Despite his status as a 3-time Inc.™ 500 CEO and Technical Emmy® Award recipient, author Dan Daglow delivers no-nonsense knowledge like some favorite uncle who made it big, but remains warm and generous.

From covering the specifics involved in startups and locating and working with venture capitalists to summoning the discipline necessary to write a book, the author inverts the “traditional” wisdom of first seeking expert guidance, instead urging readers to carry out an extended session of self-reflection including topics and prompts such as “Questions,” “My Story,” and “What to Do with Your Answers.” Readers are asked to record (in longhand, or on their favorite device) what they want to create and/or accomplish; logically sequence the steps to take and to figure out what they’re actually skilled enough to handle on their own. This early documenting organizes thoughts, weeds out pure fantasy (“I can build a better Twitter!”), and serves to strategize—or even alter—their original goal.

There exist but two acceptable market positions for a product: First and Best. Citing Google and Apple as obvious examples, Daglow emphasizes what, in their frenzy for social media attention, many aspiring entrepreneurs overlook: besieging an already successful category requires a lot more than good slogans and flashy ads. Before Apple, mobile phones with screens were a fact of life, but seeing Steve Jobs demonstrate the iPhone’s fluid simplicity and smart functions inspired many to toss theirs into the collective junk drawer.

Rich with aphoristic phrasing—“Chase your dreams till they get tired of running away,” “[T]ake care of yourself and your family,” “If you hate managing, find a different person to do that job.”—and sectioned with detailed feedback on how to take real-world action in response to the initial self-interview, FROM DREAM TO DELIVERY radically differs from the “Buy My Book, Make Millions In One Year!” mindset. Much to his credit, Daglow is careful to advise readers that, until sufficient funds are raised to hire and support a team, exploring a project part-time will allow income from present employment while revealing capacities and limits to consider well before leaping into the full-time flow.

Rather than making big claims about how much a person can earn by making a tactical end-run around the corporate system, author Don L. Daglow teaches organization of thought and sequencing of specific goals, including the micro-steps between often conveniently ignored in similar books.

~William Grabowski for IndieReader