Start It Up, by Luke Johnson, Penguin £9.99
Time and again, I find inspiration from the following Goethe quote: "Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now."
There's something to be said for the doing of things.
The doing of things is so entirely different in character to the thinking of things, the planning of things and the imagining of things that all those other qualities can be lumped together in a beige soupy cocoon while the first of them is the dazzling butterfly.
Scottish mountaineer William Hutchinson Murray, who added Goethe's couplet to the end of this famous quote, captured the alchemy of getting stuff done.
He said: "Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.
Concerning all acts of initiative, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too."
Luke Johnson, pictured, has Goethe as one of the many affirmations in the new edition of his handbook Start It Up: Why Running Your Own Business Is Easier Than You Think.
I like this book. It is one of the finest business manuals of the shipload that land on our desks at The Wharf.
Not because it teaches me the elements of double-entry bookkeeping (does such a thing exist outside '70s sitcoms?) or because it lists the prerequisites for a patent application or the dimensions of the shed demanded to incubate the invention (he is not a great fan of invention).
No, the multi-millionaire entrepreneur teaches none of those things. Instead, the chatty, anecdotal volume has an inherent impatience for anyone reading the book instead of following the urgent entreaty of its title.
Just do it. Yes, there are certain provisions and characteristics and essentials that are necessary but, hey, says Johnson, you're only ruled out if you rule yourself out. Failure is part of the adventure, he says. Failure is a milestone, a lesson, a rite of passage.
Recently, a son of this parish - Kevin Maguire of the Daily Mirror - was touted as a possible successor to departing David Miliband in his native South Shields seat.
Maguire was quick to dampen speculation but he must have eyed Michael Gove (former Times journalist now busy and bruised architect of New Education) and pondered what all journalists do from time to time - observing wryly and dispassionately from a distance is another element of that soft-centred cocoon.
Wielding power, taking the hits, getting stuck into something bigger than self; that's the sting - and that's the butterfly.
The Yes BookClive Rich (Virgin)
★★★✩✩
If you stomach the author's shameless plugging of his other interests, this book has plenty of common sense advice in the art of better negotiation.
It's most interesting sections involve the psychology required to get the best deal - and, as Rich emphasises, it's not always about getting the upper hand.
For newcomers, the advice should remove some of the fear. Veterans will find out how the rules have changed.
