Monkey Business

The Thesis

Most people who want to start a business never do. Of those who start, most fail within five years. Why?

Not because of bad ideas. Not because of bad markets. Because the human brain is running survival software in a business environment. We choose safety over risk, defense over offense, emotion over reason, today over tomorrow. That's the winning strategy for staying alive on the savannah — and the losing strategy for building something new.

Every successful entrepreneur has overcome these defaults, whether they know it or not. This book makes the invisible visible — so you can consciously choose a different operating system.

Structure

The book follows a deliberate arc: first understand your hardware (brain), then master your social software (relationships), then optimize your execution layer (doing).

• Chapters 1-6 — Your brain: the chimp brain, fear, worry, failure, focus, and mindfulness
• Chapters 7-10 — Your relationships: influence, PR, expectations, and managing others
• Chapters 11-20 — Your execution: doing, time, sacrifice, efficiency, leadership, problem solving, ideas vs execution, and getting started

Chapters

1. 1 We Are Chimps
2. 2 The Human Brain
3. 3 Fear
4. 4 Worry
5. 5 Failure
6. 6 Mindful, Focus, Present
7. 7 Win Friends and Influence People
8. 8 Your Own Public Relations Campaign
9. 9 Your Expectations
10. 10 Managing Expectations
11. 11 Doing
12. 12 Time
13. 13 Sacrifice
14. 14 One Day
15. 15 Being Efficient
16. 16 Effective
17. 17 Leadership
18. 18 Problem Solving
19. 19 Ideas vs. Execution
20. 20 Getting Started

Who It's For

Anyone who has ever wanted to start something — a business, a creative project, a major life change — and found themselves stuck, afraid, or overwhelmed. This book doesn't teach you tactics. It teaches you how to think so that tactics actually work.