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Rating: 
Summary: Entrepreneurial Inspiration
Review: I found Launch Fever to be a very inspirational book. I especially enjoyed his experience of starting a medical device company and successfully launching the company securing venture capital funding and bringing on a professional management team. It was extremely insightful that although the author being an engineer he saw the importance of sales and marketing to launching his new venture. His experiences initially with the Boston venture capitalist and their preoccupation on how to take the product to market was very enlighting. I also enjoyed his chapter on Balancing Act. His focus on a balanced life style blending the demands of job and raising a family were very educational. I also enjoyed the homespun philosophy of his mother. Great book! I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book for small business owners!
Review: If you are looking for a some inspiration to start your next business or complete the one you have started you will love this book. The writer tells a story that is a true page turner. I started reading this book and could not put it down mainly due to the subject matter and the dialog writing style which made it really easy to read. No fluff and long complex sentences to distract you but rather a good book you can read in a couple sittings out by the pool.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for small business owners!
Review: If you are looking for a some inspiration to start your next business or complete the one you have started you will love this book. The writer tells a story that is a true page turner. I started reading this book and could not put it down mainly due to the subject matter and the dialog writing style which made it really easy to read. No fluff and long complex sentences to distract you but rather a good book you can read in a couple sittings out by the pool.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your money!
Review: Mr. Taylor has written a superb book. His tale is eloquently voiced through friendly, fast paced, and informative prose and I was moved and inspired by this testament to the entrepreneurial spirit.
This book is refreshing. The story guides one through youthful adventures and aspirations in the heart of southern culture. Then, the reader is granted top security clearance into the NASA space programs and its corresponding highs and lows. Perhaps most intriguing is when Mr. Taylor invites the reader to step inside the world of venture capital, describing the fundamentals and necessary semantics. I certainly regard this book as a benchmark representation of finding both the Spirit, and the "Spirit of the Deal".
Rating:
Summary: A positive and insightful book that is worth your time
Review: The book is fast and enjoyable reading. It is a "local boy makes good" Cinderella story that includes insights and lessons learned that most people can relate to. His ties to the Space Shuttle made it especially interesting to me as I work in that industry. However, it is written in such a way that you don't have to be from that arena to enjoy the book. I recommend it for people who:
- enjoy reading / learning about someone who has made on their own
- early stage entrepreneurs
- Space Shuttle buffs interested in behind-the-scenes activities
Rating:
Summary: A positive and insightful book that is worth your time
Review: The book is fast and enjoyable reading. It is a "local boy makes good" Cinderella story that includes insights and lessons learned that most people can relate to. His ties to the Space Shuttle made it especially interesting to me as I work in that industry. However, it is written in such a way that you don't have to be from that arena to enjoy the book. I recommend it for people who:
- enjoy reading / learning about someone who has made on their own
- early stage entrepreneurs
- Space Shuttle buffs interested in behind-the-scenes activities
Rating:
Summary: Great book for entrepreneurs and business owners.
Review: The book was fun, interesting and a good lesson on "never give up". My 18 year old son is going through the same school issues as Mr. Taylor did. Often bright, inquisitive kids finds it difficult to adjust in a setting where the focus is staying quiet and little hands-on learning. They just don't see how it relates to real world applications. Yet when given the opportunity to do what they really love they are shining stars. I put it by my son's bedside and asked him to read the 1800 word summary. Maybe it'll inspire him and encourage him to read the whole book!
Rating:
Summary: Made my weekend to read this book.
Review: This is a great book about starting a business and working your plan to be succesfull. I love how the author encourages the reader to tell their own story. He writes "Each of us have a compelling story to tell so I encourage you to write your story if you have that desire. You might notice from my lack of complex sentence structures and possibly the lack of a tight subject focus that if I can write a book so can you! Don't be discouraged by the elite publishing community and their agents. We all can't be Pulitzer Prize writers but we all have a story to tell nonetheless. Tell your story and leave the critics to their own misery."
Now how can you not like a guy who humbles himself right up front.
I was hooked when I read the first page from the first chapter..."Although bright and sunny, the day of the Space Shuttle Challenger launch was an unusually cold morning for central Florida. The combination of the cold and the moist salt air made it a very unpleasant day. The few times it gets cold in the Sunshine State, my body feels it down to the bone. No one had to tell me that January 28, 1986, was the coldest day that NASA had ever launched a manned rocket. For those who witnessed the event that day, it became an overwhelming personal experience for them. For three of my coworkers and I it was even more eventful because we were one of the closest people to the explosion, and Judy Resnik, Ph.D., the Challenger Mission Specialist Astronaut, was a coworker and friend of mine.
A sharp and quick to the point engineer, Judy became an astronaut in 1979 after having been a biomedical engineer and staff fellow in the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. She was a classical pianist and pilot who didn't tolerate incompetent people in the space program. The Challenger mission would be her second time in space; she first flew as a mission specialist on STS 41-D, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on August 30, 1984. This was the maiden flight of the orbiter Discovery. Judy loved to fly and encouraged me to obtain my pilot's license.
My office was in the Deep Space Instrumentation Facility or DSIF, (pronounced "dee siff" by the locals) located on the east coast of central Florida, on the Cape Canaveral side of the Kennedy Space Center, only a quarter mile west of the Atlantic Ocean. In existence since the beginning of the space program back in the 1960's, DSIF had served as a central data house for all incoming radio signals. It was the building that received the first orbital communication signals from John Glenn and Alan Shepard. The décor was typical government gray with metal desk and matching swivel chairs, rotary dial phones and broken tile floors. NASA employees and their contractors worked in facilities and with equipment which looked like something out of an antique military museum. Only the space shuttle and its spotless clean rooms were new, high tech and state of the art. The majority of the 20,000-person work force worked in a musty, dull gray atmosphere, while a select few, like my group, worked in both the old facilities and the high-tech new. Working in a large government organization can be very compartmentalized although I was fortunate to be part of a group who worked across most boundaries. NASA, thank goodness, was in the process of converting our facility into a more advanced facility, and my colleagues and I were part of the team doing the upgrades. Our facility and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) were a special place to work, guarded by military personnel who wore M16 rifles.
Every morning seagulls hanging out in the parking lot greeted me as I drove up to work. There was a constant light ocean breeze, and a comfortable summer environment. If the wind blew from the east, you could hear the ocean and smell the salt air.
Oftentimes when I arrived at work, I felt like I was going to the beach for a day of fun and strolling down space history lane. Just over the trees I could see the original launch pads used for the Mercury program. The Mercury program began in 1961 when, only four weeks after the Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin made the first orbital flight, the U.S. followed with a flight by Alan B. Shepard on May 5th. Shepard's launch took place only a few football fields away from our office.
As soon as I arrived to work the morning of the Challenger mission, I began to listen over the local secured audio loop to the astronaut communications as they began their third attempt at a launch. The previous two launches had been scrubbed for various reasons and the media was starting to point fingers and cause what we referred to as "launch fever" - an emotion that overrides logic and entices people to take more risk than normal. NASA, being a federally funded political football, demanded we keep everyone happy, especially the media. The press wanted a launch, while we wanted safety and quality.
Kennedy Space Center was hectic as usual preparing the launch of the 25th space shuttle. It was Mission 51-L, the 10th flight of Orbiter Challenger, and the first launch from the new launch pad 39B. Because it was the first time a civilian, a schoolteacher, was going into space, the launch was highly publicized. Millions of people watched the historical event on TV because it represented an average person going into space for the first time. As I continued to monitor the launch countdown process, I noticed some frustration on the part of the astronaut crew due to the cold temperatures. They were having a hard time with their gloves and equipment, and the entire process sounded more unorganized than with previous missions.
A consistent, timely and methodical program was followed for each launch. Organization was key because it reduces the chance for error and emotions. The customary routine for an astronaut on launch day involves steak and eggs for "breakfast" even if wake up time is at noon or midnight. Steak and eggs are served because they reduce body waste. The last thing an astronaut needs to eat before liftoff is something that will upset his/her stomach and make for large bowel movements. The astronaut's goal is to reduce the number of bathroom breaks in space hoping to reduce debris, smell and privacy issues. A birthday party type of celebration follows the breakfast, which includes birthday cake and several top prelaunch workers. Then the astronauts walk fifty feet to an ultra clean white room to suit up in their orange pressurized suits. The astronauts exit the large Operations and Control building and enter the van, which takes them on the seven mile drive out to the launch pad. From wake up call to liftoff is about four to five hours. On the day of a shuttle mission, instead of sitting horizontal like you would in a car, the shuttle is pointed straight up towards the sky so that the astronauts lie on their backs with their feet above them. The time lying feet first in the space shuttle restrained to a giant hydrogen/oxygen bomb is about one hour.
As time drew closer to what is called T-Zero... Read this book and do it on a weekend when you need a boost and a day full of enjoyment.
Rating:
Summary: Made my weekend to read this book.
Review: This is a great book about starting a business and working your plan to be succesfull. I love how the author encourages the reader to tell their own story. He writes "Each of us have a compelling story to tell so I encourage you to write your story if you have that desire. You might notice from my lack of complex sentence structures and possibly the lack of a tight subject focus that if I can write a book so can you! Don't be discouraged by the elite publishing community and their agents. We all can't be Pulitzer Prize writers but we all have a story to tell nonetheless. Tell your story and leave the critics to their own misery."
Now how can you not like a guy who humbles himself right up front.
I was hooked when I read the first page from the first chapter..."Although bright and sunny, the day of the Space Shuttle Challenger launch was an unusually cold morning for central Florida. The combination of the cold and the moist salt air made it a very unpleasant day. The few times it gets cold in the Sunshine State, my body feels it down to the bone. No one had to tell me that January 28, 1986, was the coldest day that NASA had ever launched a manned rocket. For those who witnessed the event that day, it became an overwhelming personal experience for them. For three of my coworkers and I it was even more eventful because we were one of the closest people to the explosion, and Judy Resnik, Ph.D., the Challenger Mission Specialist Astronaut, was a coworker and friend of mine.
A sharp and quick to the point engineer, Judy became an astronaut in 1979 after having been a biomedical engineer and staff fellow in the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. She was a classical pianist and pilot who didn't tolerate incompetent people in the space program. The Challenger mission would be her second time in space; she first flew as a mission specialist on STS 41-D, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on August 30, 1984. This was the maiden flight of the orbiter Discovery. Judy loved to fly and encouraged me to obtain my pilot's license.
My office was in the Deep Space Instrumentation Facility or DSIF, (pronounced "dee siff" by the locals) located on the east coast of central Florida, on the Cape Canaveral side of the Kennedy Space Center, only a quarter mile west of the Atlantic Ocean. In existence since the beginning of the space program back in the 1960's, DSIF had served as a central data house for all incoming radio signals. It was the building that received the first orbital communication signals from John Glenn and Alan Shepard. The décor was typical government gray with metal desk and matching swivel chairs, rotary dial phones and broken tile floors. NASA employees and their contractors worked in facilities and with equipment which looked like something out of an antique military museum. Only the space shuttle and its spotless clean rooms were new, high tech and state of the art. The majority of the 20,000-person work force worked in a musty, dull gray atmosphere, while a select few, like my group, worked in both the old facilities and the high-tech new. Working in a large government organization can be very compartmentalized although I was fortunate to be part of a group who worked across most boundaries. NASA, thank goodness, was in the process of converting our facility into a more advanced facility, and my colleagues and I were part of the team doing the upgrades. Our facility and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) were a special place to work, guarded by military personnel who wore M16 rifles.
Every morning seagulls hanging out in the parking lot greeted me as I drove up to work. There was a constant light ocean breeze, and a comfortable summer environment. If the wind blew from the east, you could hear the ocean and smell the salt air.
Oftentimes when I arrived at work, I felt like I was going to the beach for a day of fun and strolling down space history lane. Just over the trees I could see the original launch pads used for the Mercury program. The Mercury program began in 1961 when, only four weeks after the Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin made the first orbital flight, the U.S. followed with a flight by Alan B. Shepard on May 5th. Shepard's launch took place only a few football fields away from our office.
As soon as I arrived to work the morning of the Challenger mission, I began to listen over the local secured audio loop to the astronaut communications as they began their third attempt at a launch. The previous two launches had been scrubbed for various reasons and the media was starting to point fingers and cause what we referred to as "launch fever" - an emotion that overrides logic and entices people to take more risk than normal. NASA, being a federally funded political football, demanded we keep everyone happy, especially the media. The press wanted a launch, while we wanted safety and quality.
Kennedy Space Center was hectic as usual preparing the launch of the 25th space shuttle. It was Mission 51-L, the 10th flight of Orbiter Challenger, and the first launch from the new launch pad 39B. Because it was the first time a civilian, a schoolteacher, was going into space, the launch was highly publicized. Millions of people watched the historical event on TV because it represented an average person going into space for the first time. As I continued to monitor the launch countdown process, I noticed some frustration on the part of the astronaut crew due to the cold temperatures. They were having a hard time with their gloves and equipment, and the entire process sounded more unorganized than with previous missions.
A consistent, timely and methodical program was followed for each launch. Organization was key because it reduces the chance for error and emotions. The customary routine for an astronaut on launch day involves steak and eggs for "breakfast" even if wake up time is at noon or midnight. Steak and eggs are served because they reduce body waste. The last thing an astronaut needs to eat before liftoff is something that will upset his/her stomach and make for large bowel movements. The astronaut's goal is to reduce the number of bathroom breaks in space hoping to reduce debris, smell and privacy issues. A birthday party type of celebration follows the breakfast, which includes birthday cake and several top prelaunch workers. Then the astronauts walk fifty feet to an ultra clean white room to suit up in their orange pressurized suits. The astronauts exit the large Operations and Control building and enter the van, which takes them on the seven mile drive out to the launch pad. From wake up call to liftoff is about four to five hours. On the day of a shuttle mission, instead of sitting horizontal like you would in a car, the shuttle is pointed straight up towards the sky so that the astronauts lie on their backs with their feet above them. The time lying feet first in the space shuttle restrained to a giant hydrogen/oxygen bomb is about one hour.
As time drew closer to what is called T-Zero... Read this book and do it on a weekend when you need a boost and a day full of enjoyment.
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