Built, Not Born

Get tested and proven advice on how to navigate risk and succeed in all phases of business ownership from a successful entrepreneur who turned a small startup into a billion-dollar company.

Self-made billionaire and Paychex founder Tom Golisano understands the fears, risks, and challenges small-business owners face every day. He has launched and grown his own highly successful business and mentored dozens of entrepreneurs, helping them build their own fruitful companies.

Golisano knows how nervous aspiring business owners are about the risks of entrepreneurship. Now, he’s sharing the startup-to-exit secrets to success and how he turned $3,000 into $28 billion dollars.

Built, Not Born shows you:

• How going against the grain can be a great strategy for finding business opportunities and why it pays to question conventional wisdom.
• Why the pregnant pause can be an effective weapon in negotiations and when interviewing potential employees.
• Why a prenuptial or even a postnuptial agreement is critical to any business owner. 
• What potential buyers and funding sources look for, and the best way to present a business plan.
• And finally, the key growth and leadership strategies that have helped Paychex sustain its incredible level of growth and profitability.

Built, Not Born provides a direct and practical approach on how to overcome everyday challenges. This essential handbook is a key resource for current and aspiring entrepreneurs on how to start, grow, and operate a successful business.

“'Tom Golisano understands what it takes to grow and thrive as a business owner at all levels, and Built, Not Born is full of practical insights for those who have made or are considering making the leap to starting a new business.' --Tom Monaghan, founder, Domino's Pizza”

'Built, Not Born is full of hard-earned insight from a proven entrepreneur. Tom Golisano's commitment to clients to 'make their business his business' is not only smart advice, it's good leadership wisdom. He has something to say to anyone who has built--or is looking to build--a successful business.'--John C. Maxwell, #1 New York Times bestselling author and global leadership expert
'Built, Not Born is sure to earn its place as the essential handbook for entrepreneurs and business owners of all types. Tom Golisano truly understands how to start, grow, and operate a successful business; his direct and practical approach to everyday challenges shows why he is one of this country's great entrepreneurs.'--Joe Tucci, former Chairman and CEO, EMC Corporation
'Deciding to leave a senior leadership role at a major film studio to lead Rachel and my startup was not easy. Every decision seemed fraught with risk. Absorbing Tom's practical lessons for managing a high-growth business will reduce the fears that many feel when making the leap into entrepreneurship.'--Dave Hollis, CEO, The Hollis Co. and author of Get Out of Your Own Way
'If anyone discovered a smart growth path, it's Golisano. His book Built, Not Born shows that success in business doesn't come from an MBA. Instead it's about seeing opportunities, taking risks, and applying common sense. His wise chapters reveal how to do so along every step of the entrepreneur's journey to billion-dollar growth.'--Tiffani Bova, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Growth IQ; Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist, Salesforce
'Tom Golisano understands what it takes to grow and thrive as a business owner at all levels, and Built, Not Born is full of practical insights for those who have made or are considering making the leap to starting a new business.'--Tom Monaghan, founder, Domino's Pizza
'Tom Golisano is a creative business and philanthropic genius, with an eye for doing just the right thing at just the right time. Read this book to learn how to he does it and how you can do it too.'--Tim Shriver, Chairman, Special Olympics

Thomas Golisano - entrepreneur, philanthropist, and civic leader - is the founder and chairman of the Board of Paychex, Inc., headquartered in Rochester, New York, with more than 15,500 employees and 100 office locations nationwide. Before starting Paychex, the prevailing wisdom was that it was a waste of time selling payroll services to companies with fewer than 50 employees. Golisano, however, saw an opportunity; he did the math and proved that smaller companies needed payroll processing services just as much as larger companies, while still offering an excellent return on investment. He grew Paychex one partner and franchisee at a time, over many years, and today the company has a market value of $28 billion. Still active in business and philanthropy, he currently mentors the entrepreneurs who run the businesses in which he has invested, and he also oversees his family's charitable foundation. To date he has donated over $250 million to a wide range of charitable causes, including educational institutions, children's hospitals, and especially organisations working with people suffering from developmental and intellectual disabilities. Mike Wicks is an award-winning author, collaborator, and senior writer at Kevin Anderson & Associates. He has managed several multimillion-dollar government programs, rebranded towns and regions, written economic development and tourism strategies, and created sponsorship programs for major not-for-profits. Wicks is also a well-regarded trainer, facilitator, and speaker whose clients have included national banks and multinational insurance corporations. Wicks has written and collaborated on over twenty books, e-books, and training manuals. Fire from the Sky: A Diary Over Japan won a silver medal for best military memoir of 2005, awarded by the Military Writers Society of America. He's a foodie, so when he's not writing he can be found in his kitchen preparing a gourmet meal.

Tested and proven, no-nonsense advice on how to navigate risk and succeed in all phases of business ownership--written by Tom Golisano, self-made billionaire and founder of Paychex. "Tom Golisano understands what it takes grow and thrive as a business owner at all levels, and Built, Not Born is full of practical insights for those who have made or are considering making the leap to starting a new business." - Tom Monaghan, founder, Domino's Pizza Tom Golisano understands the fears, risks, and challenges small-business owners face every day--he's lived it. He has launched and grown his own highly successful businesses and mentored dozens of entrepreneurs, helping them build their own successful companies. Built, Not Born shows readers: How going against the grain can be a great strategy for finding business opportunities and why it pays to question conventional wisdom. Why the pregnant pause can be an effective weapon in negotiations and when interviewing potential employees. Why a prenuptial or even a postnuptial agreement is critical to any business owner. What potential buyers and funding sources look for, and the best way to present a business plan. And finally, the key growth and leadership strategies that have helped Paychex sustain its incredible level of growth and profitability.

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