Are you just entering the job market after graduation only to discover there are few jobs to be had?  Or are you one of the hundreds-of-thousands recently downsized, outsized and otherwise left behind?  Are you tired of struggling to get by, doing work that feels meaningless to you?  Then it’s time you get off the treadmill, reawaken your entrepreneurial spirit and live life on your own terms.  In other words, stop just making a living…and get a life!

We are each born with an open mind, a curious nature and the unlimited potential to pursue our passions.  Why then will 96% of all Americans retire financially dependent on the government, family, or charity? Why are 40% of families in the U.S. spending more than they earn on credit cards, debt and mortgages, to the point where they will be spending their “retirement years” trying to pay it off?  What price do we pay when so many people devote their lives, body and soul, to the false security of jobs that lack fulfillment, while the stress takes its toll on their health, relationships, and home life?

More importantly, how do we stop this backwards slide into debt, despair and extreme unhappiness?

“Entrepreneurship,” says Sir Richard Branson, “is the golden highway to economic freedom, plus it’s an exciting and fun way to make a living,“

Break Away: Reawakening the Entrepreneurial Mind & Living the Dream is the solution.  Those yearning to fulfill an entrepreneurial idea or wanting to improve an existing business represent a vast audience who will find Break Away is the right book at the right time.  The most compelling and realistic book on business building since Michael Gerber’s E-Myth series, Mel Abraham’s Break Away bridges the expansive gap between where we are now and where we want to be.  Full of instructive stories from new millennium companies—and a proven framework for developing the powerful mindset needed to prosper in fast-changing times—this book provides a step-by-step system to help fulfill our dreams, while staying human in the 21^st century.  Readers will feel as if they have a “Board of Mentors” in their back pocket at all times to help them turn their ideas into real-world results at every stage of their business growth.  Given that all creation begins in the mind with a thought, the book establishes the strongest foundation on which to build any company: through the 9 Entrepreneurial Essentials the reader will develop the required inner-resources of the mind with the first 3 essentials—Clarity, Courage, and Conviction—and outer actions through the last 6 essentials—to Connect, Collaborate, Capitalize, Commit, Change and Contribute.  Readers who apply these skills and strategies within their business, and life, will persevere and win because they will possess the mental/emotional/practical foundation for sustainable long-term success and fulfillment.

Building a successful business over time takes an incredible amount of mental agility, emotional resilience and even physical stamina that can only be sustained by genuine passion and purpose.  Surprisingly few books on Entrepreneurship ever address the psychological limitations that stop people from ever realizing their potential.  Young entrepreneurs need more understanding of the psychology behind success.  Without that basis of self-awareness, and ability to understand and communicate with others, most start-ups become “give-ups” the minute they face their first real challenge.  Then they either blame the idea itself, (“that idea just didn’t work”) or worse, their own perceived shortcomings (“I guess I don’t have what it takes.”)  Meanwhile, if they had this uniquely comprehensive education, they could face any challenge resourcefully and persevere.

Break Away is distinguished from other Business and Entrepreneurship books because it emphasizes the individual’s mental and emotional state as the genesis of the results they get.  It also prioritizes the entrepreneur’s ability to enjoy the journey, as opposed to the pursuit of riches at all costs.  Its holistic approach to life and work begins with the premise that, throughout our lives, we are all exposed to pressures that would have us conform to cultural norms, that insidiously blind us to our purpose and stunt our natural abilities, if we let them.  When this mentality pervades a company (or country’s) culture, it sinks its potential to its lowest common denominator, badly affecting its bottom-line.

The book’s primary objective is for readers to first become aware of this standard Model of Mediocrity that permeates society and influences their perceptions, thinking and actions.  Then learn ways to dissolve any learned limitations and instead reawaken the Entrepreneurial Spirit already powerfully innate in them.

Most of the lessons come from new companies they respect and use, so they will relate to its hip perspective.  Written in a down-to-earth, straightforward style, the book gives this bright, young audience an alternative to the old-model of delaying their fulfillment until retirement.  It gives them a hands-on way to turn their raw energy into results NOW.

This book, and Mel’s online resources, also give the same gifts to those millions of newly unemployed Americans, who may only be left with their dreams and need to find a way to make them a reality.  Break Away gives this vast audience the tools to reinvent themselves.  Desperate to take charge of their future, they will find that this book is a guide on that path to a richer tomorrow.

This book is also necessary reading for corporate managers who know the new rules of the game enough to realize that they need an infusion of the entrepreneurial spirit within their ranks to cause the business to expand rather than stagnate; to foster engagement vs. compliance; to keep employees fulfilling their ideas and ideals within the company; and to improve performance by encouraging employees’ entrepreneurial spirit within their department.

The timing of this book is perfect, coming on the heels of UpStarts: How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit from Their Success (McGraw; 2010) and The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Business Will Win (Jossey-Bass; 2010).  While both serve the vital purpose of informing readers of the next trends in business, they do not equip anyone with the 9 Entrepreneurial Essentials to access their highest potential. Break Away literally updates readers’ mental software so they can not only keep pace with today’s cutting-edge thinkers and doers…they can finally live life on their own terms.