Wayne was nice enough to spend some time with us on the phone, an interview which Steve “Professor Podcast” Rucinski and I recorded.

Wayne is a very likeable and genuine person. Wayne spoke from the heart about his book “Starting Something.”

It’s a book that reads more like a novel than a business book. The story is about how Wayne and a partner started the company Neoforma, which went public in the midst of the Dot Com era.

Wayne starts the book with the lines: “I made a few hundred million … I lost a few hundred million.”

Those lines are icons of an era. In 12 words they conjure up heady images of technology entrepreneurs turned Dot Com millionaires overnight when their companies went public. And sometimes the millions disappeared just as fast as they came.

The book is set up in an intriguing way. It has many short chapters, each of which is a vignette. You can read a chapter here and there, set it down, and come back later. Bite-sized lessons about business evolve out of the chapters.

Go here to listen to the recording of Wayne McVicker reviewing his own book. You can listen online or download it to your iPod.

I also recommend you get the book and read it. Especially if you are an entrepreneur driven by your dreams of starting something and growing it.

And as an added treat, Wayne has written up the backstory about self-publishing the book (although the hardback book is so beautifully done you’d swear a major publishing house printed it). If you have ever considered self-publishing a book, you’ll find the backstory exceptionally useful.

From Small Business Trends

“Starting Something” by Wayne McVicker