Why is it that nine out of every ten businesses fail? And what precious bit of knowledge does that one business out of every ten have that enables it to succeed? While there is no single answer to this question, as there are as many answers to this question as there are businesses, there is one veritable truth that every aspiring entrepreneur needs to know. . .while anyone can start a business, very few ever figure out a way to make money in the process.

MJ Gottlieb’s How To Ruin A Business Without Really Trying is a highly animated, layman’s terms business book containing fifty-five painstaking, yet hysterical tales from MJ Gottlieb’s journey as an entrepreneur. It is written as a simple- yet practical- guide for aspiring entrepreneurs, putting each story in the form of a ‘case study’, explaining both the crime committed (‘The Wrong’) and the lesson learned (‘The Right’).

The book is split into two sections. . .Part One, My Most Infamous Screw-Ups, contains thirty-nine short stories starting with the top five Do Not’s and Never Ever Evers when starting a business. Part Two, More Case Studies and Some other Things I Learned Along the Way includes sixteen more short stories focusing specifically on the subject of pursuing capital.

How To Ruin A Business Without Really Trying is one of very few that concentrates on what “not” to do as its method of teaching. MJ takes this approach as he has found that most entrepreneurs simply do not like to be told what to do, and that learning what not to do simply makes a lot more sense!