This is just about the best inspirational book for entrepreneurs that I've read (and for filmmakers too!)

I had decided to make the most of the BFI Library and spend a day there to get a little inspiration for my filmmaking.  After a really lacklustre morning and being unable to find anything useful, much less inspirational, I went around the corner for a cup of coffee.  And on the counter, next to the chocolate coffee beans was this book.  I picked it up, flicked through it, bought it and spent the next hour reading it (with my very nice coffee!)

It's an irreverent account of a brother and sister team, who, disillusioned with their careers in law and finance decided to start a chain of coffee shops, having seen the concept in the US, at a time when no one here had ever heard of mocha lattes.  And everyone thought they were crazy.

I know the feeling well.

Although they had a lot of experience of corporate business and of skinny muffins and half caff frappuccinos as customers, they had absolutely no idea of how to run a shop, let alone a catering business.  But they did it anyway, learning whatever they needed to know along the way - and showed literally that anyone can do it. They had incredible good luck, incredible bad luck and somehow, despite the US giants deciding to open up across the street from them (sometimes literally) they still managed to become the UKs no. 1 coffee chain.

Sadly, when the entrepreneurial phase was over and the chain was riding high, they left the company, feeling that their time was over - a move that Sahar now regrets as the company then went into receivership, which just goes to show that sometimes the amateurs can do a lot better than the experts!