Carol Frank shares will end any entrepreneur's personal pity party.  And these stories will save you a bundle of money and headaches if you heed the lessons learned.  The entrepreneurs in the following pages earned some of the most expensive and practical MBAs on the planet.

For the past 13 years I've chaired the MIT/Inc./YEO "Birthing of Giants" executive program held on the campus of MIT.  The most popular evening of the program is the Dr. Ed Roberts "Night of the Living Dead" event.  Named in honor of the legendary master of entrepreneurship in the MIT Sloan School of Business, it's an evening where 60 chosen business leaders lay down their facades and share their most horrifying moments in business and how they survived.

What's amazing, yet almost comforting, is that these successful entrepreneurs "lived" to tell their stories.  Carol's book brilliantly replicates this amazing evening and teaches all of us that the most important value we must hold as entrepreneurs is to never, ever, ever give up.  Yes, we might have to change strategies and entire industries, but to persevere as an entrepreneur is in many ways the real test of an entrepreneur.

And the stories, especially Carol's, kept reminding me of a favorite Steve Jobs quote, a quote from the quintessential survivor himself who built a multi billion business before age thirty, only to see his baby, Apple Computer, ripped from his arms.  Undaunted, he builds another great company, Pixar, and ultimately ends up rescuing his first child.  I couldn't help but think that "Finding Nemo" was a perfect metaphor for Jobs own journey of making his way back to Apple. To paraphrase Steve "it's amazing how overnight successes take a hellava long time!"

Persevere, learn, and enjoy the journey.

Verne Harnish
Founder, Young Entrepreneurs' Organization
CEO, Gazelles, Inc.
May 5, 2004