Book Review: Killing It! by Sheryl O’ Loughlin

As an entrepreneur, I’m more than familiar with the demands on life being an entrepreneur makes and the level of commitment running your own business takes. When I was offered the opportunity to review Sheryl O’Loughlin’s Killing It! An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Head Without Losing Your Heart, I jumped at it. I’m always looking for more ways I can balance being an entrepreneur with being a wife and mom of three going on four. It’s not always easy.

Killing It! has chapters on love, partnerships, romance, children, friendships, and the need for a supportive tribe of others. Especially in a situation like mine, where I’m doing what I do from home, it’s important to reach out and find other people who are trying to do the same thing. A tribe is one of the most valuable assets an entrepreneur can have.  O’Loughlin writes:

“It may not be faith based, but entrepreneurs are a tribe, too. That’s why whenever an entrepreneur asks for my advice, I take the time to give it to him. I know him; I know what he’s facing…We need to support each other so we become stronger over time and create increasingly better businesses for the world.” (62)

Entrepreneurs, like bloggers, do make up a special tribe. We face special challenges – like – how do you bootstrap this new business venture enough to ensure that a venture capitalist, angel investor, or the Small Business Association lenders will see that you have a viable idea? Or how do you ensure that this idea you’re passionate about doesn’t take over every corner of your dining roo-er-life? It’s good to surround oneself with others who think and do similar things. In fact, the right people at the right time can serve as outstanding mentors. 

Later chapters in the book deal with risk, money, health, humility, and the ability to let go when necessary. Starting up business ventures is not for the feint of heart. You have to be willing to learn more than you thought you needed to know, work longer hours than you thought you could work, and put up with a substantial amount of risk before your business starts actually making money. You need to put in the time. This can sometimes lead entrepreneur-type-folks to embrace unhealthy eating habits and claim they never have time to exercise. 

Because of the level of stress involved with startups, it’s important to find ways to reduce stress, avoid burnout, and stay healthy.  O’Loughlin writes:

“I’m far from the only entrepreneur with a hard-charging personality–it’s how most of us are wired. Entrepreneurs have to be driven in order to want to take on such a job, and in order to succeed at it. But as the saying goes: ‘Your greatest strength can also be your greatest weakness.’ Because what do you thin happens when you take someone who is not prone to self-care, who gets laser focused, who is used to facing ten people’s worth of work and getting it done and then some, and put that person in a scenario where the workload is truly unmanageable, where the stakes are high, where the workload is truly unmanageable, where there is little about the outcome he or she can control, and where no one is giving him or her an A++, let alone a ‘job well done’? What do you thin happens when this person faces failure, possibly for the first time, as he or she almost inevitably will? It seems lie a recipe for a crash, and it is.

As someone who is recovering from crashing headfirst into the burnout wall, I can honestly say that this describes the experience of many entrepreneurs. Particularly those trying to “do it all.” 

If you run your own show or you’re thinking of starting a business, Sheryl O’Loughlin’s book will give you tips from the inside on how to succeed in this venture. The book is well-written, and I appreciate the honesty and candor with which she looks at this lifestyle. Reading the book is like sitting down at a coffee shop with someone who has been there.

About Killing It

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness (December 6, 2016)

The former CEO of Clif Bar, Co-founder of Plum, and serial entrepreneur offers insights about launching and growing a business while maintaining a fulfilled life in this practical guide filled with hard-won advice culled from the author’s own sometimes dark, raw experiences. With a foreword by Steve Blank.

Aspiring entrepreneurs are told that to launch a business, you must go all in, devoting every resource and moment to making it work. But following this advice comes at an enormous personal cost: divorce, addiction, even suicide. It means sacrificing the intangibles that make life worth living.

Sheryl O’Loughlin knows there is a better way. In Killing It, she shares the wisdom she’s gained from her successful experiences launching a company from the ground up (Plum), running two fast-growing companies (Clif Bar and REBBL), and mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs (Stanford University). She tells it like it is: If you don’t invest in your wellbeing, your business will not succeed, nor will you.

Sheryl knows firsthand the difficulty of balancing the needs of her growing family with her physical and mental health, while managing other work and life challenges. In this warm, honest, and wise handbook, she gives you the essentials for killing it in business—without killing the rest of your life.

Filled with real-life examples and anecdotes, Killing It addresses common questions including:

• How do you prepare your significant other for your business venture?
• How do you time launching and growing your business with the ebb and flow of family life?
• How do you find joy in the day-to-day?
• How do you maintain meaningful, supportive friendships?
• How do you walk away and start again?

The ultimate life and business course, Killing It gives entrepreneurs the tools they need to start their enterprise and thrive—both in the office and at home.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About Sheryl O’Loughlin

Sheryl O’Loughlin earned her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She is the CEO of REBBL super-herb beverages, and she previously served as the CEO of Clif Bar, where she led the concept development and introduction of Luna Bars, and was the cofounder and CEO of Plum Organics. She is the former executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She lives in Santa Rosa, California, with her husband, Patrick, and her two sons.