Break the Rules for Entrepreneurial Success

Lloyd Shefsky is a consultant, coach, mentor and advisor to entrepreneurs, family businesses and public companies controlled by families. Over the years he has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs, often from their earliest stages through expansions, public offerings, sales of the businesses, and in some cases succession to one or two additional generations of the founders’ families. He’s helped family businesses in establishing and improving corporate governance; leadership and succession planning, ownership, and voting power; instituting philanthropic efforts and performed training aimed at developing relationships among family members. Shefsky has co-founded several businesses and not-for-profit organizations.

Lloyd recently retired as Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship, Founder and Co-director of the Center for Family Enterprises and Co-Founder of the Center for Executive Women at the Kellogg School of Management. He has taught courses, lectured and spoken in China, Japan, India, Thailand, Canada, Israel and throughout the United States. Shefsky has written professional articles on family business, entrepreneurship, and other related topics. He is the best-selling author of Entrepreneurs Are Made Not Born, published by McGraw-Hill and translated into seven languages, and Invent Reinvent Thrive, published by McGraw-Hill in August, 2014, as well as Visionarie$ Are Made Not Born, published in 2017.

Lloyd serves on corporate boards and has served on boards of private and public companies in the U.S. and elsewhere. Within those boards, he has served on Audit, Compensation and Nominating committees.

He has received honors, including the 1995 Entrepreneur of the Year Award for his support of entrepreneurship from Ernst & Young and Merrill Lynch; the 2002 Civil Rights Award from the Anti-Defamation League; the 1992 Award of Excellence from the Sports Lawyers Association; and the 1990 Distinguished Alumni Award, DePaul University.

Lloyd serves as Of Counsel to the Taft Law Firm which recently acquired the Chicago law firm, Shefsky & Froelich which he founded. As such he advises businesses on a broad range of legal, financial and business matters, including public and private capital funding, mergers and acquisitions, employee motivation and expansion.

He received his JD from The Law School at the University of Chicago, a B.S. from DePaul University, and is also a CPA.

Visionarie$ Are Made Not Born: Your Vision Can Lead to Breakthrough Success by Lloyd Shefsky (2017)

ALMOST: 12 Electric Months Chasing A Silicon Valley Dream by Hap Klopp and Brian Tarcy (2015)

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters (2014)

The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup by Noam Wasserman (2013)

Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup by Bill Aulet (2013)

The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries (2011)

The Power of Convergence: Linking Business Strategies and Technology Decisions to Create Sustainable Success by Faisal Hogue et al. (2011)

The Social Entrepreneur’s Handbook: How to Start, Build, and Run a Business That Improves the World by Rupert Scofield (2011)

The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs by William H. Draper (2011)

Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup by David G. Cohen and Brad Feld (2010)

The Silicon Valley Way: Discover 45 Secrets for Successful Start-Ups (2nd Edition) by Elton B. Sherwin Jr. (2010)

Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startupby Rob Walling and Mike Taber (2010)

Loops: The Seven Keys to Small Business Success by Mike Chaet and Stephen C. Lundin (2009)

Mission, Inc.: The Practitioners Guide to Social Enterprise by Kevin Lynch and Julius Walls (2009)