A Review of Dale Partridge’s “Launch Your Dream”
Dreams Are Made of This
Do you work the 9-to-5 shift in drudgery? Do you wish that you can be following your passion? Well, Dale Partridge seems to think so. Citing that people are well suited to an entrepreneurial lifestyle, Launch Your Dream is a book about how you can leave your day job behind for something you’re more passionate about — whatever it may be. I was, of course, interested to read this book, becoming (quite accidentally) something of a freelance blogger. The thing is, aside from the chapters that deal with content creation (because I’m a writer, see), I don’t think this book was meant for me. It seems to be written for those who want to chase after the dream of owning a start-up with employees in the mix. Me? Happy to be a one-man business.
While the book perhaps wasn’t written with me in mind, I find it curiously appealing. That’s because while Partridge is an unabashed capitalist, he’s also a Jesus follower. So the book is peppered with the odd reference to God or the Bible now and then, which is perfect because I do think more entrepreneurs should be more ethical. That said, the references to Biblical things are pretty sparse and only come up occasionally, which leads me to wonder why this is a spiritual book at all. Surely, Partridge could have garnered a wider audience with an even more secular book and publisher.
Despite however you might feel about God being in a book about business, Partridge has some wise things to say. The subtitle of the book about being a 30-day plan to yadda, yadda, yadda, though, is a bit of a misnomer because while it can be read in installments over a month (each chapter even tells you how long it will take you to read it, just like a good Medium post) the principles that Partridge raises will take you much longer than 30 days to complete. Writing a business plan, for instance, may take longer than a day — if you want to write a good business plan that is bullet-proof, that is.
A lot of the advice is common sense and you may have heard it in other business blogs or publications. However, this book seems targeted to someone just getting their feet wet in entrepreneurship and acts as a good primer. Where there is more current or robust information, Partridge leads readers to his website (which is a great way to leverage the points in the book). And Partridge covers all of the salient points to operating a business, from branding to launching a website to marketing to retaining customers. And all of it seems focused through the prism of his faith.
Each chapter ends with some action points, just like any good devotional, and if you’re serious about starting your own start-up, I’d recommend working your way through them. Whether you’re at the point where you’re trying to figure out your passion or trying to figure out where your passion may lead to customers, each day-by-day reflection is meant to get you on the track to business success. I almost wrote fast track, because Partridge makes it seem all so easy (even when he notes starting a business can be hard), which is a big plus of the book. However, of course, if you don’t want to end up as a failed business — as most start-ups end up being — you’d be wise to listen to what Partridge has to say.
That’s not to say that I drink from Partridge’s Kool-Aid entirely. Knowing that Partridge works in some capacity with Chick-fil-A according to his author bio disturbs me a bit, because everything I know about that company has nothing to do with its chicken sandwiches and everything to do with racism.
Despite that, there are pearls of great wisdom in this book. Not spending beyond your means in the early days of the start-up being just one of them. I’m hopeful that the message of being passionate about following your dreams really resonates because, time after time again, I’ve personally encountered CEOs of start-ups with the dream of selling the company to make a ton of money for themselves, at the expense of all of the original employees. Maybe hearing that being passionate about what you do, not how much you actually make, is the key that many CEOs of a more ethical persuasion need.
Regardless, Launch Your Dream is a vital read that every entrepreneur who is God abiding will want to own. There’s enough here to fuel the fire of your dreams, and be prepared to work through the book very slowly and methodically. If you do, you probably will have a much better chance of being successful beyond your wildest imagination, because what’s here largely feels real and true. If starting a business is where you want to go, let Partridge talk you into it and set off on a grand adventure.
Dale Partridge’s Launch Your Dream: A 30-Day Plan for Turning Your Passion into Your Profession was published by Thomas Nelson on May 30, 2017.
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