Everyday Entrepreneur

Making it Happen

Entrepreneurship retains a mystique as the holy grail of our free enterprise system. The dream of owning your own business remains elusive but captivating. In an era where big business, big government and big labour have all damaged the possibilities of independent success, the dream is very much alive. Too often, we dwell on the super success stories, narratives about the highest levels of entrepreneurial success achieved by public figures from Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs. Few of us can achieve this kind of success. Yet many of us have some entrepreneurial qualities which we need to understand and build upon. “The Everyday Entrepreneur” is not a textbook. It takes the form of a story, to which most people can relate, providing an incidental learning experience, leaving all readers with a chance to move a few steps closer to achieving their own aspirations.

Tim has reached a stage in life where his career is stagnating. He has a good job with great benefits and security but something is missing. Recently he has developed a new piece of software, potentially the basis of his own business. Plagued by doubts about his ability, Tim has been floundering, unable to make a decision. When he arrives at the family cottage, his father tells him all about the recent success of his childhood friend Terry who soon steers him into a local class on entrepreneurship conducted by a mysterious character named Sam. The class includes two other would be entrepreneurs Grace, in her mid-thirties, and Mike who is twenty something. Mike is convinced that he is the definitive entrepreneur who just hasn’t found the right idea yet, while Grace is totally unsure of her plan. The story allows the reader to observe the twelve days of loosely structured seminars as Sam cleverly leads all three to decisions about their future. Throughout the narrative, qualities of an entrepreneur are brought out in subtle ways through discussion and a wide range of anecdotes. The lessons learned provide a solid foundation for those seeking a career as an entrepreneur.

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Praise for Everyday Entreprenueur

  • “Fred Dawkins has written a wonderful book about entrepreneurship unlike any other in the market. He brilliantly uses his storytelling skills to illuminate his subject in a way that makes the book a joy to read. You’re so wrapped up in the story that you may not realize how much you’re learning until you’ve turned that last page.”
    Terry Fallis
    Award-winning author of The Best Laid Plans, Up and Down, and others
  • “Fred Dawkins’s easy-to-read writing style belies the critical importance of his subject matter, including a complex set of essential entrepreneurial skills and the important role of entrepreneurship in the global economy.”
    Dr. Ajay Agrawal
    Peter Munk Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, founder of the Creative Destruction Lab, and presented with the Order of Canada 2022
  • “Fred Dawkins has pulled together a wealth of knowledge and advice crucial to the successful entrepreneur in a highly readable fashion. It is a must-read for aspiring and seasoned entrepreneurs who are facing today’s complex, volatile, and uncertain world.”
    Dr. Sherry Cooper
    Former executive VP and chief economist at BMO Financial Group
  • “Everyday Entrepreneur offers a simple but effective road map anyone can use to take the fear out of following their entrepreneurial dreams.”
    Monica Mehta
    Award-winning author of
    The Entrepreneurial Instinct and INC Magazine columnist.
  • “Fred Dawkins employs a likeable cast of characters and the simple setting of Canadian cottage country in July to convey a complex set of ideas ranging from the nature-versus-nurture debate (are entrepreneurs born or made?) to essential how-to entrepreneurship skills…
    His casual, easy-to-read writing style belies the critical importance of his subject matter…
    Not just potential entrepreneurs but also governments, big companies, and business schools in the West must adapt… and take immediate steps to reinvigorate our large population of underutilized problem-solvers…
    As Sam would say: It is not a question of if, but rather how.”
    Ajay Agrawal
    Peter Munk Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, founder of the Creative Destruction Lab for entrepreneurs, and co-founder of
    The Next 36 entrepreneurship program.
  • “Technology entrepreneurs all too often focus only on different ways of acquiring customers, equity value, and raising venture capital money, What is lost in the discussion is all the human issues you will face as you build your business. Fred Dawkins offers a perspective that I think is missing in the current international discussion around entrepreneurship and one that I think founders of technology companies need to consider at an early stage.”
    Jesse Rodgers
    Director of the Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Toronto, builder of VeloCity at the University of Waterloo,
    and co-founder of Tribehr.com.
  • “I just finished reading [this book and enjoyed it immensely. [Fred has pulled together a wealth of knowledge and advice crucial to the successful entrepreneur in a highly readable fashion. It is a must-read for aspiring and seasoned entrepreneurs who are facing today’s complex, volatile, and uncertain world. I especially appreciate the emphasis on thinking globally and adapting proactively.
    We have seen too many examples of yesterday’s winner relying on old models to their detriment. It isn’t easy .. but it is exciting and gratifying to create your own business and work to see it flourish. The summary at the end of the book should be bookmarked on every entrepreneur’s computer.”
    Dr. Sherry Cooper
    Chief economist for Sherry Cooper Associates, former executive VP and chief economist for BMO,and author of three books, including The New Retirement: How it Will Change Our Future.
  • “The analyses of factors dominating business and society are insightful and demonstrative. Fred Dawkins has a wonderful capacity to put things in perspective, a writing style that is captivating and his command of the English language speaks for itself. I believe this will make a great college text book since it would inspire great discussions — arguments? I’d love to be teaching from it. Also a great question and answer book for would-be entrepreneurs.”
    Dr. Freeman McEwen
    Dean Emeritus, University of Guelph.
  • “Wonderfully scribed. [The] story is easy to read, compelling, and worthy of a broad spectrum of society. As I got deeper into it, despite the undocumented postulates of Sam’s theories, the story continuously got more intense while spinning off increasingly important concepts required of any entrepreneurial undertaking.
    Sam’s ideas ring with the sounds of truth, wisdom, and familiar experiences. I loved it.”
    Marvin Barnett
    President, Finer Space Corporation,
    serial entrepreneur of over forty years.
  • “I worked with Fred during the negotiations of a first collective agreement for his business which was growing rapidly. His understanding of the issues and his coolness in what many would describe as high pressure moments contributed to his ultimate success and control of the situation. Before you quit your job to set up your own business or hire an accountant or do your due diligence you should read this book.”
    Steven F. Wilson
    Partner, Mathews, Dinsdale & Clark LLP