The book, Me, Inc.: Build an Army of One, Unleash Your Inner Rock God, Win in Life and Business by Gene Simmons offers a brief biography of his early life. It describes how his early life circumstances contributed to his growth as an entrepreneur.
Through out his life he has made specific decisions to change who he is to be successful in business. When he arrived in America from Israel he spoke no English. Because of his poor grasp of English he was asked, "What are you stupid?" He used this information as motivation to become fluent in English learning perfect diction from television newscasters. He was a voracious reader and spent as much time as he could in the local library nearly completing the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
He learned how to type and used this to pay for part of his education in college as he typed papers for other students. He worked for Vogue magazine and as a teacher. For most of the jobs and businesses he has worked in his experience level when he started was zero.
He suggest it is fine to celebrate your culture at home but to be successful in business you need to dress, speak and act in ways that model other successful people. He changed his Jewish name to Gene Simmons for that reason. He did not want his name to be an impediment to his success.
He recommends seting up many different businesses. He describes this as many different boats (busineses) loosely attached to one another. If one of the boats sinks it is not a problem as the others are not affected.
He advocates conservative money management keeping costs low when starting out a business keeping spending well within your means. He does not advocate drinking, smoking or drug abuse.
The book contains practical information for someone wanting to create their own persona and embrace the spirit of an entrepreneur.
Me Inc with Wendy Williams - 12 minutes
Me Inc - summary - 1 minutes
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