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Rating: 
Summary: Honest, funny, instructive, inspiring
Review: As a professor of entrepreneurship and a periodic entrepreneur, I read a lot on the subject, and this is the most honest book on entrepreneurial life that I have come across. I like the author's mildly self-deprecating tone, the wit, the brevity, the lessons, but most of all, what seems to be unflinching honesty. I'm not yet sure how I'll use it as a teacher, but I do find it helpful to me in my personal life. What I most appreciated is the raw story of roller-coaster ups and downs. In my experience and observation, surviving the downs is the great challenge of entrepreneurial life, and it is reassuring to see how often he was able to recover from severe setbacks. I like the list at the end: How to turn $10 into $10 million in ten easy steps. "See how easy it can be?" he asks. Of course it wasn't easy at all; starting out, there is no travelogue or map at all. Despite Mr. Allen's intelligence, top tier education, an apparently supportive family, an early start as an entrepreneur and unceasing efforts, he was well on in years before he hit it big. Along the way he suffered two divorces, two bankruptcies, and lots of lesser failures. In a book filled with all stripes of lessons, the most important is this unstated one: No one makes it easy for us. Life throws us a lot of curves, and some of those curves will floor us. Mr. Allen's story is of an entrepreneur who just kept getting back up, enjoyed the game, and, incidentally, hit a homer at the end. Thanks, Terry, for a great book.
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Summary: Fascinating reading for the TRUE entrepreneur
Review: I loved this book. Despite the handful of negative comments, let me tell you: they are simply wrong. The commenters seem more to judge the author, as opposed to the book itself. This book is actually quite good. I really enjoyed reading about the author's entrepreneurial adventures and how he bootstrapped himself through it all. You will learn from it, and it may give you some inspiration. This is a "real world" entrepreneur's story, unlike so much of the bloated theory you see in other books out there. I've bought thousands of 'theory' books over the years, so when I spot something like this, it's a real treat. If you love the idea of being an entrepreneur, and want to learn from someone who has done it, by all means, get this book. I think you'll thoroughly enjoy it, as I did.
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Summary: If you are looking for a real how-to, go elsewhere.
Review: I purchased this book looking for information on specific methods of financing my pre-startup with little of my own money. I read the book in it's entirety and here is what it is: A wonderful personal story of winning and losing in business. It shows that creativity can be used to overcome lack of cash, but gives few useful ideas. Like I said, it's just a nice story, not a business resource.
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Summary: Its nonsense, not even fun
Review: I read this book, had to look hard to find all that is advertised. 4 ingredients to cook up a business idea, 4 commandents for running a solid, profitable company. Well, three stories about his business experience would have been sufficient to explain his business idea. It was a tiresome read about all his business disasters. I tried the no money down route to buying a house. Never found a guillable person to agree to this. I tried to purchase a business this way as well. If a business is for sale,everyone that is selling wants their money. Even if the business is not worth what they are asking, some fool will come along pay the price. Its the American dream being a business owner. I tend to think now all these books on how to do it with no cash are full of nonsense. If i find out the secret to making money, why would I tell anything else?? If I make it, i dont need to boast. Save your money. Read good books on business and try to form relationships with people that are successful so you can learn from real life successful people who did it the first time around because they had sound business experience.
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Summary: Here's a FUN Business Book!!
Review: Most business books are so deadly dull that when something like Terry Allen's NO CASH NO FEAR comes along, I want to shout my joy from the rooftop! A reviewer here criticized Allen for having failed in so many of his enterprises. So? Isn't it valuable to learn from others' mistakes, as well as from their successes? Another reviewer said that this is good autobiography but bad "how-to." How so? It is certainly good biography, which is what makes Allen a delight to read, but each chapter closes with "lessons learned," and each page is FILLED with "how-to" -- IF you're paying attention. The trick is developing the skill to apply others' experiences to your own business situations. This is a terrific, entertaining, and educational book. And I'm sure I'll be reading it again and again.
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Summary: Disappointing
Review: The back cover of this book brags that the author has "started more than 20 businesses." Well, when you read the book, you learn the reason he started so many, is that so many of them TANKED, and he had to keep starting over!! This book reminds me of a guy in my fraternity who told me that it would be REALLY hard for me to get a date with a certain beautiful girl, because HE had courted her for 6 months, and she had never gone out with him, despite all his efforts. Despite his pessimism, this girl went out with me the first time I asked her! Terry Allen's business life is filled with fitful success, and a lot of failure. And he assumes your record of failure as an entrepreneur will duplicate his. He gives the old bromide, "An entrepreneur works any 24 hours he wants to." (Few things are as tiresome as the entrepreneur-as-martyr.) So he assumes that EVERY entrepreneur is going to fail for years, and work all the time, before victory by attrition. One of my best friends from high school started a business right out of school...it did $1 million in sales its first year. He was on the FORBES 400 list eight years later with a net worth of over $1/2 a billion. He succeeded immediately, without experiencing failure, and he succeeded BIG. He also had a lot of free time off this entire time. Another friend of mine became very wealthy very young, and lives on a giant estate in the South of France. And he averages about 6 hours of work a day, not including the months he takes off to stay in his mansions around the world. And he is not retired. I know from my friends that you can become a very successful entrepreneur without killing yourself work-wise, and without failing over and over. Just because Terry Allen messed up so much, and had to declare bankruptcy twice, doesn't mean you will. He's a bizarre source to give "advice" it seems to me. Another entrepreneur who didn't fail repeatedly, and didn't wait years for success to finally hit, is Michael Dell. He started Dell Computers when he was 19 out of his dorm room, and did $6 million in sales its first year. Dell Computers grew and grew, with only a few slips, making him a billionaire while he was very young. He's been a billionaire for awhile, and he's STILL young. I saw him on PBS recently, and he says his work hours are about 8:30 to 5:00. These are his hours as CEO of a global, multi-billion dollar corporation!! NO CASH, NO FEAR has an occasional good piece of advice. But you'd do better to read Michael Dell's book DIRECT FROM DELL. It's like taking golf lessons from Tiger Woods...rather than from a golf teacher at a community college.
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Summary: Lessons in the Laughter
Review: THIS BOOK IS JUST WHAT BEGINNING ENTREPRENEURS AND STUDENTS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP NEED. THE LESSONS ARE PRICELESS. THE VOICE OF THE BOOK SPEAKS DIRECTLY TO ANYONE WITH AN ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT! EXCELLENT RESOURCE. BUT DON'T LOSE THE LESSONS IN THE SOMETIMES "BELLY-ACHING" LAUGHTER HIS STORIES EVOKE! Lurlene Irvin
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Summary: The best, most inspirational and instructive of its kind
Review: This is a book I wished that I had written myself. It is a tell-all tale documenting Terry Allen's starting and building up a number of businesses. I have started a variety of businesses and have a lot of experiences. But Terry writes so well and none of my experiences can top Terry's. Not only does the book contain very valuable stories and specifics for an entrepreneur, it is superbly written and it reads like a novel. Are you thinking that you want to start a business, but you don't have the money? Terry's book will inspire you. Terry's story is very instructive because he gives you the details. He draws lessons from his experiences, and the lessons are terrific. Unlike many books of this type, Terry does not pull punches when it comes to analyzing what he did, even if on occasion he explains how it was not the brightest thing he could have done. He is not afraid of telling you everything, good bad or ugly, making the lessons here even more valuable. You will think that "if Terry can do it, I can do it". I recommend this book to all entrepreneurs as one of the foundations of your library.
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Summary: Why this is the best book on making and raising money.
Review: This is probably the best book ever written on raising money for small and medium size businesses. Here's why. Usually these books are all about the author's successes...just brag rags. Terry Allen's authentic style and approach reveal both the many victories and the many defeats along the way. He unabashidly shares his schemes and dreams in a humorous, approachable and really human way. And each chapter is filled with engaging stories which become a fabulous list of entrepreneurial dos and don'ts. The question is how can a guy like this with a Harvard MBA and also and a also business PhD. be so practical and at the same time funny. Most PhD. business authors are stuck in their ivory towers and really never get their hands dirty with the real work of the entreprenuer. Professor Allen, on the other hand, lays seige to the ivory tower of business rules and stifling protocol, with a refreshing, innovative and practical outlook. This is a must read for anyone who wants to own their own business and have fun doing it!
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Summary: A Frightening Look Behind The Curtain
Review: Wow. This guy left a wake of bankrupt investors, angry customers & employees (and all for good reason), everywhere he went! He frequently spends money he hasn't earned and creatively parlays it until the house of cards collapses. And this happends over and over again. Somehow, out of decades of disasters..., a business emerges that he sells for a lot of money. What I took away from the book is that Terry has more business experiences than nearly anybody - but he still hasn't learned anything from it! He got lucky 1 time out of 50 and wrote a book. I finished the book still looking for the "invaluable lessons", but gave it 2 starts because it is an engaging read.
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