Business Book Review: Make It Happen Lazar Vukovic

The author, Lazar Vukovic was born in the United Kingdom in 1986 to parents of Yugoslav origin. His business interests include marketing, real estate, distribution and entertainment. An entrepreneur from an early age, Lazar learnt that he had a skill to trade whilst still at school. He set up ‘In Short Supply’ in 2020 as a solution for distributors and retailers dealing in FMCG & Toys during the pandemic. The company trades in excess, clearance and discontinued stock.

In November 2020 he became a founding partner of Stella Media Group Limited, a new television platform aimed at delivering innovative content.

I picked up this book and couldn’t make up my mind about what I was about to read. Was it a business book, an autobiography, an anthology, a collection of short stories or something else altogether? Well, now that I have read it, I think I would describe it as a bit of all those things. Lazar describes this book as “to share some of my stories of how I’ve made things happen” and I don’t think I can beat that description.

It’s an amazingly easy read, light in tone, very conversational and the sort of read that gives you a nice, happy feeling. Whether it can change your life, or even achieve the claims to make it happen for you, I’m not sure but it certainly meets Lazar’s promise to entertain and I leave it to you to see if it motivates you to “make that idea of yours a reality.”

They say everyone has a book in them, although as Christopher Hitchens famously said, “in most cases that's where it should stay.” This isn’t one of those cases and it’s admirable that Lazar has, in some respects, started writing his life story at 35 years of age. The book is a collection of anecdotes, and as he describes it, “this book isn’t a CV of achievements, but stories of achievements” and that about sums it up.

The early chapters are short stories, written in the first person, describing a number of exploits of Lazar as he dabbles with entrepreneurialism and starts a life of commerce.

I really enjoyed the stories and, I guess they successfully provide inspiration to give it a go and that we all can succeed if we try with confidence and hard work, although we shouldn’t ignore the role timing and good fortune plays in achievement.

For me, the book moves from entertainment to guidance after Part I – ‘How I made it happen,’ into Part II – ‘The make it happen mindset.’ This second half of the book, chapter 11 and beyond, is the instructive element of this book. I found the advice helpful without being pretentious and the most important things I took away from reading this book came from this section.

The final part, Part III – ‘You,’ is where Lazar challenges the reader to think about the way they think and the behaviours they demonstrate. It does make you think and is the payback for choosing to read this book.

It is, as I said earlier, an easy read, very chatty and enjoyable. It’s the sort of book I might choose for a long journey. It’s entertainment with a message. I recommend you add it to your holiday reading or put it on the list for Santa, provided you’ve not been naughty but nice this year.