: Peter Thiel, and others
-
The Self-Made Billionaire Effect
- How Extreme Producers Create Massive Value
- By: John Sviokla, Mitch Cohen
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine what Atari might have achieved if Steve Jobs had stayed there to develop the first massmarket personal computer. Or what Steve Case might have done for PepsiCo if he hadn't left for a gaming start-up that eventually became AOL. What if Salomon Brothers had kept Michael Bloomberg, or Bear Stearns had exploited the inventive ideas of Stephen Ross? Scores of top-tier entrepreneurs worked for established corporations before they struck out on their own and became self-made billionaires.
-
-
Waste of time!
- By Anonymous User on 05-30-20
By: John Sviokla, and others
-
Blitzscaling
- The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies
- By: Reid Hoffman, Chris Yeh, Bill Gates - foreword
- Narrated by: Chris Yeh, Reid Hoffman
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What entrepreneur or founder doesn't aspire to build the next Amazon, Facebook, or Airbnb? Yet those who actually manage to do so are exceedingly rare. So what separates the start-ups that get disrupted and disappear from the ones who grow to become global giants? The secret is blitzscaling: a set of techniques for scaling up at a dizzying pace that blows competitors out of the water.
-
-
not much here.
- By Francis Shanahan on 09-05-19
By: Reid Hoffman, and others
-
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy
- The Difference and Why It Matters
- By: Richard Rumelt
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to - and approach for - overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy”.
-
-
Good but thin
- By G. London on 01-04-20
By: Richard Rumelt
-
Competing Against Luck
- The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice
- By: Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The foremost authority on innovation and growth presents a path-breaking book every company needs to transform innovation from a game of chance to one in which they develop products and services customers not only want to buy but are willing to pay premium prices for. How do companies know how to grow? How can they create products that they are sure customers want to buy? Can innovation be more than a game of hit and miss? Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen has the answer.
-
-
Understood from the first 5 min, the test was unnecessary
- By Julie on 11-02-18
By: Clayton M. Christensen, and others
-
Disrupt You!
- Master Personal Transformation, Seize Opportunity, and Thrive in the Era of Endless Innovation
- By: Jay Samit
- Narrated by: Jay Samit
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Samit has been at the helm of businesses in the ecommerce, digital video, social media, mobile communications, and software industries, helping to navigate them through turbulent economic times and guide them through necessary transformation so that they stay ahead of the curve and profitable. In Disrupt You!, he reveals how specific strategies that help companies flourish can be applied at an individual level. By challenging assumptions, pinpointing one's unique value, and identifying weaknesses in the structure of current industries, anyone can achieve success and lasting prosperity.
-
-
Nothing wrong with his take on entrepreneurship
- By Oliver Nielsen on 09-13-15
By: Jay Samit
-
The Innovator's Solution
- Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth
- By: Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor
- Narrated by: Joel Leffert
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clayton M. Christensen is a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Michael E. Raynor is a director at Deloitte Research. Together, they outline an innovative plan that urges businesses to create disruption rather than fleeing from it. Named one of 2003's Best Business Books by Business Week, this book is a Wall Street Journal and New York Times best seller.
-
-
Great Book...Drone Narration
- By Pat on 06-11-13
By: Clayton M. Christensen, and others
-
Stretch
- Unlock the Power of Less - and Achieve More Than You Ever Imagined
- By: Scott Sonenshein
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stretch identifies key ways for people and organizations to work beyond their resources to achieve higher performance. Based on in-depth research in psychology and management, Scott Sonenshein shows how to accomplish goals, find professional and personal success, and live a richer life. Sonenshein reveals that while we rarely have all we think we need, we usually have more than we imagine.
-
-
Good ideas. Wanted a few more inches on the journey.
- By Sarah S. on 05-20-17
By: Scott Sonenshein
-
The Start-Up J Curve
- The Six Steps to Entrepreneurial Success
- By: Howard Love
- Narrated by: Chris Abell
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After founding or co-founding over 15 start-ups and investing in another 50 early stage ventures as an angel investor, author Howard Love came to understand that a start-up unfolds in a predictable pattern. The more aware entrepreneurs are of this pattern, the better able they will be to capitalize on it.
-
-
Release your product quickly, then be ready to morph.
- By California Dreaming on 04-02-17
By: Howard Love
-
Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation
- By: Tim Brown
- Narrated by: Tim Roberts
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The myth of innovation is that brilliant ideas leap fully formed from the minds of geniuses. The reality is that most innovations come from a process of rigorous examination through which great ideas are identified and developed before being realized as new offerings and capabilities. This is not a book by designers for designers; this is a book for creative leaders seeking to infuse design thinking into every level of an organization's products or service to drive new alternatives for business and society.
-
-
Starts strong, then becomes an Ideo advertisement
- By Cameron on 09-10-12
By: Tim Brown
-
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- By: Peter F. Drucker
- Narrated by: Michael Wells
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the first book to present innovation and entrepreneurship as a purposeful and systematic discipline. It clearly explains and analyzes the challenges and opportunities of America's new entrepreneurial economy. Peter Drucker, the most influential and widely-read thinker and writer on modern organizations, gives us a superbly practical book that explains what established businesses, public service institutions, and new ventures have to know, have to learn, and have to do in today's economy and marketplace.
-
-
Great book, poorly read :-(
- By John on 01-31-05
By: Peter F. Drucker
What listeners say about Burn the Business Plan
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Shawntell Manning
- 01-23-22
5 stars
An excellent resource. Well-presented and very insightful. Not what one would expect, but with the facts to back it, this would help so many would-be entrepreneurs.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dennis M Danzik
- 05-20-23
Six Stars for Carl! Simply the best choice.
This book is simply the best choice in the subject.
it is well worth time to listen twice and read the hard copy once (I did!).
Packed with facts, examples, real world experience, and spot on analysis.
I am adding this great read to my gifting list!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- gideon osei
- 10-22-19
burn 🔥
I really enjoyed this book as a business owner of a decently large company that is a year and a half in. While its not really a 'how to' type instructional book on how to grow or deal with the problems we face daily, it sure did let me know that this chaos is normal and that I am still on track! Despite my 'proper training' telling me I'm a mess 😅 This book is great for current business owners & should be mandatory for considering business owners. I love the statistics and the examples the author shares as they are very enlightening and encouraging but also very realistic!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mont
- 03-12-18
Have been waiting for this book and message!
The author mentioned 1MillionCups and believe it to be the Cold Circle he mentioned previously.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Alex Morrison
- 03-16-18
Truth!
incredible book, mandatory reading for anyone trying to become an entrepreneur. This goes into detail what is required in order to succeed in small business.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 04-17-18
applicable advice for wannabe entrepreneurs
Good narrator, well written book, nice flow, awesome content! Carl J. Schramm does a fabulous job of telling the success and failure stories of others--many who are now a household name--as well as presenting his own experience and acquired knowledge, in a very entertaining way.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Blanchette
- 08-22-19
Invaluable for New AND "Old" Business
The information shared by Schramm is invaluable, encouraging, thoughtful and actually useful for those starting a business AND even those of us who have been running our own business. It removes the myths around how to create your business and allows for the natural flow of what business is really like.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Aaron Miaullis
- 04-21-18
Explains the Dilbert like business buzzwords
Uplifting and sobering data for any business. However, we need more graphs and charts please! I need something to show my mentors.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dean Whipple
- 08-18-18
Awesome Book!
It really validated many of my observations over the last 35+ years as an on & off entrepreneur. More importantly, it energized my entrepreneurial spirit. Thanks!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!