Running lean book summary

Running Lean Book Summary

”If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.” .

Running Lean Book Summary

 

Are you still wondering when you would have the time to read “Running Lean”?

Who has time to read a whole book these days, right?

I can relate.

That’s why we created this Running Lean book summary—so you can get the best insights, fast. This book is so juicy and we couldn’t extract it all in a summary.

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Running Lean

Running Lean by Ash Maurya takes you easily from point A to B FASTER. Provides a clear road-map, helping you build a business that lasts
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running lean book summary

Introduction

Have a brilliant business idea? Great! But here’s the thing—ideas alone aren’t enough. The real challenge is turning that idea into a successful, profitable business. That’s exactly what “Running Lean” helps you do.

This book isn’t about building for the sake of building—it’s about testing, learning, and making sure you’re creating something people actually want.

If you’re tired of wasting time, money, and energy on guesswork, this summary will give you the tools to build smarter and faster. Let’s dive in and learn how to turn your idea into a real success story! 💡

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“Running Lean” provides a step-by-step guide for entrepreneurs to systematically test, validate, and iterate on their business ideas to reduce risk and build products that customers truly want.

“Running Lean” is ideal for:

Entrepreneurs and Startup Founders: Those looking to turn their ideas into successful businesses while minimizing risk.
Product Managers: People who want to better understand customer needs and build products that solve real problems.
Aspiring Entrepreneurs: Individuals with a business idea who want a systematic way to validate it before fully committing.
Innovators in Larger Organizations: Corporate intrapreneurs

The book helps entrepreneurs avoid the common mistake of building products nobody wants by teaching them how to:

Validate their ideas before investing significant time and money.
Minimize risk by identifying and testing the riskiest assumptions early.
Learn from customers through interviews, experiments, and feedback.
Adapt quickly based on real data, allowing them to pivot when necessary.

Introduction: Why Startups Fail


Ash Maurya begins by explaining that most startups fail because they build products that no one actually wants.

Entrepreneurs often fall in love with their ideas and start building without testing if customers really need the product. The book teaches how to systematically test your business idea to avoid this mistake and minimize risk.

 

Chapter 1: Running Lean – Process Overview


Maurya introduces his three-step process for creating a successful business:

Document Your Plan:

Write down all your assumptions about your business model using a tool called the Lean Canvas (a one-page business plan that focuses on the most important elements like problem, solution, and customer segments).

 

Identify the Riskiest Assumptions:

Figure out which parts of your plan are the riskiest (i.e., which parts could cause your business to fail if you’re wrong about them).

 

Systematically Test Your Plan:

Start testing your assumptions with real customers (to know if they are true) by conducting small, quick experiments (like interviews or prototypes) to gather feedback.

 

Chapter 2: Document Your Plan A


In this chapter, you learn how to fill out the Lean Canvas. The Lean Canvas is split into different sections that cover the most critical elements of your business as follows:

Problem: What problem are you solving for your customers?


Customer Segments: Who has this problem? Who are your customers?


Unique Value Proposition: Why should people choose your product over others?


Solution: What is your product or service?


Revenue Streams: How will you make money?


For example, if you are building an app that helps people find parking, you’d write down that the problem is “people have trouble finding parking spots in busy cities.”

 

Chapter 3: Identify the Riskiest Parts of Your Plan


Now that your plan is documented, you need to identify which parts are the riskiest.

According to Maurya, the riskiest assumptions are usually about whether your customers really have the problem you think they have, and if they are willing to pay for a solution.

For example, you might think that drivers are willing to pay for a parking app, but what if they aren’t? If you build the app and find out later that no one will pay, you’ve wasted time and money.

So, the idea is to test these assumptions first before you build anything big.

 

Chapter 4: Testing the Problem


This chapter is all about making sure that the problem you are trying to solve is real. Maurya recommends talking to customers early on to understand their pain points.

For example, you might interview 10 people who drive in busy cities and ask them how they currently find parking, what frustrates them about it, and if they would be interested in a better solution.

This helps you learn if the problem is worth solving.

 

Chapter 5: Defining the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)


Instead of building a full product right away, Maurya talks about creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

The MVP is the smallest version of your product that allows you to start learning from customers.

For example, if you’re building a parking app, your MVP might be a simple website or a basic app that only covers one neighbourhood.

You launch the MVP to gather feedback from real users and make improvements before adding more features (in other words, don’t add all the features at once.

 

Chapter 6: Testing the Solution


Once you’ve validated that the problem exists, you can start testing your solution. This chapter teaches you how to use your MVP to get customer feedback.

For example, if you launched your basic parking app, you’d ask users if it solved their problem and what they think could be improved.

You’re trying to learn whether the solution you built actually helps people or if it needs to be adjusted.

 

Chapter 7: Pivot or Persevere


This chapter introduces the concept of pivoting, which means changing part of your business model if your assumptions are proven wrong.

If your MVP shows that people don’t like your solution or aren’t willing to pay for it, it might be time to pivot.

For example, if drivers say they don’t want to pay for your parking app, but they would use it if it were free, you might pivot to a different business model where you make money from ads instead of customer payments.

 

Chapter 8: Channels, Revenue, and Metrics


Maurya emphasizes the importance of choosing the right channels to reach your customers, figuring out how to generate revenue, and tracking key metrics to measure your success.

He also talks about the customer lifecycle funnel, which includes acquiring customers, activating them, and keeping them engaged.

For example, if you launch your parking app, you’d need to figure out how to market it (through social media, ads, or partnerships with local businesses), and how much money you can make from each customer.

 

Chapter 9: Scaling the Business


Once you’ve validated your idea and customers are happy with your solution, it’s time to scale.

This means growing your business by getting more customers and improving your product.

Maurya talks about how to systematically grow by improving your product based on customer feedback, automating processes, and hiring the right team.

For example, once your parking app is successful in one city, you might expand it to other cities and improve features based on user feedback.

 

Chapter 10: Running Lean in Practice


In this final chapter, Maurya talks about the mindset of running lean. He stresses that entrepreneurship is about learning and adapting quickly.

He encourages readers to embrace failure as part of the process and to continue testing assumptions throughout the life of the business.

For example, even if your parking app is successful, you should keep talking to customers and testing new features or ideas to make sure you’re always delivering value.

 

Key Lessons and Examples from the Book:


Focus on Learning Early: Before spending time and money building something, focus on learning about your customers and their problems.


Talk to Customers: Customer interviews are critical to validating your ideas. Don’t assume you know what they want.


Start Small (MVP): Launch a basic version of your product to get feedback. Don’t build a full product without knowing if customers need it.


Be Ready to Pivot: If your assumptions are wrong, change direction based on customer feedback.


Example:
If you’re building a food delivery app, you might think that your biggest challenge is creating a beautiful app. But through customer interviews, you learn that customers care more about fast delivery times.

So, you start by testing a basic website that lets people place orders and then focus on improving delivery speed before investing in fancy features.

Here are the things you need to start doing right now:

1. Create a Lean Canvas:


Write down your current business idea on a Lean Canvas. Focus on the key components: problem, customer segments, solution, and value proposition.

You can find Lean Canvas templates online or sketch one yourself.


2. Identify the Riskiest Assumptions:


Review your Lean Canvas and identify the riskiest assumptions that could cause your business to fail (e.g., whether people actually need your product, or if they will pay for it).


Focus on testing these assumptions first.


3. Talk to Potential Customers:


Conduct customer interviews to learn about their problems, frustrations, and behaviours. Avoid pitching your solution right away.

Instead, ask about their experiences and challenges related to the problem you are solving.


Example questions: “How do you currently deal with [problem]?”, “What frustrates you most about this?”


4. Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP);


Create the simplest version of your product that can solve your customers’ problem. It could be a landing page, prototype, or basic version of your app.

Your goal is to gather feedback, not build a polished product.
Focus on learning from how customers use your MVP.


5. Test Your MVP with Real Users


Launch your MVP to a small group of target customers. Observe how they use it and gather feedback.


Ask questions like: “Does this solve your problem?” and “What can be improved?”


6. Measure Key Metrics


Define success metrics for your MVP, such as how many users sign up, engage, or pay for the product. Track these metrics to see if your product is solving a real problem.


7. Be Ready to Pivot


If feedback from your MVP or customer interviews shows that your assumptions were wrong, be ready to pivot (change direction). This might mean adjusting your product, pricing, or business model based on what you’ve learned.


8. Iterate Quickly


Continuously gather customer feedback, make improvements, and run new tests. Keep the cycles fast to learn as much as possible with minimal resources.

1.”Life’s too short to build something nobody wants.”

A reminder to focus on solving real problems that customers care about.

2.”Startups exist not to build stuff, but to learn how to build a sustainable business.”

Emphasizing the purpose of a startup as a learning process rather than just creating products.

3.”Your job isn’t to ‘build the right product’ but to systematically discover what is the right product to build.”

Highlighting the importance of discovery and validation over assumptions.

4.”Love the problem, not the solution.”

Encouraging entrepreneurs to stay focused on solving the customer’s problem rather than getting attached to their original idea.

5.”It’s not about having the right answer, but about asking the right questions.”

The importance of customer feedback and learning in shaping a business.

6.”Think big, start small.”

Advocating for starting with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to test ideas before scaling.

7.”Get out of the building.”

Urging entrepreneurs to engage with real customers instead of relying on assumptions.

8.”The riskiest thing you can do is not take risks.”

Encouraging calculated experimentation and learning from failures.

9.”Plans are useless, but planning is invaluable.”

A reminder that while business plans may change, the process of planning helps you stay adaptable.

10.”A startup is an organization built to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.”

Clarifying that the goal of a startup is to find a sustainable way to grow.

11.”Traction is the best indicator of product-market fit.”

Highlighting the importance of real customer engagement as a measure of success.

12.”Fall in love with the problem, not the solution, and the rest will follow.”

Reinforcing the idea that focusing on customer problems leads to better business solutions.

13.”Decisions should be driven by learning and customer feedback, not guesswork.”

The value of data-driven decision-making in reducing risk.

14.”Make sure you’re building the right ‘it’ before you build ‘it’ right.”

Encouraging entrepreneurs to validate their ideas before perfecting the product.

15.”When in doubt, simplify.”

Advocating for simplicity in products and processes to avoid unnecessary complexity.

16.”Every setback is a learning opportunity in disguise.”

A positive reminder to embrace failure as part of the journey to success.

17.”Most startups fail not because they fail to build what they set out to build, but because they waste time building the wrong product.”

A cautionary note about the dangers of investing time in the wrong ideas.

18.”The most important validation for any business is paying customers.”

Emphasizing the significance of getting customers to pay as the ultimate form of validation.

19. “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”

A reminder that early-stage products don’t need to be perfect—they just need to start gathering feedback.

20.”The goal is not to get everything right the first time, but to improve with every iteration.”

Encouraging constant learning and adaptation in business development.

21.”Don’t focus on building a great product. Focus on building a great business model.”

Stresses the importance of understanding how your business will work, not just the product.

22.”Your customers will tell you what they want, but you must observe what they actually do.”

Highlighting the importance of watching customer behaviour, not just relying on their words.

23.”Persevere until you see strong traction, or pivot if you don’t.”

A clear call to either keep pushing a successful product or change direction if it’s not working.

24.”A startup’s most valuable resource is time, not money.”

Underlining the idea that wasted time is the biggest threat to a startup, more so than wasted money.

Here are other interesting and recommended reading list related to the themes explored in “Running Lean”, for further reading:

  1. Masters of Scale podcast summary: How AirBNB was handcrafted by Chesky & Co.
  2. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries summary
  3. Book summary of “Testing Business Ideas by

    David J. Bland & alexander osterwalder

  4. The Mom Test summary by Rob Fitzpatrick
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The Mom Test Summary

“It’s not the customer’s job to tell you what to build. It’s your job to find out if there’s a need and build the right solution.”

The Mom Test Summary

We all have great ideas we believe our customers or users of our products will love right?. What if your great idea is not what you customer wants? What if your customer wants something else?

Have you taught about that? How do you find out what your customer REALLY wants?

That is exactly what “The Mom Test” is all about. This book will teach you how to get the feedback you need.

Instead of not reading this book at all, pick the key ideas from the book now. We are just scratching the surface with The Mom Test Summary.

If you don’t already have the book, order the book here or listen to the audiobook  for free to get the juicy details. 

The Mom Test

Do you have an idea and wondering if it will sell? DON'T CREATE A NEW PRODUCT WITHOUT READING "THE MOM TEST" FIRST.
The Mom Test will teach you how to find the real problems people are facing; so you create a product people want to pay for
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What are mom test questions

Introduction

“The Mom Test” is a straightforward guide for entrepreneurs and innovators who want to validate their business ideas by having better conversations with potential customers.

The name of the book comes from the idea that if you can talk to your mom about your business idea and get honest feedback, you’re asking the right questions.

The book teaches readers how to avoid getting misleading answers (feedback) from product users or customers by re-framing questions to focus on real customer needs, problems, and behaviours instead of just seeking validation for their ideas.

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“The Mom Test” shows you how to ask the right questions during customer conversations to get honest, useful feedback to avoid building products that no one wants to use based on misleading answers.

“The Mom Test” is for entrepreneurs, startup founders, and anyone looking to validate or test a business idea (or any idea at all) by talking to customers or users.

After reading “The Mom Test”, you will learn   how to ask the right questions, avoid misleading feedback, and gather honest insights from customers—helping reduce the risk of building a product or feature no one will use.

“The Mom Test” by Rob Fitzpatrick is structured around teaching entrepreneurs how to have effective conversations with potential customers to validate business ideas without being misled.

The premise of the book is that people, including your mom, will want to be polite and supportive when you present your business ideas; leading to biased feedback.

From this book, you will learn how to have conversations with customers that lead to actionable insights, rather than false positives.

This way, you can gather honest, useful feedback that will help you build a product people actually want.

By learning to ask the right questions and interpret customer feedback correctly, entrepreneurs can avoid wasting time on ideas that won’t work and increase their chances of building successful businesses.

Each chapter dives deeper into strategies for getting honest, useful information.

Here’s a  chapter-by-chapter summary of the Mom Test.

Chapter 1: The Mom Test

This chapter introduces the central idea: don’t ask people, especially your mom, if they like your idea.

The reason is simple: people want to be nice and don’t want to hurt your feelings, so they’ll often give overly positive feedback, which can mislead you.

Instead, you should ask questions about their problems, needs, and current behaviours, rather than directly talking about your idea.

Example: Instead of asking your mom, “Would you use my new app to track your groceries?” (because she’ll say yes just to be nice), ask, “How do you currently keep track of your groceries?

This way, you learn about her actual habits and can see if there’s a genuine problem to solve.

Chapter 2: Avoiding Bad Data

Here, Fitzpatrick explains how entrepreneurs often ask questions in a way that leads to false, unhelpful data.

The main idea is to avoid asking questions that make people give you positive answers out of politeness or hypothetical ones about future actions.

The chapter stresses the importance of focusing on past behaviour and real problems.

Example: Instead of asking, “Would you pay for this service?” ask, “When was the last time you paid for something like this?”

It’s better to understand what they’ve already spent money on rather than what they think they might do.

Chapter 3: Ask About Problems, Not Your Solution

This chapter emphasizes that when talking to customers, your main focus should be understanding their problems, not pitching your solution.

People are much better at describing their own struggles than imagining how your solution might help them.

Example: If you’re building a time-management tool, ask someone, “What’s the most frustrating thing about managing your time right now?” rather than saying, “Do you think this tool will help you manage your time better?”

Chapter 4: Keep It Casual

Fitzpatrick stresses that customer conversations shouldn’t feel like formal interviews.

The best insights come from natural, casual conversations where people feel comfortable enough to share their honest thoughts.

Example: Instead of setting up a formal meeting, try grabbing coffee with someone and casually ask, “Tell me about the last time you struggled with keeping track of your expenses,”.

This can naturally lead to an open, relaxed discussion about their challenges.

Chapter 5: The Path to Honest Signals

This chapter is about understanding which of the signals you got from  customer conversations that are actually useful.

Fitzpatrick calls these “honest signals.” When people give specific, past examples of problems, these are valuable signals.

Vague, future-looking statements (like “I’d definitely buy this”) are not useful.

Example: A strong signal would be someone saying, “Last week I spent hours trying to organize my expenses and it was a nightmare.”

This shows there’s a real problem. A weak signal would be, “That sounds like a great idea, I might use that.” You can’t rely on “might.”

Chapter 6: Commitment and Advancement

This chapter explains how to tell if someone is really interested in your product.

The best way to measure interest is through actions, not words.

If a customer is willing to commit time, money, or resources, it’s a strong sign. Words of encouragement alone don’t mean much.

Example: If someone says, “I love your product idea,” but doesn’t want to pre-order or sign up for updates, it’s not a strong signal.

But if they say, “Can I give you a deposit to get early access?” or “Let me introduce you to my boss who might be interested,” those are signs they’re serious.

Chapter 7: Find Early Adopters

Not everyone is an early adopter—someone willing to try new products before they’re fully polished.

This chapter is about finding those people who are actively looking for solutions to their problems, even if your product isn’t perfect yet.

Early adopters will help you shape your product based on real needs.

Example: If you’re building a budgeting tool, an early adopter might be someone who already uses multiple spreadsheets and apps to manage their money.

They’re frustrated and willing to try something new. Casual users who aren’t looking for solutions yet aren’t as helpful at this stage.

Chapter 8: Avoiding Common Traps

Fitzpatrick lists several common traps entrepreneurs fall into when talking to customers:

  1. Pitching too soon: Instead of pitching your idea to potential customers, listen to their problems first.
  2. Talking to the wrong people: Focus on people who actually experience the problem you want to solve, not just friends and family.
  3. Asking for opinions: Opinions are hypothetical and often useless. Focus on learning about real behaviour instead.

    Example: If you pitch too early, you might hear, “That sounds cool!” and think you’re on the right track. But if you hadn’t pitched and instead asked, “How do you currently handle this?” you might learn they don’t see the problem at all.

Chapter 9: Running the Process

This chapter covers how to keep track of the feedback you’re getting from customer conversations.

It’s important to record what you learn in a structured way to see patterns and make data-driven decisions.

Fitzpatrick advises keeping detailed notes on what people say about their problems and what actions they take (or don’t take).

Example: After each customer conversation, write down the specifics: “Customer X said they spend 4 hours a week trying to manage their budget,” or “Customer Y didn’t express interest in solving the problem.”

Look for patterns across multiple conversations to guide your decisions.

Chapter 10: Maintaining Momentum

In the final chapter, Fitzpatrick explains how to keep the momentum going once you start gathering feedback.

He suggests regularly scheduling customer conversations and continuing to refine your questions.

The more you learn, the better your product will become, and the more likely you are to build something people actually want.

Example: If you’re testing a new feature for your app, don’t just talk to a couple of people and stop. Keep reaching out to potential customers, especially as you develop new versions of your product.

This helps ensure you’re always building based on real customer needs.

Here are some practical action points from “The Mom Test” that you can start implementing right now to validate your business ideas effectively:

1. Stop Asking Leading Questions

Action: Instead of asking, “Do you think my idea is good?” or “Would you use this product?” ask, “Can you tell me about the last time you faced this problem?” or “How are you currently solving this issue?”

Why: This will give you real insights into customer behaviour and their current struggles without influencing their answers.

2. Focus on Real Behaviour, Not Opinions

Action: Next time you talk to someone about your idea, ask them what they have actually done to solve a similar problem in the past, instead of asking if they would do something in the future.

Why: People are bad at predicting future actions, but past behaviour shows what they truly need.

3. Have 3 Customer Conversations This Week
Action:

Set up three casual conversations with potential customers this week.

Focus on learning about their problems and how they currently handle them.

Why: Regular customer conversations are key to gathering honest, actionable feedback.

4. Test for Strong Signals

Action: After talking to a customer, ask them to commit in some way.

This could be signing up for a mailing list, giving a referral, or pre-ordering.

Why: Genuine interest is shown through actions, not words.

5. Talk to Strangers, Not Friends

Action: Reach out to people who fit your target customer profile but aren’t part of your immediate social circle.

Why: Friends and family may give you biased, overly positive feedback, while strangers will be more honest.

6. Document Customer Feedback

Action: After each conversation, take 10 minutes to write down what you learned—specifically any pain points and frustrations they mentioned.

Why: Documenting insights helps you look for patterns and base decisions on real data.

7. Schedule Regular Customer Conversations
Action:

Set a goal to talk to at least 5 potential customers every week.

Keep the focus on learning about their problems, not pitching your solution.

Why: Continuous conversations help you refine your understanding of the problem and your solution’s relevance over time.

8. Test with Small Commitments
Action:

After a conversation, ask the person for a small commitment like subscribing to a mailing list, following up with a meeting, or sharing the idea with a colleague.

Why: Small commitments signal genuine interest, whereas simple verbal agreement might not mean much.

9. Create a Problem Hypothesis
Action:

Write down a clear statement about the problem your potential customers face.

For example: “Small business owners struggle to keep track of their expenses using spreadsheets.”

Why: Defining the problem ensures you’re testing whether the problem is real, rather than assuming it exists.

10. Ask for Referrals
Action:

If someone shows interest but isn’t ready to commit, ask them to refer you to someone they think would benefit from your product or solution.

Why: If someone is genuinely interested, they’ll help you find others who might also find value, expanding your customer base.

11. Avoid Vanity Metrics
Action:

Don’t measure success based on how many people say they “like” your idea.

Instead, track meaningful actions like pre-orders, sign-ups, or introductions.

Why: Likes and positive feedback are “vanity metrics” that can mislead you. Real actions indicate true interest.

12. Refine Your Questions After Each Conversation
Action:

After each customer conversation, review your questions.

Did they give you actionable feedback? If not, adjust your approach for the next conversation.

Why: Continuous refinement will help you get better insights over time.

12. Identify and Prioritize Real Pain Points
Action:

As you gather feedback, identify the top 3 pain points your customers consistently mention.

Focus your efforts on solving these.

Why: Solving a real pain point makes your solution more valuable, rather than building something that’s just a “nice-to-have.”

13. Look for Patterns in Feedback
Action:

After 10-15 customer conversations, review your notes to identify recurring themes or problems.

Prioritize solving these issues.

Why: Patterns in feedback show you where the real demand is, helping you refine your solution.

1.“You aren’t allowed to tell them what their problem is. Even if you’re right, they’ll still get defensive.”

This highlights the importance of letting customers share their own experiences rather than imposing assumptions on them.

2.“It’s not the customer’s job to tell you what to build. It’s your job to find out if there’s a need and build the right solution.”

A reminder that customer feedback should guide you, but it’s up to you to create the right product.

3.“People say you shouldn’t ask your mom whether your business is a good idea. But it’s not because she’s your mom, it’s because she’s polite.”

Asking leading questions can get you positive but useless feedback.

4.“Opinions are worthless. You want facts, commitment, and actions.”

This underscores the importance of focusing on real customer behaviour and commitments rather than vague opinions.

5.“Compliments are the fool’s gold of customer learning: shiny, distracting, and worthless.”

Positive feedback without substance can lead you astray, so it’s essential to dig deeper.

6.“The truth is that it’s hard to know what people really want without observing their behaviour.”

People’s actions are far more valuable than their words when it comes to validating business ideas.

7.“The world’s most deadly trap is running into friends, investors, and early customers who say, ‘I love it!’ but who never seem to actually do anything.”

A warning about mistaking enthusiasm for real commitment or demand.

8.“Startups are about finding the truth, not selling your version of it.”

The goal of customer conversations is to uncover real needs, not to pitch your idea

9.“Good customer conversations are about learning, not selling.”

This emphasizes that the goal is to gather information, not to convince someone to like your idea.

10.“If you’re talking about your idea, you’re doing it wrong.”

A key principle from the book: the conversation should focus on the customer’s problem, not your solution.

11.“People don’t care about your idea. They care about their own problems.”

A reminder that customers are primarily interested in how you can help them, not in your concept itself.

12.“Bad data is worse than no data.”

Gathering inaccurate or biased feedback can lead you to make bad decisions, so it’s better to have fewer, more reliable insights.

13.“Everyone lies to you. They say they want your product, but then they never use it.”

This quote highlights the danger of taking verbal enthusiasm at face value without seeing actions or commitments.

14.“People will want to spare your feelings. They’ll lie to protect you or make you feel good, even if it’s harmful to your business.

A warning about the politeness trap, where well-meaning feedback can mislead you.

15.“It’s your responsibility to uncover the truth; it’s not their job to spoon-feed it to you.”

This reminds entrepreneurs that they must actively seek out real, useful insights, rather than expecting customers to hand them clear answers.

16.“Success comes from getting out of the building and learning what people really want, not from sitting in your office thinking you already know.”

A call to action to go out, engage with real customers, and avoid assumptions about what they need.

17.“Every time someone agrees to a follow-up meeting, it means they care. Every time someone introduces you to a colleague, it means they care. Actions are key.”

This emphasizes that real interest is shown through actions, not just polite words.

18.“The more you’re talking, the worse you’re doing.”

A reminder to let the customer speak more during conversations so you can learn about their needs and challenges.

19.“The conversation you want is one where the other person tells you about their life, their problems, and how they’re currently dealing with those problems.”

This encourages entrepreneurs to focus on the customer’s world, not their own product or ideas.

20.“People say, ‘I’ll buy that,’ and they don’t. They say, ‘I’ll use that,’ and they won’t. Commitments matter. Words are cheap.

The book stresses the importance of testing real commitment from customers, like pre-orders or referrals.

21.“Startups exist to learn. You want to be proven wrong as quickly and cheaply as possible.”

This underscores the value of learning fast through customer validation, even if that means discovering your initial idea was flawed.

22.“Until you’ve committed to the truth, you’re going to make bad decisions.”

A call to be open to whatever feedback you get, even if it challenges your assumptions.

23.“Your mom’s going to tell you it’s a great idea, and she’s going to be proud of you. But it’s irrelevant.”

This reinforces that biased feedback from friends and family isn’t useful in validating a business idea.

24.“Asking good questions takes practice. Expect to be awkward at first, but keep at it.”

It’s a skill that improves with time, so you need to put in the effort to get better at customer conversations.

25.“If you can’t get people to explain their problem to you, it’s probably not a problem.”

If customers can’t articulate their pain points, it’s likely that the problem isn’t significant enough for them to care about.

26.“Just because they liked your idea doesn’t mean they will open their wallet for it.”

A reminder that getting people to like your concept is not the same as getting them to actually buy or commit to it.

27.“People don’t care about your solution. They care about their problems.

Focus on understanding the customer’s pain points rather than convincing them that your solution is the best.

28. “You should be terrified of anyone who answers ‘yes’ to your question of ‘would you buy this?’”

Verbal promises are not a reliable measure of future behaviour; only real commitments (like payments or sign-ups) count.

29.“The goal of your early-stage conversations is to learn what they’re already doing, rather than what they say they want.”

It’s important to understand customers’ current habits and pain points rather than hypothetical desires.

30.“Generous listening is not the same as being gullible.”

While it’s important to listen to customers, you should still critically evaluate what they say and how it aligns with real actions.

31.“Bad news is the best news. It tells you what you need to improve, rather than patting you on the back for what you’re already doing well.”

Negative feedback can be much more valuable than praise because it points you to areas for growth.

32.“People will lie to you without realizing they’re doing it, and it’s your job to figure out where the truth lies.”

Even well-intentioned people might give misleading feedback, so you need to be able to read between the lines.

33.“Questions like ‘Do you think it’s a good idea?’ or ‘Would you buy it?’ will give you unreliable answers.”

Such questions lead to polite but unreliable feedback. Instead, ask about past behaviour or real challenges.

34.“You don’t need permission to learn. You don’t need to talk to anyone or even build anything. You just need to observe.”

Observation of customers’ real-world behaviour is just as valuable as direct feedback.

35.“The best conversations don’t feel like interviews; they feel like learning about someone’s life.”

Keep customer interviews casual and natural to get more genuine and useful insights.

36.“It’s more important to learn what they want than to tell them what you’ve got.”

Prioritize learning over pitching, and focus on how you can help solve their real problems.

37.“When people give vague praise, follow up with a question like, ‘What do you mean by that?’

Dig deeper when you receive non-specific feedback to get to the real meaning and valuable insights.

38.“The truth doesn’t count unless it’s painful to hear.”

Honest feedback often feels uncomfortable, but it’s the most useful in guiding you toward a better solution.

39.“Your product is something you create, but the business is something you discover.”

Building a business requires discovering what customers truly need and will pay for, not just creating a product.

40.“If you’re not scared of shipping it, you waited too long.”

This highlights the importance of launching your product early, even if it’s imperfect, to start gathering real feedback.

41.“You’re looking for people’s problems, not their opinions.”

Focus on identifying real problems that customers face, not their opinions about your idea or solution.


42.“When you hear the same issue multiple times, pay attention—it might be the gold you’re looking for.”

Repeated feedback signals a real problem that is worth solving.


43.“You can’t change someone’s behaviour, but you can make their existing behaviour easier or better.”

Instead of trying to get customers to adopt a new habit, focus on improving what they already do.


44.“The more specific someone’s problem, the more useful their feedback.”

General feedback isn’t helpful. Drill down into specific issues to gather actionable insights.


45.“The most dangerous lies are the ones you tell yourself.”

Be wary of ignoring negative feedback or convincing yourself that your idea is perfect without real validation.


46.“People buy solutions to their problems, not your idea or technology.”

Customers are interested in how your solution can help them solve a problem, not the brilliance of your concept.


47.“You need to dig beneath the surface of customer conversations to find the truth that will help you improve your business.”

Surface-level feedback often hides deeper insights, so always ask follow-up questions.


48.“If they can’t tell you how they solve the problem right now, it might not be a problem worth solving.”

Customers who don’t currently have a solution may not perceive the problem as urgent or important enough to pay for.


49.“Entrepreneurs often waste years because they’re chasing a problem that doesn’t exist.”

This emphasizes the importance of validating that a real problem exists before committing too much time or resources.

50.“It’s better to be proven wrong by facts than to waste time chasing fantasies.”

Embrace learning the truth, even if it means pivoting or discarding your original idea.

Here are other interesting and recommended reading list related to the themes explored in “The Mom Test”, for further reading:

  1. Masters of Scale podcast summary: How AirBNB was handcrafted by Chesky & Co.
  2. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries summary
  3. Book summary of “Testing Business Ideas by

    David J. Bland & alexander osterwalder

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Testing Business Ideas Summary

"The best business ideas solve real problems for real people."

Testing Business Ideas Summary

Is your copy of “Testing Business Ideas“just sitting on the shelf collecting dust? No time to read it? We get it—life’s busy, and digging into a full book isn’t always easy.

But here’s the thing: knowing how to test and validate your ideas could save you time, money, and headaches. Don’t let a great idea flop because you didn’t test it first!

Instead of missing out completely, grab the key takeaways from this summary. It’s quick, actionable, and gives you exactly what you need to get started.

And hey, if you’re curious for more, you can always go back to the full book for extra insights!

Testing Business Ideas

The key to success in business is not just having a great idea but systematically testing and refining that idea to ensure it meets real customer needs.
Testing Business Ideas was created to change that statistics
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Introduction

Ready to turn your big ideas into reality without wasting time or money? If you’ve ever dreamed of launching a business but felt stuck, unsure whether your idea will actually work, “Testing Business Ideas” is the ultimate game-changer!

This book isn’t just theory—it’s packed with 44 actionable experiments designed to help you quickly test, validate, and tweak your ideas before going all in.

Think of it as your business GPS, guiding you step by step to avoid expensive mistakes and focus on what really matters: building something people truly want. 

Let’s roll!

 

Click on the tabs below to read the full book summary

“Testing Business Ideas” is a practical guide that teaches entrepreneurs and innovators how to systematically test and validate their business ideas through a series of structured experiments, helping them reduce risk and increase the chances of success.

The main idea of this book is  before you dive into launching a business or creating a product, you should test your assumptions—those things you believe are true about your business idea.

For example, you might think that people need your product or that they’ll pay a certain amount for it.

Instead of guessing, this book shows you how to run simple, practical experiments to find out if your assumptions are correct.

Who should read this book?

This book is great for entrepreneurs, innovators, or anyone with a business idea, whether you’re starting a new company or launching a new product within an existing business.

It’s especially useful for people who want to minimize risk and make sure their ideas are solid before going all in.

In “Testing Business Ideas”, David J. Bland and Alexander Osterwalder created a hands-on guide designed to help entrepreneurs and business leaders validate their business ideas through systematic testing. 

Here’s a detailed chapter-by-chapter summary of Testing Business Ideas:

 Chapter 1: Why Testing?

Summary: This chapter sets the stage by explaining why testing your business ideas is crucial.

The authors argue that many startups and new business ventures fail because they don’t validate their ideas before going all-in.

The goal of this book is to help you avoid that trap by teaching you how to test your assumptions before making big investments.

Examples: This chapter references real-world examples of companies that succeeded or failed based on whether they tested their ideas.

For instance, a company that assumed people wanted a particular product failed because they didn’t first check if there was a real demand for their product.

Takeaway: Before you spend time and money on a business idea, you need to know if it’s something people actually want and are willing to pay for.

Chapter 2: Getting Started with Testing

Summary: In this chapter, the book dives into how to begin testing your business ideas. It introduces the concept of an “Assumption Map,” which helps you identify and list out all the assumptions you have about your business idea.

These assumptions could be about who your customers are, what they need, how much they’re willing to pay, or how you’ll reach them.

Examples: Imagine you want to start a new fitness app. You might assume that people want personalized workout plans and are willing to pay for them.

The Assumption Map helps you lay out these assumptions so you can start thinking about how to test them.

Takeaway: Start by identifying all the key assumptions about your business idea. This will help you figure out what you need to test first.

Chapter 3: Prioritize Your Assumptions

Summary: This chapter focuses on prioritizing the assumptions you’ve identified.

Not all assumptions are equally important—some are “high risk,” meaning if they’re wrong, your whole business idea could fail.

The book introduces a simple method to rank these assumptions based on their level of risk and how easy they are to test.

Examples: Using the fitness app example, a high-risk assumption might be that people are willing to pay $10 a month for personalized workout plans.

If this assumption is wrong, your business model could fall apart, so you need to test this first.

Takeaway: Focus on testing the riskiest assumptions first because they have the biggest impact on whether your idea will succeed or fail.

Chapter 4: Select the Right Experiment

Summary: Once you’ve prioritized your assumptions, the next step is to choose the right experiment to test them.

The book provides a list of 44 different types of experiments you can run, ranging from simple interviews with potential customers to more complex prototypes and landing pages. Each experiment is designed to test specific assumptions.

Examples: For the fitness app, you might start with customer interviews to understand if people are really interested in personalized workout plans.

If that assumption holds up, you might create a basic landing page offering these plans to see if people are willing to sign up and pay for them.

Takeaway: There are many ways to test a business idea. Choose the experiment that gives you the most useful feedback with the least effort.

Here is a summary of  the 44 experiments to test  business ideas

These experiments are divided into various categories to help entrepreneurs and innovators validate different aspects of their business ideas.

They provide a comprehensive toolkit for testing different aspects of a business idea, from understanding customer needs to scaling operations efficiently.

They are as follows: 

A. Discovery Experiments (Understand Your Customers)

These experiments are designed to help you understand your customers, their needs, and behaviours.

1. Customer Interviews – Direct conversations with potential customers to understand their needs, challenges, and motivations.

2. Problem Interviews – Focus on understanding the specific problems your customers face.

3. Customer Surveys – Collect quantitative data from a large number of customers to validate assumptions.

4. Jobs-to-be-Done Interviews – Identify the “jobs” customers are trying to get done and how your solution fits.

5. Day-in-the-Life Testing – Follow customers through their daily routines to uncover unmet needs.

B. Validation Experiments (Test Demand and Interest)

These experiments help you gauge the interest and demand for your idea.

6. Landing Page – Create a simple webpage to measure interest in your product or service.

7. A/B Testing – Test two versions of a webpage or feature to see which performs better.

8. Ad Campaigns– Use online ads to measure interest and gather customer data.

9. Pre-Sales – Offer your product for sale before it’s fully built to check demand.

10. Explainer Video – Create a short video that explains your concept and see how people respond.

11. Crowdfunding – Use platforms like Kickstarter to validate demand and raise funds.

12. Fake Door – Create a webpage or button for a feature that doesn’t exist yet to see if people click.

13. Concierge – Manually provide a service to validate demand before automating it.

14. Wizard of Oz – Make your product appear fully functional while manually performing the tasks behind the scenes to gauge customer interest.

15. Feature Stub – Include a “coming soon” feature in your product to see if users show interest.

16. Innovator’s Roadmap – Create a visual map of your idea and its journey to validate its feasibility and customer interest.

C. MVP (Minimum Viable Product) Experiments

These experiments help you build and test a minimal version of your product to gather maximum validated learning with the least effort.

17. Single Feature MVP– Develop and test a single feature to validate its value to customers.

18. Piecemeal MVP –

Combine existing tools and services to create a working version of your product.

19. Pilot – Run a small-scale version of your product to test it in the real world.

20. Prototype – Build a basic, often non-functional, version of your product to get feedback.

21. Live Product – Launch a stripped-down version of your product in a live environment to test and learn.

22. Service Blueprinting – Map out the service process and test each component to ensure it meets customer needs.

D. Efficiency Experiments (Test Operational Feasibility)

These experiments help you test the operational and financial feasibility of your business idea.

23. Cost Testing – Experiment with different cost structures to find the most efficient way to deliver your product or service.

24. Revenue Testing – Test different pricing models and revenue streams to see what works best.

25. Channel Testing – Test different distribution and sales channels to see which ones are most effective.

26. Supply Chain Testing – Experiment with different suppliers and logistics to optimize your supply chain.

27. Outsource MVP – Outsource parts of your product development to test the feasibility and efficiency of using third-party services.

28. Service Design Jam – Collaborate with others to rapidly prototype and test service designs.

E. Validation (Go-to-Market) Experiments

These experiments focus on testing the effectiveness of your marketing and sales strategies.

29. Smoke Test – Use a marketing campaign to test customer interest before the product is fully developed.

30. Launch Event – Organize an event to gauge interest and gather feedback on your product.

31. Trade Show – Present your product at a trade show to gather customer feedback and measure interest.

32. Referral Program – Test a referral program to see if customers are willing to recommend your product to others.

33. Content Marketing – Create and distribute content to test how it resonates with your target audience.

34.Influencer Marketing – Partner with influencers to test how their endorsement affects customer interest.

F. Growth Experiments (Scale Your Business)

These experiments help you test how to scale your business effectively.

35. Viral Loop – Test strategies to encourage customers to spread the word about your product.

36. Network Effects – Experiment with features that become more valuable as more people use your product.

37. Customer Retention – Test different strategies to keep customers engaged and returning to your product.

38. Upsell/Cross-Sell – Experiment with additional offerings to see if customers are willing to spend more.

39. Partnerships – Test strategic partnerships to see how they impact growth and scalability.

40. Freemium Model – Offer a free version of your product to attract users and then upsell them to a paid version.

41. Expansion – Test entering new markets or customer segments to see how your product performs.

42. Automation – Experiment with automating parts of your business to increase efficiency as you scale.

G. Efficiency (Execution) Experiments

These focus on optimizing and streamlining the execution of your business model.

43. Process Improvement – Test different ways to make your internal processes more efficient.

44. KPI Dashboards – Create dashboards to track key performance indicators and make data-driven decisions.

Chapter 5: Measure Your Results

Summary: After running your experiments, it’s important to measure and analyze the results.

This chapter explains how to track your progress using “metrics” or key numbers that tell you whether your idea is on the right track.

These metrics could include things like the number of people who sign up for a trial, the percentage of users who pay for your product, or how much time customers spend using your app.

Examples: If your fitness app landing page gets a lot of visitors but very few sign-ups, this might tell you that people are interested in the idea but not enough to pay for it.

You’d then need to dig deeper to understand why.

Takeaway: Keep track of the numbers that matter most to your business. These will help you understand whether your idea is working or if you need to make changes.

Chapter 6: Learn and Decide

Summary: This chapter is about making decisions based on what you’ve learned from your experiments.

After gathering data, you need to decide whether to “pivot” (make significant changes to your idea) or “persevere” (continue on the current path).

The book emphasizes that it’s okay to change direction if your tests show that your original idea isn’t working.

Examples: If your fitness app isn’t getting enough paying users, you might pivot by offering a freemium model instead of a paid subscription, where basic features are free but users pay for premium content.

Takeaway: Use the results of your experiments to make informed decisions.

Be ready to change course if the data suggests your original idea isn’t viable.

Chapter 7: Business Models

Summary: This chapter expands on how your business idea fits into a broader “business model,” which is the plan for how your business will make money.

It walks you through testing different parts of your business model, such as your revenue streams, cost structure, and distribution channels.

Examples: Continuing with the fitness app example, you might test different pricing strategies (like a one-time purchase versus a subscription model) or explore various ways to reach your customers (like through social media ads or partnerships with gyms).

Takeaway: Your business model is like a puzzle. Each piece (how you make money, who your customers are, etc.) needs to fit together, and you should test each one to ensure it works.

Chapter 8: Advanced Experiments

Summary: Once you’ve mastered the basics of testing, this chapter introduces more advanced experiments.

These are often more complex and require more resources, but they can provide deeper insights.

Examples include A/B testing, where you compare two versions of something (like two different landing pages) to see which performs better.

Examples: For the fitness app, you might run an A/B test on your website’s sign-up page to see if changing the headline or button color increases the number of sign-ups.

Takeaway: As you gain confidence in testing, you can start using more advanced methods to fine-tune your business idea and improve your chances of success.

Chapter 9: Team and Culture

Summary: This chapter emphasizes the importance of having the right team and culture to support testing and innovation.

A team that embraces experimentation and isn’t afraid to fail is more likely to succeed in developing a viable business idea.

Examples: Companies like Google encourage a culture of testing and learning by giving employees the freedom to experiment and learn from their mistakes.

Takeaway: A supportive team and culture are critical to successful testing.

Everyone should be on board with the idea that it’s okay to fail as long as you learn from it.

Chapter 10: Keep Testing and Learning

Summary: The final chapter encourages continuous testing and learning.

Even after you’ve launched your business, you should keep testing new ideas and improving your product or service.

The business world is always changing, and the best companies are those that keep adapting.

Examples: Companies like Amazon and Netflix constantly test new features and business models to stay ahead of the competition.

Takeaway: Testing isn’t something you do just once. To stay successful, you need to keep learning, adapting, and improving your business over time.

In conclusion, “Testing Business Ideas” is all about reducing the risk of failure by making sure your business idea is solid before you go all-in.

By systematically testing your assumptions and learning from the results, you can build a business that’s more likely to succeed in the real world.

 Here are  actionable steps you should take starting from right now:

1. Validate Your Assumptions

Lesson: Don’t assume you know what customers want. Validate your assumptions by testing them early and often.

Action Point: Identify the most critical assumptions about your business idea (e.g., customer demand, pricing, features) and prioritize them for testing.

Use simple experiments like surveys or interviews to gather initial feedback.

2. Start Small with Experiments

Lesson: Begin with small, low-cost experiments to test the viability of your idea before scaling up.

Action Point: Design a minimum viable product (MVP) or a simple prototype that allows you to test your idea with real customers.

For example, create a basic landing page to gauge interest or offer a limited-time trial to see if people are willing to pay.

3. Focus on High-Risk Assumptions

Lesson: Some assumptions are more critical to your business’s success than others. Focus on testing the riskiest ones first.

Action Point: Map out all your assumptions and rank them based on their level of risk.

Start by testing the assumptions that, if proven wrong, would have the biggest negative impact on your business.

4. Use Metrics to Measure Success

Lesson: Use clear, objective metrics to determine if your experiments are successful.

Data-driven decisions reduce the risk of relying on gut feelings.

Action Point: Define key performance indicators (KPIs) for each experiment.

For instance, track the conversion rate of visitors to sign-ups on your landing page or the number of repeat customers after a product launch.

5. Learn and Pivot When Necessary

Lesson: Be open to learning from your experiments, and don’t be afraid to pivot if the data shows your idea isn’t working.

Action Point: After each experiment, analyze the results and decide whether to persevere with your current approach, pivot to a new strategy, or abandon the idea altogether.

For example, if customer feedback indicates a different feature is more valuable, consider shifting your focus.

6. Keep Testing Continuously

Lesson: Testing is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. Continuous experimentation and learning are key to long-term success.

Action Point: Build a culture of continuous testing and improvement within your team or organization.

Regularly run new experiments to explore opportunities, refine your offerings, and stay ahead of market changes.

7. Involve Your Team

Lesson: A collaborative, experimentation-driven culture is essential for successful testing and innovation.

Action Point: Engage your team in the testing process. Encourage open discussions, brainstorming sessions, and collective problem-solving to foster a culture of innovation.

8. Adapt Your Business Model

Lesson: Your business model should evolve based on what you learn from testing.

Action Point: Regularly revisit and refine your business model canvas (e.g., value propositions, customer segments, revenue streams) as you gather new insights from your experiments.

This ensures your business model remains aligned with market demands.

9. Don’t Fear Failure

Lesson: Failure is a natural part of the testing process. Each failed experiment brings you closer to finding a successful solution.

Action Point: Embrace failure as a learning opportunity.

Document what didn’t work and why, and use those insights to improve future experiments.

10. Stay Customer-Centric

Lesson: Always keep the customer at the centre of your testing and business development efforts.

Action Point: Continuously gather customer feedback through surveys, interviews, and usability tests.

Use this feedback to refine your product or service and ensure it meets customer needs.

The key to success in business is not just having a great idea but systematically testing and refining that idea to ensure it meets real customer needs.

By applying these lessons and action points, you can significantly increase your chances of building a successful, sustainable business.

Here are some of the best quotes from “Testing Business Ideas”by David J. Bland and Alexander Osterwalder:

1. “The goal is to build the right it before you build it right.”

– This quote emphasizes the importance of validating that you’re working on the correct idea before investing time and resources into perfecting it.

2. “An idea without validation is a liability, not an asset.”

– This highlights the risk of assuming that your idea will work without testing it first. Validation turns ideas into valuable assets.

3. “If we don’t ask ourselves the tough questions, reality will.”

– This encourages entrepreneurs to confront the uncertainties and assumptions in their ideas upfront, rather than waiting for the market to do so.

4. “You don’t need to have all the answers, just a way to find them.”

The process of testing business ideas is about discovering what works, not knowing everything from the start.

5. “Business plans are opinions, experiments are facts.”

 This quote underscores the difference between untested assumptions (opinions) and validated insights (facts) gained through experimentation.

6. “Testing early and often saves time, money, and heartache.”

– It emphasizes the importance of continuous testing to avoid wasting resources on ideas that won’t succeed.

7. “Data beats opinion every time.”

This quote reinforces the idea that decisions should be based on real data gathered from testing, not just personal beliefs or assumptions.

8. “Innovation is not about finding the right idea; it’s about validating the right idea.”

– The focus here is on validation as the key to successful innovation, rather than just coming up with ideas.

9. “Don’t be afraid to kill a bad idea.”

– This encourages entrepreneurs to let go of ideas that don’t pass validation, saving resources for better opportunities.

10. “Success isn’t about avoiding failure; it’s about minimizing the cost of failure.

– This quote emphasizes the importance of failing quickly and cheaply during the testing phase, so you can learn and move on to better ideas.

11. “You can’t predict the future, but you can reduce uncertainty by testing.”

– This quote emphasizes that while it’s impossible to know exactly how a business idea will play out, testing can significantly reduce the unknowns.

12. “The biggest risk in innovation is building something nobody wants.”

– It reminds us that the greatest danger is investing in a product or service without ensuring there’s demand for it.

13. “Assumptions are beliefs that need to be tested before they are treated as facts.”

– This quote stresses the importance of challenging your assumptions rather than accepting them as truth without evidence.

14.“Every business model is built on a set of assumptions. Testing helps us turn these assumptions into knowledge.”

– The focus here is on transforming uncertain assumptions into validated, actionable knowledge through testing.

15. “A failure in testing is a success in learning.”

– It re-frames failure as a valuable part of the learning process, leading to better decisions and outcomes in the long run.

16. “The best ideas are born out of validated learning, not just creativity.”

– This highlights that successful ideas come from a combination of creativity and rigorous testing, not creativity alone.

17. “Don’t invest in scaling a business model until you have tested it.”

– This quote warns against putting resources into growing a business before confirming that the model works.

18. “If it doesn’t work in a small test, it won’t work when you scale it.”

– It underscores the importance of validating an idea on a small scale before trying to expand it.

19. “Small, incremental experiments lead to big, transformative insights.”

– This emphasizes that even modest tests can yield significant knowledge, leading to major breakthroughs.

20. “The right time to test your idea is now.”

– A call to action, this quote encourages entrepreneurs not to delay testing their ideas and to start gathering evidence as soon as possible.

21. **”Innovation requires humility—the recognition that we don’t know everything and must learn our way to success.”**
– This quote reminds us that successful innovation comes from acknowledging what we don’t know and being open to learning through testing.

22. “Every idea, no matter how brilliant, is just a hypothesis until it’s tested.”

– It emphasizes that no matter how good an idea seems, it’s merely a guess until validated by real-world experiments.

23. “Experimentation is the bridge between ideas and execution.”

– This quote highlights that testing is the critical step that connects a conceptual idea with its practical implementation.

24. “Learn to love your data more than your idea.”

– It advises entrepreneurs to prioritize evidence over attachment to their original concept, ensuring decisions are data-driven.

25. “The more you test, the more you reduce uncertainty.”

– A simple yet powerful reminder that continuous testing is key to minimizing the risks associated with new ventures.

26. “Feedback is the fuel for successful innovation.”

– This quote emphasizes the importance of gathering and acting on feedback to refine and improve your business ideas.

27. “A business idea is like a seed; it needs nurturing through testing to grow into a successful venture.”

– A metaphor that likens the development of a business idea to growing a plant, requiring careful attention and validation.

28. “Innovation is about solving problems, not just creating solutions.”

– This quote shifts the focus from just building products to ensuring that those products address real, validated problems.

29. “The sooner you test, the quicker you learn, the faster you succeed.”

– It underscores the speed advantage gained by testing early, leading to faster iterations and improvements.

30. Without testing, all you have is a risky assumption.”

– A reminder that untested ideas are merely speculative and carry significant risk until validated.

31. “When in doubt, test it out.”

– A catchy reminder that whenever there’s uncertainty, the best course of action is to test and gather evidence.

32. “Ideas don’t fail, assumptions do.”

– This quote highlights that the downfall of most ideas comes from incorrect assumptions, which can be identified and corrected through testing.

33. “Stop guessing, start testing.”

– It encourages entrepreneurs to move away from speculation and toward evidence-based decision-making through experiments.

34. “A failed experiment is a successful test if it teaches you something valuable.”

This reframes failure as a positive outcome when it provides insights that lead to better decisions in the future.

35. “The best way to predict the future is to experiment with it.”

– A powerful reminder that you can influence and shape future outcomes by experimenting with your ideas in the present.

36. “The path to innovation is paved with experiments.”

– This quote emphasizes that continuous experimentation is the foundation of successful innovation.

37. “Test early, test often, test cheap.”

– A succinct summary of the approach advocated in the book—start testing as soon as possible, do it frequently, and keep costs low.

38.”Data-driven decisions outperform gut-driven decisions every time.”

– It reinforces the value of making choices based on hard evidence rather than intuition alone.

39. “Every assumption is a potential risk; every test is a potential solution.”

– This quote highlights the dual nature of assumptions as both risks and opportunities for learning through testing.

40. “It’s not about being right; it’s about learning what’s right.”

– This emphasizes the mindset shift from needing to prove oneself correct to being open to discovering the truth through testing.

41. “Innovation is a continuous journey, not a one-time event.”

– This quote reminds us that innovation requires ongoing effort, testing, and iteration rather than a single breakthrough moment.

42. “You can’t validate a business idea by just thinking about it.”

– It emphasizes the importance of moving beyond theoretical planning and actually testing ideas in the real world.

43. “Real learning happens when you engage with real customers.”

– This highlights the value of interacting with customers directly to gather meaningful insights and validate your assumptions.

44. “A test without a clear hypothesis is just guessing.”

– It underscores the need to define what you’re testing and what you expect to learn, rather than running experiments aimlessly.

45. “Focus on learning, not just launching.

– This quote shifts the emphasis from merely getting a product to market to ensuring you’re learning valuable lessons along the way.

46. “Innovation thrives on diverse perspectives and ideas.”

– This reminds us that a variety of viewpoints can lead to better innovation and more effective testing strategies.

47. “Failing fast is better than failing big.”

– A reminder that it’s better to encounter and learn from small failures early in the process rather than experiencing a large failure after significant investment.

48. “The best business ideas solve real problems for real people.”

– This quote emphasizes that successful business ideas are grounded in addressing actual customer needs.

49. “The more experiments you run, the closer you get to the truth.”

– It encourages a culture of continuous experimentation, where each test brings you closer to understanding what works.

50. “Innovation is about iterating, not just inventing.”

– This quote reinforces the idea that innovation is an ongoing process of refinement and improvement, not just the creation of something new.

Here are other interesting and recommended reading list related to the themes explored in “Testing Business Ideas, for further reading:

  1. Masters of Scale podcast summary: How AirBNB was handcrafted by Chesky & Co.
  2. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries summary
  3. Book summary of  The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you by Bob Fitzpatrick
  4.  
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Summary The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

"We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want."

The Lean Startup Summary

Starting and running a business is hard. The “Lean Startup” makes it easier.

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The Lean Startup

Most startups don't succeed, but a lot of these failures could be avoided. The Lean Startup shows you how.
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The lean startup summary

Introduction

The Lean Startup introduces key concepts such as the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), validated learning, and the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop, all of which are fundamental to the Lean Startup methodology.

This book has had a profound influence on how startups and large companies approach product development and innovation and has led to a lot of business success.

 

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The Lean Startup teaches you how to build a new business or product by starting small and learning quickly.

Instead of spending lots of time and money making something perfect right away, you create a simple version first and see how people like it.

You then use their feedback to make it better step by step, which helps you avoid big mistakes and create something people really want.

The book is aimed at entrepreneurs, startup founders, product managers, and anyone involved in innovation or business development.

It is also valuable for leaders in larger organizations looking to foster a culture of continuous innovation.

“The Lean Startup” is a book that teaches people how to start and grow a new business in a smart way. Here’s a simple breakdown:

Introduction: Start


Imagine you have an idea for a new toy or game.

Instead of spending all your time and money making the perfect version right away, this book suggests starting small and testing your idea to see if kids really like it.

Chapter 1: Start


A startup is like a small, new business that’s trying to figure out what people want.

The book says it’s better to learn quickly what works and what doesn’t, rather than just guessing.

Chapter 2: Define


Before making the whole toy, you make a simple version of it (called a Minimum Viable Product, or MVP) to see if kids are interested.

This way, you don’t waste time making something no one wants.

Chapter 3: Learn


Once you have the simple version, you watch how kids play with it.

You learn from what they like and don’t like, and you can make the toy better based on what you discover.

Chapter 4: Experiment


You keep trying out new ideas, making small changes, and then testing them again.

The goal is to learn as much as you can with each change, so you can make the best toy possible.

Chapter 5: Leap


When you start, you have to make some guesses about what kids will like.

This chapter is about testing those guesses quickly so you can know for sure if your toy idea is good.

Chapter 6: Test

Instead of just guessing, you test your ideas by showing your toy to kids and seeing how they react.

If they like it, great! If not, you make changes and test again.

Chapter 7: Measure


You don’t just count how many toys you sell.

Instead, you look at things like how often kids play with the toy or how many tell their friends about it.

This helps you see if your idea is really working.

Chapter 8: Pivot (or Persevere)


If your toy idea isn’t working, you can make a big change (called a pivot) and try a different idea.

If it’s working, you keep going (persevere) and make it even better.

Chapter 9: Batch


When you make changes to your toy, do it in small steps.

This way, if something goes wrong, it’s easier to fix. Small steps help you improve faster.

Chapter 10: Grow


Once your toy is popular, you think about how to grow your business.

You could make different versions of the toy, tell more people about it, or find new ways to sell it.

Chapter 11: Adapt


As you keep going, it’s important to always be ready to change and improve.

If something doesn’t work, figure out why, fix it, and keep trying.

Chapter 12: Innovate

Even big companies can use these ideas to create new products.

They should think like startups, always testing and learning to stay ahead.

In the end, the book hopes that by using these ideas, more people can turn their cool new ideas into successful businesses that make things people really love.

 

 

1. Start Small and Test Ideas Early:


Action Point: Before investing a lot of time and money, create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) — a basic version of your product to test whether customers are interested.

2. Focus on Learning What Works:


Action Point: Use customer feedback to learn which aspects of your product are valuable.

Treat each product iteration as an experiment to gather insights.

3. Measure What Matters:


Action Point: Track actionable metrics like customer retention, engagement, or conversion rates, rather than vanity metrics like total users or page views.

4. Pivot When Necessary:


Action Point: Be ready to change direction if your original idea isn’t working.

If the data shows that customers aren’t responding as expected, adjust your business model, product, or target market.

5. Iterate Quickly:


Action Point: Use the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop to continuously improve your product.

Develop small updates, measure customer reactions, and learn from the results to inform the next version.

6. Avoid Waste:


Action Point: Don’t spend time and resources building features or products without first validating that customers want them.

Focus on creating value in the simplest way possible.

7. Create a Culture of Adaptability:


Action Point: Foster an environment where your team is encouraged to experiment, learn from mistakes, and adapt quickly.

Use techniques like the “Five Whys” to get to the root cause of problems and address them.

8. Focus on Sustainable Growth:


Action Point: Identify the growth engine that works best for your business (viral, sticky, or paid) and optimize your efforts around it.

Sustainable growth is built on a product that customers want to use and share.

9. Innovation Is Ongoing:


Action Point: Always be on the lookout for new opportunities to innovate, whether by improving your current product or by exploring new markets or ideas.

Apply the Lean Startup principles to keep your business agile.

10. Embrace Uncertainty:


Action Point: Accept that the future is uncertain, and plan to adapt as new information becomes available.

Stay flexible and open to change, using data to guide your decisions.

Overall Action Plan:


– Start by defining your assumptions about what customers want and then design experiments to test those assumptions.


– Build simple prototypes (MVPs) and launch them quickly to gather real-world feedback.


– Use the feedback to make informed decisions about whether to persevere, pivot, or iterate.


– Continuously measure your progress with actionable metrics, and always be ready to adapt your strategy based on what you learn.

By following these action points, you can reduce the risk of failure and increase your chances of building a successful, sustainable business.

1. “The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.”
– This highlights the importance of continuous learning and adaptation in the fast-paced world of startups.

2. “A startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.”

– This defines the essence of a startup and the unique challenges it faces.

3. “Success is not delivering a feature; success is learning how to solve the customer’s problem.”

– Emphasizes that true success comes from understanding and meeting customer needs, not just building products.

4. “Build-Measure-Learn is the fundamental activity of a startup.”

– Summarizes the core process of the Lean Startup methodology, focusing on rapid iteration and feedback.

5. “The goal of a startup is to figure out the right thing to build—the thing customers want and will pay for—as quickly as possible.”

– Stresses the importance of identifying and creating value for customers in the most efficient way.

6. “The Minimum Viable Product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.”

– Describes the concept of MVP, a key strategy for testing ideas with minimal resources.

7. “We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want.”

Highlights the difference between assumptions and real customer needs, and the importance of testing those assumptions.

8. “Startup success can be engineered by following the process, which means it can be learned, which means it can be taught.”

Suggests that success in startups is not just about luck but about following a disciplined approach.

9. “A pivot is a structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, strategy, and engine of growth.”


– Explains the concept of a pivot, a critical move when initial assumptions don’t pan out.

10. “Entrepreneurs are everywhere. We need to empower people to be bold, take risks, and innovate, regardless of the company they work for.”


– Encourages a broader application of entrepreneurial principles beyond traditional startups.

 

11. “Innovation is a bottoms-up, decentralized, and unpredictable thing, but that doesn’t mean it cannot be managed.”


– This highlights the idea that while innovation is spontaneous, it can still be guided and managed effectively.

12.“A startup is a catalyst that transforms ideas into products.”


– This quote encapsulates the role of a startup in bringing ideas to life through product development.

13. “Learning is the essential unit of progress for startups.”


– Emphasizes that the true measure of progress in a startup is how much has been learned about what works and what doesn’t.

14. “In a startup, every product, every feature, every marketing campaign—everything a startup does—is an experiment designed to achieve validated learning.”


– Describes the experimental nature of startup activities, all aimed at gaining insights.

15. “What if we found ourselves building something that nobody wanted? In that case, what did it matter if we built it on time and on budget?


– Points out the futility of creating a product efficiently if it doesn’t meet a real need.

16. “The big question of our time is not Can it be built? but Should it be built?”

– Shifts the focus from the feasibility of building something to whether it should be built based on customer needs.

17. “The Lean Startup isn’t about being cheap but is about being less wasteful and still doing things that are big.”


– Clarifies that the Lean Startup method is about efficiency and impact, not just cutting costs.

18. “If we’re building something nobody wants, it doesn’t much matter if we’re doing it on time and on budget.”


– Stresses that the most important aspect of product development is ensuring that there is demand for what is being created.

19. “Every entrepreneur eventually faces an overriding challenge in developing a successful product: deciding when to pivot and when to persevere.”


– Highlights the critical decision point in a startup’s journey between continuing on the current path or making a significant change.

20. “Sustainable growth is characterized by one simple rule: New customers come from the actions of past customers.”


– Defines sustainable growth as being driven by satisfied customers who spread the word or continue to purchase.

21. “We must be willing to set aside our traditional professional standards and embrace the startup way of thinking.”

– Encourages a shift from conventional business thinking to a more flexible, startup-oriented mindset.

22. “The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital-efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively.”


– Suggests that Lean Startup principles lead to more efficient use of resources and better utilization of creativity.

23.“Startups that succeed are those that manage to iterate enough times before running out of resources.”


– Indicates that the key to success is the ability to test and refine ideas repeatedly before resources are exhausted.

24. “We are building something that nobody wants. We cannot achieve success this way. Instead, we must learn what customers really want.”

– Reinforces the importance of building products based on real customer desires, not assumptions.

25. “The lesson of the Lean Startup is that it’s not just the destination but the journey, the process that matters.”


– Emphasizes the importance of the process of learning, experimenting, and adapting, not just the end result.

 

26. “You cannot trade quality for time or money.”


– Stresses the importance of maintaining quality, even when working with limited resources or time.

27. “Metrics are people, too. To make sure our data doesn’t deceive us, we need to focus on metrics that matter.”


– Emphasizes the importance of using meaningful, actionable metrics that reflect real customer behavior.

28. “The goal of a startup is to figure out the right thing to build—the thing customers want and will pay for—as quickly as possible.”


– Highlights the urgency of identifying and developing a product that meets customer needs.

29. “Planning and forecasting are only accurate when based on a long, stable operating history and a relatively static environment.”

– Points out that traditional business planning doesn’t work well in the dynamic, uncertain world of startups.

30. “Innovation accounting enables startups to accurately measure progress, set up milestones, and prioritize work.”

– Introduces the concept of innovation accounting as a way to measure progress in a startup environment.

31. “Don’t be in a rush to get big. Be in a rush to have a great product.”


– Encourages startups to focus on creating an excellent product before worrying about scaling up.

32. “The Lean Startup method builds capital-efficient companies because it allows startups to recognize that it’s more important to know what customers want than it is to know how much cash is left in the bank.”


– Argues that understanding customer needs is more critical than just managing finances.

33. “It’s not about having a five-year plan or knowing every step you’ll take. It’s about being flexible, responsive, and iterative.”


– Promotes adaptability and responsiveness over rigid long-term planning.

34. “The most common form of waste in startups is building something that nobody wants.”


– Identifies the primary risk in startups: creating products without validated customer demand.

35. “A startup’s job is to rigorously measure where it is right now, confront the brutal facts, and then pivot or persevere.”


– Stresses the importance of being honest about a startup’s current situation and making necessary adjustments.

36. “To improve entrepreneurial outcomes and make entrepreneurship more accessible, we need to reinvent the way we think about innovation and entrepreneurship.”


– Calls for a new approach to entrepreneurship that is more inclusive and based on modern principles.

37. “The big idea behind Lean Startup is that every startup is an experiment, and that the true measure of success is not whether a product is launched but whether it learns something valuable about customers.”


– Reframes the concept of success in startups as learning valuable insights rather than just launching a product.

 

38. “The Lean Startup method is not about avoiding failure. It’s about minimizing the time it takes to learn from it.”


– Clarifies that failure is part of the process, but the goal is to learn from it as quickly as possible.

39. “If you cannot fail, you cannot learn.”


– Suggests that the ability to fail is crucial for learning and growth in the startup journey.

40. “By focusing on a single, clear metric, a team can align its energy and prioritize learning over just building features.”


– Highlights the importance of focusing on one key metric to drive alignment and meaningful progress.

41. “The Lean Startup approach favours experimentation over elaborate planning, customer feedback over intuition, and iterative design over traditional ‘big design up front’ development.”


– Summarizes the key differences between the Lean Startup approach and traditional business practices.

42. “We should never be afraid to fail, but we must be afraid of failing to learn.”


– Encourages embracing failure as a learning opportunity, rather than fearing it.

43. “In the Lean Startup, every product and every feature is understood to be an experiment designed to achieve validated learning.”


– Reinforces the idea that all efforts in a startup should be treated as experiments for learning.

44. “A successful startup is not just about having a good idea; it’s about finding a scalable and repeatable business model.”


– Emphasizes that a good idea is only part of the equation; the real challenge is building a business model that can grow.

 

Here are other interesting and recommended reading list related to the themes explored in “The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, for further reading:

  1. Masters of Scale podcast summary: How AirBNB was handcrafted by Chesky & Co.
  2. Book summary Testing Business Ideas by David J. Bland and Alexander Osterwalder  
  3. Book summary of  The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you by Bob Fitzpatrick
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Summary the empire of business by Andrew Carnegie

Book Summary the Empire of Business by Andrew Carnegie

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“The Empire of Business” by Andrew Carnegie offers invaluable insights into his rise as an industrialist, emphasizing the importance of innovation, ethical leadership, and philanthropy in building a successful business empire and contributing to society.

  1. “There is a popular saying that you should not put all your eggs in one basket but I say Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket closely.” – Andrew Carnegie
  2. “The first requisite for success in life is to be a good animal.” – Andrew Carnegie

  3. “Concentration is my motto – first honesty, then industry, then concentration.” – Andrew Carnegie

  4. “No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.” – Andrew Carnegie

  5. “As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.” – Andrew Carnegie

  6. “Surplus wealth is a sacred trust to be administered during one’s lifetime for the good of the community.” – Andrew Carnegie

  7. “Do your duty and a little more, and the future will take care of itself.” – Andrew Carnegie

  8. “The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.” – Andrew Carnegie

  9. “Aim for the highest.” – Andrew Carnegie

  10. “Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.” – Andrew Carnegie

  11. “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” – Andrew Carnegie

  12. “The man who dies rich, dies disgraced.” – Andrew Carnegie

  13. “Do not look for success, seek to become a person of value.” – Andrew Carnegie

  14. “The wise young man or wage earner of today invests his money in real estate.” – Andrew Carnegie

  15. “Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.” – Andrew Carnegie

  16. “No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.” – Andrew Carnegie

  17. “There is little success where there is little laughter.” – Andrew Carnegie

  18. “The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work.” – Andrew Carnegie

  19. “You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb.” – Andrew Carnegie

  20. “Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole clear, glorious life lies before you.” – Andrew Carnegie

  21. “The man who has millions will want everything he can lay his hands on and then raise his voice against the poor devil who wants ten cents more a day.” – Andrew Carnegie

     

“The Empire of Business” by Andrew Carnegie is primarily for individuals interested in business, entrepreneurship, and philanthropy. Specifically, it targets:

  1.  Aspiring Entrepreneurs: Those who seek to understand the principles of success in business and learn from the experiences of one of history’s most successful entrepreneurs.
  2. Business Leaders: Established business leaders looking for insights into effective management strategies, innovation, and ethical business practices.
  3. Philanthropists: Individuals interested in philanthropy and social responsibility can learn from Carnegie’s philosophy on wealth redistribution and the importance of giving back to the community.
  4. History Enthusiasts: Readers interested in the history of American industry and the Gilded Age will find “The Empire of Business” to be an engaging and informative read, offering a glimpse into the economic and social dynamics of the era.

Overall, the book appeals to a wide range of readers interested in business, entrepreneurship, leadership, and social impact, making it a valuable resource for anyone seeking inspiration and guidance in their professional or personal endeavours.

PART 1: The road to business success

In this book Andrew Carnegie started by advising young people who want to be successful in life to avoid these 3 things:

  1. Alcohol: as it will destroy them and not allow them reach their dreams.
  2. Speculations or gambling: Gambling can make you rich today, but you would never be able to sustain the wealth. Instead of speculating, start a business that is providing solutions to the problems of other human beings. Starting a business may be hard, but it is a sure way to sustainable and enduring wealth. Money gotten from speculations doesn’t last. Most time, the person loses all to gambling.
  3. Don’t stand as a guarantor for a friend if you are also a debtor to another person. If you are to stand as a guarantor for a loan, never let the amount exceed your own means. Treat the money you are standing as a surety for as a gift and do not stand for an amount you cannot part with.

 

If you want to be taken serious in your place of work, do all you can attract your employer’s ATTENTION.  Prove to your boss that he does not have a mere hireling in his employ.

Instead of being one who is content to give so many hours of work for so many dollars in return, be the one who devotes his spare hours in constant thought to the business – this will make your boss to think of you first when he is thinking of a worthy partner.

Always break orders to save your boss. Do not hesitate to do it whenever you are sure the interests of your employer will be thereby promoted and when you are so sure that the result is such that you are willing to take the responsibility.

You will never be a partner unless you know the business of your department far better than the owners possibly can. These are the kind of men business owners are looking to help their business grow.

People who have the interest of the business at heart and will do all they can including disobeying rules they know are not in the interest of the business to make the business grow.

These are the true bosses. So, boss your boss and do this early enough.

To become a millionaire, you must start early to save most of the money that enters your hand. The money you have saved must them be invested in something that will yield you more money and never to be gambled with.

This habit of putting away money will attract business men (who are willing to go into partnership) to you. They will trust and want to partner with you because you have developed discipline which is a great habit for creating wealth.

When you start a business, concentrate all your efforts and resources in the business. Don’t scatter your resources in several businesses at a time. Put all your eggs in one basket and watch the basket closely.

 

PART 2: The ABC of Money

Money as we know it today are just worthless papers and do not reflect the value of what the government institutions printed on them and would like you to believe.

A medium of exchange is supposed to be equivalent to the value it is to be exchanged with in value, but this is no longer so.

The government institutions print notes and make us believe that those notes are of the same value as what is printed on them.

The governments are shortchanging their citizens with the instrument of money.

 

 

PART 3: Interest of Labour and Capital

Employers should embark on corporate responsibility to maintain to some extent the old feeling of kindliness, mutual confidence, respect and esteem which formerly distinguished the relations between the employer and his men.

Wages of employees should be based upon a sliding scale, in proportion to the net profit received for product month by month. This way employees would not be seeking to make more money when the business is not doing so well and when the business is doing well, everybody gets paid well.

This can be achieved by making your business’ financial statements available to employees.

This way, the employees and the employers work as partners working towards the growth of the business as they know when a business is doing well and when a business is doing badly.

An employee that knows that the growth of the business is equal to more money for her will work hard to ensure the business grows.

Make reading a habit and focus on specializing on an area which gives you support; know that thoroughly and well, to be an expert in your area of specialty. If you are a mechanic, then study every work about the subject of mechanics.

Seek to be among the world first 10 people in your area of work.

Don’t let anyone know more of your specialty than you. Then read widely, seek to know little about every other thing. “Just as on his farm the farmer must first attend well to his potatoes and his corn and his wheat, from which he derives his revenue, and he may spend his spare hours as a labour of love in cultivating the flowers that surround his home.”

Becoming a specialist in the work that brings you revenue is your number one priority, while acquiring general knowledge in other areas is your recreation and also important.

This is how an employee moves from the level of a worker to the partner of the employer.

Learn everything you can about the fundamental laws of demand and supply, the law of competition

Know when to take a break and find amusement. Engage in sports or other games as it is a great mistake to think that the man who works all the time wins in the race. Become interested in baseball or cricket, or horses, anything that will give you innocent enjoyment and relieve you from the usual strain.

You are not to consume every earning that you make. You must consistently save a part of all money you earn to be used for the purpose of investment in building capital projects that will give you more returns. This is the difference between the rich (civilized) and the poor (savage). One saves a part of his earnings for the purpose of investment while the other consumes everything earned.

“Each man, by thrift, saves a little, puts the money in a bank, and the bank lends it to the shipbuilders, who pay interest for the use of it.”

The amount you should save per earning does not need to be great, just ensure you are saving something for future investments or projects whenever you earn money.

Keep money in the position of a useful servant. Hoarding millions is not thrift. It should be used to make the world a better place. Always seek to leave the world better than you found it.

 

PART 4 How to win fortune

“The millionaires who are in active control started as poor boys, and were trained in that sternest but most efficient of all schools—poverty.“ Most of these people did not go to the regular schools, but where instead hotly engaged in the school of experience (started actively working from age 14-20), obtaining the very knowledge required for future triumphs in business.

Andrew Carnegie saw college as a waste of time as it does not confer on the student the required skill and experience necessary for running a business.

The graduates who enter the world of work at the age of 20 mostly fit the position of workers who are compensated with salary and do not stand a chance to compete with the people who have been working and gathering business experience since the age of 14.

Education is good, but the education that should be valued is only the one that leads a man to the road that will bring him the desired fortune.

Businesses of vast concerns cannot be successfully conducted by salaried employees. No great business of any kind can score an unusually brilliant and permanent success which is not in the hands of practical men particularly interested in its results as against men who are just interested in receiving salaries.

When, therefore, the young man, in any position or in any business, explains and complains that he has not opportunity to prove his ability and to rise to partnership, the old answer suffices “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.

 

PART 5: Wealth and its uses

Andrew Carnegie is of the opinion that poverty is a stimulating school that takes ordinary people from the ground to greatness. He believes that being born poor is one of the greatest things that can happen to anyone unlike being born with a silver spoon.

“We can scarcely read one among the few “immortal names that were not born to die, ” or who has rendered exceptional service to our race, who had not the advantage of being cradled, nursed, and reared in the stimulating school of poverty.”

He admonishes people who have amassed fortune not to make their children victim of their wealth by over pampering them. They should instead make them go out and create their own wealth and not depend on their parent’s wealth.

Anyone who was born poor is regarded by Andrew Carnegie as fortunate. All he needs to do is to find wealth is to first ask himself “what shall I learn to do for the community which will bring me in exchange enough wealth to feed, clothe, lodge, and keep me independent of charitable aid from others?”

Then the next thing he is to do once he starts earning from his choice of means of income, is to start saving a portion of all his earnings to be invested in securities, properties or business.

You do not need to put together so much money before you can start investing. Save from your earnings, invest them and watch it gradually grow and make you rich. If you are able to save as little as $50 or $100, you can start a business or start investing in stocks (own a part of a big business), real estate etc.

So, you don’t need to have up to a million to start. Anyone can start growing money. All you need is that first $50 or $100.

Don’t invest your savings in any business or stock you don’t understand. This is the one of the reasons most businesses fail.

And when you have accumulated so much wealth, distribute for the good of humanity to make the life of others better while you are still alive by building institutions or creating innovative developments that will last for generations.

Andrew Carnegie describes any rich person who was not able to distribute his/her wealth for the good and the advancement of humanity while alive as a sad failure.

 

PART 6: The Bugaboo of Trusts

All industries should hold firmly the doctrine of free competition and keep the field open for all who are interested. There should be freedom for all to engage in manufacturing or any business as long as the person has the capital to invest in the same condition open to all.

Any attempt to maintain a monopoly in any branch/industry will likely end in failure for there can be no permanent extortion of profit beyond the average return from capital.

Monopoly in the form of TRUST strangles the growth of an industry while healthy competition helps it to grow and benefit the public.

 

 

PART 7: Anglo-American Trade Relations

The principle of free trade should be allowed by nations as the world respects a nation that can supply it with its needs.

This principle of free trade does not respect flags; it respects best bargain as nations buy from and sell to countries from which they obtain great bargains. Political acquisition is not essential for acquiring the trade of new territory.

 

PART 8: Business

Focus on one kind of business and master it. Don’t jump from business to business. Concentrate all your efforts and resources in one for no one can master two businesses. You will end up spreading yourself too thin and lose both businesses.

The difference between a business person and a worker is that the first depends on profit while the second depends on a fixed salary. The business person bears all the risks and makes more money while the worker bears no risk and earns so little, but we must all start from somewhere. You can start as workers but never stop there.

While working for your boss, do not work for salary alone. Do all you can to help grow the business of your employer; go the extra mile. And when he is looking for a partner, you will be the first person that comes to mind. This will be your beginning of owning part of the business.

Here is a secret to business success: conduct your business with just a little more ability than the average man in your line. If you are only above the average, your success is secured, and the degree of success is in ratio to the greater degree of ability and attention which you give above the average.

There are always a few in business who stand near the top, but, there are always an infinitely greater number at and near the bottom. And should you fail to ascend, the fault is not in your stars, but in yourselves.

Anyone who intends to acquire a degree should ensure that as he/she is getting the degree gets business skills too in the area he intends to focus on. A graduate who also has business knowledge is far better than a person who never got a degree but acquired only business skills.

A business creates value and benefits the community by improving their lives, while speculation does not provide any value and supplies no want.

 

PART 9: The three legged stool of business

Capital, labour and business ability are the three legs upon which any business stands. Without any of these three, the stool of a business collapses for a business cannot succeed without any of these three and the stool becomes of no use until the 3rd leg is restored.

None of the three legs is more important than the other. The three are equal partners of a grand role.

Here are other interesting and recommended books related to the themes explored in “The Empire of Business” by Andrew Carnegie, for further reading:

“Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.” by Ron Chernow: This biography provides a comprehensive look at the life and career of John D. Rockefeller, another influential figure in American business during the Gilded Age.

“The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail” by Clayton M. Christensen: This book explores the concept of disruptive innovation and its impact on established businesses, offering insights into how companies can navigate and adapt to disruptive change.

“How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie: While not directly related to business strategy, this classic self-help book offers valuable insights into interpersonal skills, communication, and leadership, which are essential for success in business and beyond.

“Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies” by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras: This book examines the common characteristics and strategies of enduringly successful companies, providing valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and business leaders.

“The Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith: Considered a foundational work in economics, this book explores the principles of free-market capitalism and the division of labor, providing insights into the economic theories that influenced Andrew Carnegie and his contemporaries.

“Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t” by Jim Collins: Drawing on extensive research, this book identifies the key factors that differentiate great companies from their competitors and offers actionable insights for achieving sustained success.

“The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” by Charles Duhigg: This book explores the science behind habits and how they shape individual and organizational behavior, offering practical strategies for creating positive change and improving productivity.

“The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses” by Eric Ries: This book introduces the lean startup methodology, which emphasizes rapid experimentation, iterative development, and customer feedback to build successful businesses in a fast-changing world.

“Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action” by Simon Sinek: Exploring the concept of the “Golden Circle,” this book examines the importance of defining a clear purpose and vision to inspire loyalty, innovation, and success in business.

“Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future” by Peter Thiel: Written by entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel, this book offers unconventional insights into building successful startups and creating innovative solutions that reshape industries.

These recommended books cover a range of topics related to entrepreneurship, business strategy, leadership, and personal development, providing valuable insights and inspiration for readers interested in further exploring the themes of “The Empire of Business” by Andrew Carnegie.

Based on the teachings of “The Empire of Business” by Andrew Carnegie, here are some recommended action points that you need to start implementing immediately:

  1. Set Clear Goals: Define your long-term goals and create a clear vision for success in your chosen field or industry.
  2. Invest in Education: Continuously seek opportunities to learn and improve your skills. Invest in education and personal development to stay competitive in the rapidly changing business landscape.
  3. Embrace Innovation**: Embrace innovation and technological advancements in your industry. Stay ahead of the curve by adopting new tools, technologies, and strategies to enhance your business operations.
  4. Build Strong Team: Recognize the importance of teamwork and collaboration in achieving success. Surround yourself with talented individuals who share your vision and complement your skills.
  5. Practice Ethical Leadership: Lead with integrity and ethical conduct. Build trust and credibility with your employees, customers, and stakeholders by demonstrating honesty, transparency, and fairness in your actions.
  6. Diversify Investments: While focusing on your core business, consider diversifying your investments to mitigate risks and seize new opportunities for growth.
  7. Give Back to Society: Recognize the importance of giving back to the community. Allocate resources for philanthropic initiatives that address pressing social issues and contribute to the greater good.
  8. Monitor Finances Closely: Keep a close eye on your finances and investments. Regularly review your financial statements and performance metrics to identify areas for improvement and make informed decisions.
  9. Stay Committed to Success: Stay committed to your goals and persevere in the face of challenges. Embrace failure as a learning opportunity and remain resilient in your pursuit of success.
  10. Focus on Efficiency: Prioritize efficiency in your work and business operations. Identify areas where you can streamline processes and eliminate waste to maximize productivity.

Here are some steps to prioritize efficiency in your business:

Prioritizing efficiency involves identifying and focusing on tasks, processes, or strategies that yield the highest returns in terms of output, productivity, and resource utilization. 

  • Identify Goals and Objectives: Clearly define your goals and objectives, both short-term and long-term. Understand what you want to achieve and what outcomes are most important to you or your organization.
  • Analyze Tasks and Processes: Assess your current tasks, workflows, and processes to identify areas where improvements can be made. Look for tasks that are time-consuming, repetitive, or inefficient.
  • Use Prioritization Techniques: Use prioritization techniques such as the Eisenhower Matrix, ABC prioritization, or Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) to categorize tasks based on their importance and urgency. Focus on high-priority tasks that align with your goals and provide the most significant impact.
  • Delegate and Automate: Delegate tasks that can be done more efficiently by others, freeing up your time to focus on higher-value activities. Additionally, automate repetitive tasks using technology or tools to save time and reduce errors.
  • Time Management: Manage your time effectively by setting deadlines, breaking tasks into smaller, manageable chunks, and allocating time blocks for specific activities. Avoid multitasking, as it can decrease productivity and efficiency.
  • Continuous Improvement: Foster a culture of continuous improvement by regularly reviewing and optimizing your processes. Encourage feedback from team members and stakeholders to identify areas for enhancement and implement changes accordingly.
  • Eliminate Waste: Identify and eliminate any unnecessary steps, resources, or activities that do not add value to your goals. Streamline workflows and reduce inefficiencies to maximize productivity and minimize waste.
  • Utilize Resources Wisely: Make efficient use of available resources, including time, money, and manpower. Allocate resources strategically to tasks and projects that offer the greatest return on investment.
  • Stay Flexible and Adaptive**: Remain flexible and adaptive in your approach to efficiency. Be open to trying new methods, technologies, or strategies that may improve your processes and outcomes.
  • Measure and Track Progress: Monitor and measure your progress towards efficiency goals using key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics. Track improvements over time and adjust your strategies as needed to maintain efficiency.

By implementing these action points, you are applying the valuable lessons from “The Empire of Business” to your life and business, fostering growth, success, and positive impact in their endeavors.

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