Make Your Own Waves

July 1, 2016
When authors need to simplify ideas, they rely on analogies and fables or storiesor seize on celebrity personalities. Repeat author and consultant Patler is clearly among the first wave. Even for those with hydrophobia, his 10 rules of starting a business based on rules of the water make good common senseand are easy to understand. Many, in fact, might evoke a duh response; after all, how many times have business writers counseled readers to learn from failuresthough it's advice that's more frequently given than followed. (Patler calls it here paddle back out. ) At the end of each short chapter filled with interviews with surfers and entrepreneurs is a decent summary, along with things to do and a series of questions to think about and answer. The book is more inspirational than prescriptive, but readers can thumb through it to get a sense of the psychic preparation so necessary to start and maintain a successful business.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)