It was the summer of '72 when seemingly disparate interests harmonized into a single clarion call for a teenage Bob Taylor. Longing to own a 12-string guitar but unable to afford one, Taylor built his first guitar in shop class during his junior year of high school. As his desire to make music and his talent for building things converged, Taylor experienced an epiphany that revealed his vocational path. He had discovered that making guitars would be his life's work, even though he had no real blueprint to guide him.

In Guitar Lessons, Taylor shares stories of how a lifelong passion led to a pioneering business. From his humble beginnings at a guitar shop near San Diego, aptly named The American Dream, through the early struggles of founding and sustaining Taylor Guitars with his business partner, Kurt Listug (who's still CEO today), Taylor recounts the valuable lessons that enabled two driven "kids" to overcome formidable obstacles and grow their small guitar shop into a world-renowned guitar brand.

Today, Taylors are the guitars of choice for serious musicians. Players as diverse in style as Dave Matthews, Prince, Zac Brown, Jason Mraz, Neil Young, Taylor Swift, and many more of today's biggest names proudly strum their Taylors both onstage and in the studio. Along with these stars, thousands and thousands of other musicians—pro and amateur—choose Taylor. This wasn't always so. Guitar Lessons takes you back to when the company was just a handful of devoted craftsmen working with little more than pluck and perseverance to breathe life into their fledgling enterprise, learning hard lessons about business and life along the way that would pay off years later.

Through anecdotes that blend self-deprecating wit with grassroots wisdom, Bob Taylor reflects on the key experiences and personal revelations that nurtured the company's growth. Guitar Lessons will give you a fresh perspective on how the fundamental values of hard work and determination can be applied to overcome challenges in business and life, leading to success and personal fulfillment. Amid today's mass-production culture, Taylor's philosophy as a modern-day craftsman and respected leader serves as a compass for "crafting" a meaningful life.

Many people try to take their passion and turn it into a business. Many fail. Some sell out along the way. Bob Taylor found his love as a teenager, worked hard at it, and created a profitable, growing enterprise, which he still happily stewards alongside Listug. If you've ever wondered how truly unique companies come to be, you'll be inspired by Bob's Guitar Lessons.

Bob Taylor knows what it takes to make a great guitar. He also knows what it takes to make 500 great guitars every single day. It takes perseverance, hard work, a willingness to learn, and dedication to your life's passion.

Guitar Lessons delivers a story of having what it takes—not just to succeed eventually—but most importantly, to survive those grueling early years. Nearly every successful company came from meager

beginnings, and Taylor Guitars is no exception. In 1974, Bob Taylor and his partner, Kurt Listug, then just a couple of kids, embarked on a journey to own their own guitar company. They instantly found themselves tempest-tossed, bailing water out of a leak-prone workshop, constantly struggling to make a buck, and tackling ever more complex problems.

Taylor shares each epiphany, each nugget of wisdom that encouraged him to overcome the obstacles, shaped his knowledge of manufacturing, and helped him transform his passion into a lucrative business. Today, Taylor Guitars is one of the world's most successful and highly regarded acoustic and electric guitar manufacturers. This is the story of how it all came to be.

Q&A with Author Bob Taylor

Author Bob Taylor What inspired you to write this book?
The opportunity was presented to me, and the time just seemed right. Sometimes, I think, if you do these things too early, it’s a waste of time. In our case, it seems as if everything is right for people to want to read the book.

How would you describe Guitar Lessons to someone who has little knowledge of Taylor?
It’s a book of business lessons learned through experience and told in story form. It’s the story of starting a business as a teenager based on a craft I fell in love with, and really, how it turned into a major business by bringing great people in with me and persevering through the years.

Is there content in the book that will surprise existing Taylor Guitars owners?
I think people familiar with the company will see it as a more in-depth and candid story than what they are going to read in a blog, article, or company profile. In a book format, there’s enough time to go into depth. There are lots of Taylor guitar owners. We’ve sold a million guitars, and 750,000 of those have only recently joined our customer base in the last six or seven years. This will give them a better insight into our story and where we came from.

What lessons do you want readers to leave with?
The main lessons are that it takes perseverance and the ability to knock down obstacles as you go. There’s no singular thing that acts as a turning point in a business and gets you to finally “make it.” There may be 25 things that you need to solve for your business to be successful. Maybe you have to get to where eight or nine are solved just to stay in business, and then you go from there. But you must continue to own something, whether it means learning how to do production, marketing your products, or taking care of employees. You can run a car with six pistons, but it takes all eight pistons to fire for the car to really run great.