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"Your book is terrific. It contains helpful advice and is easy to read."
—Warren Buffett
"This is 24-carat advicea real gem for any aspiring entrepreneur."
Harvey Mackay, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive
"Who better to teach us all about managing and growing a business than Barnett Helzberg? His honesty and upfront perspective on management and business principles should be required reading for a wide audience."
Henry W. Bloch, Cofounder and Honorary Chairman,
H&R Block, Inc.
"What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffett is based on thirty-nine years of hard work and experience. It is interesting and instructive, and I highly recommend it."
Bob Dole
Although the chances of receiving a phone call from Warren Buffett are small, the chances of developing a highly successful company are better than you may think. All you need to succeed is a burning desire and the right set of entrepreneurial skills. In What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffett, Barnett Helzberg shares his thirty years of experience in running a successful business and outlines the steps needed to prosper within a challenging business environment.
A Confession of Plagiarism.
Selling to the World’s Best Investor.
Know Thyself: What It Takes to Be an Entrepreneur.
Helzberg.
Hints.
Part I: Managing.
1 Concern Yourself with Only the Controllables.
2 Making Your Business Different.
3 Highest and Best Use of Your Time.
4 Super Service: Friend to the Entrepreneur.
5 Keeping Customers.
6 Your Complaining Customers: Your Greatest Opportunity.
7 Managing Risk.
8 Should Incentives Be Based on Profit or Volume?
9 Consultants: Bane or Bargain?
10 Keeping Your Ego in Check.
11 Setting Specific Measurable Goals.
12 Believing in People.
13 Never Burn a Bridge.
14 Planning for Disaster.
15 Turnaround Time at Helzberg Diamonds.
16 Testing New Ideas: Stacking Your Deck for Success.
17 How to Avoid Overreacting to Problems.
18 Integrity: A Long-Run Profit Maker.
19 Having Fun.
20 What Are Profits For?
21 A Sense of Urgency.
22 Execution Is the Key, Not the Idea.
Part II: Decision Making.
23 Learning and Growing from Your Mistakes.
24 The Paralysis of Analysis versus Knee-Jerk Decisions.
25 Embracing Growing Markets.
26 Borrowing Wisdom and Knowledge about Your Business.
27 Gathering Information.
28 Following Your Gut: When You Should Trust Your Own Feelings.
29 Priceless Information: Focus Groups.
30 Treasure the Contrarian: Why Constructive Criticism Is Healthy.
31 Sticking by Your Overall Objective: Why a Quick Profit Can Be a Bad Detour.
32 On Not Giving Up!
33 On Giving Up!
34 Judging Your Customer’s World, Not Your Own World.
35 Do You View Your Associates As Go-Getters or Slackers?
36 The Positive Fallout from Enron.
37 How to Have Uncanny Luck.
38 Prehistoric Man Looks at Going Public.
39 What Did I Learn?
40 How to Raise Your Prices.
41 An Open Letter to the Entrepreneur to Be.
42 Should You Make the Plunge?
Part III: Hiring.
43 Hiring Wisely: How to Choose Good People.
44 When to Look Outside or Stay Inside to Fill That Job.
45 Hiring the Right Lawyer, CPA, or Other Professional.
46 Building on Everyone’s Strengths.
47 Selling to and Hiring Friends and Relatives.
Part IV: Inspiring.
48 Recognizing Great Work: How to Motivate Associates.
49 Encouraging High Achievers.
50 Leaving Your Campsite Better Than You Found It!
51 Ownership.
52 On Humility and Arrogance.
53 When Bad News Is Good News.
54 Expectations.
55 Unintended Consequences.
Part V: Communicating.
56 Digging Out the Answer.
57 How to Kill New Ideas and Communication.
58 Listening and Learning: Why Silence Is a Valuable Skill.
59 Mentors: Pro and Con.
60 Building and Retaining Your Credibility.
61 The Question Is Not, “Are You Teaching?” The Question Is, “What Are You Teaching?”
62 Dignifying Every Task: How to Win Your Associates’ Commitment and Use Their Expertise.
63 Asking: The Best Communication.
64 Negotiating: Learn It or Delegate It.
65 In Marketing, Don’t Say It—Be It.
66 Preparing for Controversial Meetings.
67 Shortening Those Damn Meetings and Making Them More Effective!
68 Marty Ross’s Magic Follow-Up System.
69 Your Struggle to Get Honest Feedback.
70 To Lunch or Not to Lunch with Your Client, Supplier, or Associate.
71 Avoid Those Buzzwords and Alphabet Soup.
72 Should You Communicate Your Success?
73 Avoiding the Use of “I”—and Using It Properly.
74 No Surprises.
75 Care and Feeding of Your Associates.
76 Care and Feeding of Your Suppliers.
77 Care and Feeding of Your Lenders.
Part VI: Focusing.
78 What Business Are You Really In?
79 Balancing Your Life . . . Work, Play, Children, Health, and Money.
80 Giving Back.
Appendix A Recommended Readings.
Anonymous
Posted March 1, 2004
In a book that is more almanac than business history, author Barnett C. Helzberg Jr. includes a bit of narrative, but this is not a discourse on what he learned as he developed his Kansas City jewelry store empire, not a case study and not a look at how the sale of his company to Buffett went (which might have been a dandy negotiations yarn). Instead, it is basically a sound collection of sayings, aphorisms and ¿ now and then, it must be said ¿ platitudes about what he knew before Buffett came along. This is not, therefore, a book that We recommend necessarily reading from cover to cover. Instead, keep it handy. Pick it up when you are stuck for ideas or guidance, and peruse it for experience and sense. If all the thoughts are not particularly original, that is part of their appeal. Like a Polonius of the Plains, the author is never at a loss for a nostrum. He reaffirms the sound, traditional principles that guided the steady and sure growth of his business. It worked for Warren; it may well work for you.
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Overview
"Your book is terrific. It contains helpful advice and is easy to read."
—Warren Buffett
"This is 24-carat advicea real gem for any aspiring entrepreneur."
Harvey Mackay, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive
"Who better to teach us all about managing and growing a business than Barnett Helzberg? His honesty and upfront perspective on management and business principles should be required reading for a wide audience."
Henry W. Bloch, Cofounder and Honorary ...