“A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.” Muhammad Ali



The Decision Series for Entrepreneurs® set of books has been created for you: the aspiring entrepreneur, the startup and buildup entrepreneur, and for you, the lifelong entrepreneur that decided long ago that this was your calling, to create and build businesses.

Every entrepreneur and business leader should be a perpetual student. For the many brilliant entrepreneurs, leaders and coaches who’ve produced a library of learning, The Decision Series for Entrepreneurs® was written to complement your teaching for the benefit of the entrepreneurial community.

Randy H. Nelson and Steve ForbesThe evolution from an Informed entrepreneur (The First Decision) to a Maximized entrepreneur (The Fourth Decision) is full of potential growth opportunities: personal and professional growth, and the growth from an entrepreneur to an entrepreneurial leader. Indeed, the entrepreneur that views entrepreneurship the same at 50 as he or she did at 20, has wasted significant opportunity for self-development, and most likely has left significant potential on the table in their business and in the area of employee development.

The facts speak for themselves. Over 50% of all small businesses fail in five years, and 70% in 10 years. The sad reality is this happens much too often due to the lack of understanding, knowledge and growth of the entrepreneur him or herself. The growth of a company is limited by the growth of its entrepreneurial leaders!

The Decision Series for Entrepreneurs® has been developed to help you grow into the entrepreneur and entrepreneurial leader you are capable of, both in your business as well as your personal life. It was created to tip the scale of success in your favor. Each book serves a different purpose, a piece of a puzzle, to help you grow as a person and business leader, so you may reach your full potential and achieve your dream. It’s designed to ensure you not only live the entrepreneurial lifestyle successfully, but love living it!

Let's Take a Look at The Decision Series®


The Second Decision: The Qualified entrepreneur

The Second DecisionYou’re in the driver’s seat of a growing company that an entrepreneur—possibly you—made The First Decision to start. Now, imagine your Board of Directors asking you question after question about your business knowledge and decision-making process. Pass—you leave the meeting knowing you have the skills to lead your organization for the next three years. Fail—you are put on an improvement plan or you need to find a replacement.

Author, Randy H. Nelson, knows that business doesn’t work this way—most entrepreneurial CEOs are not required to be Qualified to lead their organizations. In The Second Decision, Randy combined his six years of Naval service, 25 years of business experience, and thousands of hours with business leaders to develop The Entrepreneurial Qual Card.

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Chapter by chapter, you will discover whether you are a Leader who will put the company on your shoulders, a Role Player who takes another position in the company, or a Creator who moves on to the next big idea. Determine your role and make the hard leadership decisions to help your company beat the odds and keep growing for years to come. Whichever role suits you best, The Second Decision will give you the self-awareness and step-by-step guide to be—or to train—the Qualified leader your company needs.



The Third Decision: The Intentional entrepreneur

The Third DecisionWe all know how wonderful it is to carry an entrepreneurial idea to fruition; it’s what gets us up every morning. But, if we’re not careful, it can also be a curse. Our single-minded focus can cause us to forget about the other important aspects of our lives.

Some entrepreneurs are happy to live only for the business, but one day many of us will realize what we missed during our pursuit of success. In The Third Decision: The Intentional entrepreneur, the second book in Randy H. Nelson’s bestselling Decision Series for Entrepreneurs®, Randy explores the concept of “entrepreneurial addiction” and how entrepreneurs can become more intentional about their daily and future decisions. Being an intentional entrepreneur requires thinking ahead, asking yourself tough questions about what you might, in the future, regret about today.

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The Third Decision will help you conduct a clear-eyed examination on what you’re doing now and why, and how you might feel when you look back on it in the future. Are you content with how you’re living or not? Will you work to control your addiction and make room for a fuller and more satisfying life, or is this the life you would choose first, last and always?

By the end of the book, you will have developed a list of nonnegotiables to govern your decisions: things you simply won’t compromise on, regardless of what your growing entrepreneurial business venture demands of you. Nonnegotiables—one of the critical success factors in building a regret-free life beyond business! What decisions do you need to make to live a regret-free entrepreneurial life?



The Fourth Decision: The Maximized entrepreneur

The Fourth Decision

In the first section of this book, LIFE, you will find that the focus is on you and your life as a maximized entrepreneur, or “ME.” You will find angles and insights with which to judge where you are in business and in life, and what the indicators say about the phases ahead in your entrepreneurial career. The second section, LEADERSHIP, provides you with proven decision-making tools to strategically align every axis of your life for maximal impact. Secondly, it aligns you and your leadership team toward reaching full potential in your company or companies. And finally, it will enable scaling your entrepreneurial and organizational leadership development… by RETHINKING DELEGATION. The hardest question I will put in front of you, again and again, is that crazy-simple one: What’s Next?!



The First Decision: The Informed entrepreneur

The First Decision

The world is full of people with dreams and ideas, who want to change it, and often do. We call these people entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are leaders who drive innovation, economic growth and provide most jobs globally. Entrepreneurs are risk-takers. Global economies need us to solve the problems of today and tomorrow with solutions for change. But we still fail too often.

So why is The First Decision the last book to be published in the Decision Series?

 I thought it made great sense to teach you what your career would look like, and what skills would be necessary to become one of the success stories – ahead of time, with The Second Decision, Third Decision and Fourth Decision books.

Like choosing your major in college and then becoming educated on the basics to earn your degree…the Decision Series books will educate you prior to you making The First Decision to startup your company and beginning your entrepreneurial career. In the case of a successful entrepreneur, to give you additional and refresher training as you begin again. The First Decision will be full of advice from the successful, and not so successful entrepreneurs answering the question: “If I was starting a business today, what would I do differently to ensure a successful career as an entrepreneur?”