"How come 95% of entrepreneurs fail before their fifth year, yet only 0.02% of management texts dedicate themselves to analyzing the reasons for this phenomenon? On the other hand, we insist on writing in detail about the successful ones. Wouldn't it be much more logical to reveal the stumbling blocks of 95% of entrepreneurs than to analyze the approximately 5% of successful men or women?" When Spanish entrepreneur Fernando Trias de Bes, astonished by the number of publications on business success, decided, out of curiosity, to Google "KEY SUCCESS FACTORS," the search returned 20,900 hits. But when he typed "KEY FAILURE FACTORS," Bes found only two hits. Despite the fact that only 5% of entrepreneurs achieve success, business books in various languages refuse to explore what most managers experience: failure. The author's conclusion is insightful: "Here's an imperfect analogy: by knowing why others succeed, you can avoid failure. False. To avoid it, you need to know its causes." Parodying a boxing match where one must attack, defend, and get back up after countless blows, the author organized "The Black Book of the Entrepreneur," a research and analysis on failure, conducted in partnership with the Banespyme Cultural Foundation, one of Spain's largest banks, over 14 rounds. "Perhaps each person fails for a different reason, and there's no universal list of factors for failure. I don't believe so. Because if we honor the human condition, we'll eventually agree that human beings always stumble over the same stones. Therefore, knowing what these stones are can help many people." This is the warning from the entrepreneur who, at age 28, founded Salvetti & Lombart, currently a leading figure in marketing research and innovation in Spain. For Fernando Trías de Bes, having a good idea is not the decisive factor that will determine a venture's success, as most business publications claim. It's important to understand why, instead of making a company successful, an idea can lead to its downfall. The author is realistic in his analysis of entrepreneurship. It's easy to find works that address technical aspects, personal training, and sources of financing for those who want to start a business, but for him, failure is caused by personal problems, disagreements between partners, a lack of common sense, and other trivial causes. The entrepreneur's black book analyzes the business reality from a new and enlightening perspective, in addition to revealing the necessary conditions to take such important steps in professional life. Fernando Trías de Bes unmasks the "false" entrepreneur: the one who decides to start their own business for a reason, not motivation. When addressing failure, a topic completely ignored by most authors, Bes discusses the business reality, addressing the adversities ignored by experts precisely to guide entrepreneurs to avoid them.
