A Self-Made Billionaire’s No-Nonsense Guide for Entrepreneurs

Paychex Founder, Tom Golisano shares the hard-won lessons from his entrepreneurship journey in BUILT NOT BORN, a guide to growing a company to any size by going against the grain like he did.

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About the Book

Built, Not Born is for current or aspiring business owners who feel nervous about the risks of entrepreneurship. Tom Golisano, self-made billionaire and founder of Paychex, believes starting a business isn’t as risky as you might think and provides no-nonsense, often humorous advice on how to succeed in all phases of business ownership.

Starting a business can often feel like performing a high-wire act for the first time, without a safety net. After taking that first brave step, the early phases of business ownership can still feel fraught with risk; every decision seems to have the power to sink your entrepreneurial dreams.

Tom Golisano understands the fears, risks, and challenges small-business owners face every day–he’s lived it. He has launched and grown his own highly successful businesses and mentored dozens of entrepreneurs, helping them build their own successful companies. In Built, Not Born, Golisano shows readers that starting a new business is, in many ways, far less risky than more traditional career paths, especially in our current age of disruption.

Golisano shares the knowledge and wisdom he wishes he’d had when he started Paychex over thirty years ago, with just $3,000 from the sale of a small business he launched from the basement of his home, and a much-abused credit card. Today, Paychex has a market value of $28 billion.

In his trademark direct and often humorous style, Golisano provides no-nonsense advice across all phases of business ownership, including:

Strategy

How going against the grain can be a great strategy for finding business opportunities and why it pays to question conventional wisdom

Negotiation

Why the power of the pregnant pause can be your best weapon when negotiating and when interviewing potential employees

Practical

Why a prenuptial or even a postnuptial agreement is critical to your business

Getting Funded

What potential buyers and funding sources look for, and the best way to present your business plan

Growth and Leadership

The key growth and leadership strategies that have helped Paychex sustain its incredible level of growth and profitability

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Praise

“Built, Not Born is full of hard-earned insight from a proven entrepreneur. Tom Golisano’s commitment to clients to ‘make their business his business’ is not only smart advice, it’s good leadership wisdom. He has something to say to anyone who has built—or is looking to build—a successful business.”

John C. Maxwell

#1 New York Times bestselling author and global leadership expert

“Tom Golisano understands what it takes to grow and thrive as a business owner at all levels, and Built, Not Born is full of practical insights for those who have made or are considering making the leap to starting a new business.”

Tom Monaghan

founder, Domino’s Pizza

“Deciding to leave a senior leadership role at a major film studio to lead Rachel and my startup was not easy. Every decision seemed fraught with risk. Absorbing Tom’s practical lessons for managing a high-growth business will reduce the fears that many feel when making the leap into entrepreneurship.”

Dave Hollis

CEO, The Hollis Co. and author of Get Out of Your Own Way

“If anyone discovered a smart growth path, it’s Golisano. His book Built, Not Born shows that success in business doesn’t come from an MBA. Instead it’s about seeing opportunities, taking risks, and applying common sense. His wise chapters reveal how to do so along every step of the entrepreneur’s journey to billion-dollar growth.”

Tiffani Bova

author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Growth IQ; Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist, Salesforce

“Built, Not Born is sure to earn its place as the essential handbook for entrepreneurs and business owners of all types. Tom Golisano truly understands how to start, grow, and operate a successful business; his direct and practical approach to everyday challenges shows why he is one of this country’s great entrepreneurs.”

Joe Tucci

former Chairman and CEO, EMC Corporation

“Tom Golisano is a creative business and philanthropic genius, with an eye for doing just the right thing at just the right time. Read this book to learn how to he does it and how you can do it too.”

Tim Shriver

Chairman, Special Olympics

Thomas Golisano—entrepreneur, philanthropist, and civic leader—is the founder and chairman of the Board of Paychex, Inc., headquartered in Rochester, New York, with more than 15,500 employees and 100 office locations nationwide.

Before starting Paychex, the prevailing wisdom was that it was a waste of time selling payroll services to companies with fewer than 50 employees. Golisano, however, saw an opportunity; he did the math and proved that smaller companies needed payroll processing services just as much as larger companies, while still offering an excellent return on investment. He grew Paychex one partner and franchisee at a time, over many years, and today the company has a market value of $28 billion. Still active in business and philanthropy, he currently mentors the entrepreneurs who run the businesses in which he has invested, and he also oversees his family’s charitable foundation. To date, he has donated over $300 million to a wide range of charitable causes, including educational institutions, children’s hospitals, and especially organizations helping people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.