Break the Rules! The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

Change the world

Whatever your starting point—whether in a co-working space or at your kitchen table, or deep inside or at the helm of a large company—if you want to learn the mindsets that enable the world’s most audacious and successful entrepreneurs to innovate and change the world, this book’s inspiring stories, pragmatic takeaways and next steps will equip you to do just that.

Praise for Break the Rules!

“Mullins brings his fresh insights and extensive research to the unconventional thinking that powers the best startups. Entrepreneurs looking for the next big thing and the investors who chase them owe it to themselves to master and embrace these winning mindsets.”
—RANDY KOMISAR, Partner, Kleiner Perkins; Author, The Monk and the Riddle; Co-author, Straight Talk for Startups and Getting to Plan B

“A serial entrepreneur, professor to thousands of entrepreneurs, and author of three seminal books and dozens of entrepreneurial case studies, I’m a raving fan of John Mullins. He has had the ultimate ring-side seat in discerning the unique mindsets behind the most successful entrepreneurs. The ultimate constraint to scaling is between our ears—and John both illuminates and provides us practical ways to adopt these unconventional mindsets.”
—VERNE HARNISH, Founder, Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO); Author, Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0)

“You hold in your hand the owner’s manual for learning the six break-the-rules mindsets to enable you to challenge assumptions, overcome obstacles, and mitigate risk. Learning and applying them in your business and organization can be life changing. Find out how.”
—STEVE BLANK, Adjunct Professor, Stanford University; Author, The Four Steps to the Epiphany; Co-author, The Startup Owner’s Manual

Discover the six counter-conventional mindsets to be a changemaker

In Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World, celebrated London Business School entrepreneurship professor, keynote speaker, and best-selling author Dr. John Mullins delivers an eye-opening and insightful exploration of what sets successful entrepreneurs apart from other business people and from those who fail to reach their goals. You’ll discover a compelling argument that successful entrepreneurs exhibit one or more of the six break-the-rules mindsets revealed in this book.

Each of these six mindsets can be learned, practiced, and built upon—by anyone, in any business setting large or small, old or new—, to create thriving businesses that grow and prosper. Mullins draws on over two decades of research to show you how to do exactly that. You’ll also find:

• Explanations of why the six break-the-rules mindsets fly in the face of conventional business and business school wisdom
• Strategies for dealing with, skating around, or otherwise overcoming the daunting obstacles that stand in every innovator’s way
• Ways to challenge assumptions and mitigate risk in order to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves along your entrepreneurial path
• Steps you can take now to make one or more of these mindsets your own.

An essential new take on entrepreneurship and on what it takes to be or become more “entrepreneurial,” Break the Rules! sheds new light on an oft-discussed—but rarely understood—area of business.