All IN by Stephanie Breedlove has many examples of successful women who were able to achieve it by going all in. The example of the healthcare company is effective.

This is an inspirational read for anyone (particularly women) that are ready to embrace a new definition of work/life balance. Stephanie acts as the mentor that she was looking for along her journey and she encourages every woman that the risk of taking the leap is worth the journey of self-discovery and life fulfillment. I love that she keeps it simple, defining an entrepreneur as someone that has an idea they just can’t seem to stop thinking about. If the adage “ideas are the beginning points of all great fortune” is true, then this book is the road map to taking the leap from idea into a challenging and exciting entrepreneurial career.

The two main things I learnt in this book are: 1) women have a responsibility - not only to strike out as entrepreneurs, but also to set up growth based businesses and employ people (get on with it girls!), and, 2) if having female role models is going to help them do that, than by God Stephanie Breedlove is determined to be one.

Rather than there being any great theory of business to share, or specific strategy for success, Breedlove’s well-meaning desire to be a role model seems to be the prime motivation for this book. It’s a very honourable intention, and for all you get to know of Stephanie during the book, you can assume it’s genuinely held.
But somehow reading details of her personal business challenges doesn’t leave me feeling especially enlightened. Plus, there is a quite astonishing assumption at the heart of it that is often repeated: if she can do it, so can we, as we’re all the same aren’t we? She says: “I am most likely similar to you, and I have a journey worth sharing so that it will be traveled over and over again by many women,” before describing details of her “upper-middle-class” background.

So, yes, it IS worth sharing. But, well, no - we’re not that similar. I’m not the daughter of entrepreneurs, I don’t have an MBA or a middle-management consulting job, or modest college funds to liquidate in an emergency - although considering the broad span of women who may well be the entrepreneurs of the future I am still probably a lot more like her than many of them! It seems oddly naive for someone so experienced to assume all women will automatically relate to her, see her success, and that will be all it takes to be the future of industry.

(Not to mention that in a book ostensibly about female empowerment she confides she once sent a female employee home because her ‘daisy dukes’ interpretation of “shorts Friday” (!) was causing too much distraction....?!?!)

A necessary caveat here is that this is the first self-help book I’ve ever read. It caught my eye as I’ve been toying with the idea of setting up a little business, and I thought it would, y’know...help. But what’s on offer is more in the way of very gentle encouragement, along the lines of: you don’t need to give up family time, you can grow confidence along with all the other skills you need as you go, and just go one small step at a time. So if you have everything else in place and you just need a little push, a little ‘we’re all in this together” type spirit, then great. This is the book for you. It is also clearly written and she backs up her thoughts with some interesting statistics and research, although a lot of it is often repeated.

The fact is, there IS no set of 10 rules to make it, or a simple list to follow to success; which means Stephanie Breedlove’s book is probably a 1000 times more realistic the many that suggest there is. She’s probably completely right - you just have to dig deep, get on with it and see what happens, no magic formula. I just wish she’d told me that in a twitter post, rather than a whole book.

Reviewed online in conjunction with several other titles; here is relevant section:

ALL IN by Stephanie Breedlove (2/7, Greenleaf) centers on "How Women Entrepreneurs Can Think Bigger, Build Sustainable Businesses, and Change the World." Breedlove draws on her own experience, having worked first for Accenture and then started, built and sold Care.com HomePay for fifty million dollars. She writes about her own struggles and accomplishments in chapters with action-oriented titles like "Take Small Steps," "Overcome Obstacles," and "Pace Yourself." I think our entrepreneurship class will especially like the sections which she includes on business strategy advice and statistics about US entrepreneurship. Kudos also to The Wall Street Journal's Joann Lublin for EARNING IT (2016, Harper Collins), filed with more well-known role models, "hard-won lessons," and examples of "trailblazing women at the top of the business world."

I have read quite a few business books over the years and without a doubt this has been my favorite. "All In: How Women Entrepreneurs Can Think Bigger, Build Sustainable Businesses, and Change the World" is a fantastic book with clear writing style has made this book easy to read and captivating. She is very knowledgeable and I love that she shares her failures and successes openly so I can learn from them. This book gives me the confidence to pursue my dream, not just as an entrepreneur but as an entrepreneur that makes a difference. I have a lot of favorite quotes in this book, here are some:

"Women and men are called to entrepreneurship for the exact same reasons, yet men answers the call twice as often." Kauffman Foundation

"My Greatest accomplishment is doing what it takes to push through the fear, the guilt, the unknown, and the barriers to find fulfillment beyond my wildest dreams on the other side. If entrepreneurship is your calling, if it is the place where you will experience your best talents and a most fulfilling life, then the journey will lead you to go all in and to help create the economic and cultural changes the world needs. Words can't describe its worth. I wish it for ever woman called to entrepreneurship.

" You must have passion, purpose, and value in what you are doing and where you are going to do this work."

Thank you Netgalley for this book.

​Stephanie writes about her transition from the daily grind of the corporate world to being an entrepreneur.

She shares the doubts and misgivings she had while embarking on her journey. The challenges of balancing family with growing a business.

She provides useful information for women who want to make the same transition.

There are step by step guides on how to make the jump and recommended resources which are relevant if you live in the US but also handy to know.

Rating: 3.5/5

Favourite Quote: "Fear of failure fed by lack of perceived skill, summed up as a lack of confidence, was front and center. This is true for every entrepreneur at some level. I didn’t get rid of the fear. I just mitigated it by choosing to minimize the consequences in the event of failure. It did not keep me from wanting to try. It just tempered how all in I was until the concept was proven."