Confessions

of a

Serial Entrepreneur

Confessions
of a M A R K

Serial Entrepreneur
B R U N O

Published By Zion Publications www.zionpublications.com

To my lovely wife Jane, my son Nicollo and my daughter Daniella, thanks for all the love and support.

Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

Copyright Mark Bruno 2009 Cover Art And Layout Copyright Zion Publications 2009 First Edition, First Impression, 2009 ISBN 978-0-9814290-4-5 ____________________________________________ Contact information: Mark Bruno Email: mark@veladev.com ____________________________________________ Published by Zion Publications Cover Design, Layout and Typesetting by Zion Publications Contact information: Zion Publications Fax: +27 86 567 ZION (9466) Email: info@zionpublications.com Website: http://www.zionpublications.com Postnet Suite #54, Private Bag x153 Bryanston, 2021, Gauteng South Africa All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

Contents
Introduction Build A Credible Bridge Create Value Choose the Right Market Build A System Dont Trust the Bookkeeper You Must Own Or Control Stick With What You Know A word On Negotiation Begin With An Exit Dont Risk It All Opportunity Search Networking Know Yourself Know Your Enemy Focus A Word On Mindset Energy Putting It All Together Acknowledgements 1 7 13 21 29 39 43 49 51 55 59 63 65 69 73 77 81 87 93 97

Introduction
Raise up a child in the way he should go, and he will not depart from it when he is old Proverbs 22:6

The world today is in the midst of what is for many, a terrifying economic downturn. Thousands of highly and not so highly qualified men and women are faced with the difficulty of having to provide for their families in an environment where the traditional sources of income are evaporating at an alarming rate. The answer for many of us, is to apply our energy into new areas; to forge opportunities out of an old and shifting economy. To do this takes courage, creativity and action. I have been described as a serial entrepreneur. An individual, who for the
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Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

Introduction

past 25 years, has made his living continually going from the pan into the fire and back out again. I began this journey long ago because my self esteem would not allow me to believe that I could ever be hired by anyone; and since I didnt figure I could get a job, I had to create one. Having successfully created one, I realised I didnt even want to have myself as a boss, so I sold and started over. The journey continues. I started this book because I wanted to give insight to new entrepreneurs that would help them to overcome the many hurdles that face anyone starting out in the world of business alone. Many people are afraid to strike out in a new business venture because they believe that it takes a certain type of personality, or look, and lots of money to begin a business. Although the right type of approach is necessary, what it takes to really make it is often misunderstood.

For every star salesman and beauty queen who succeeds, there are at least two or three shy, normal people who have made it as successful entrepreneurs. The key to succeeding in any business, is to build a proper foundation and to take the steps necessary to ensure that you survive the start up phase. If you lay the wrong foundations you will fail. I have laid out in this book, what I believe to be the key elements of surviving. I have laced it with many personal experiences, both good and bad, to try and give you an understanding of the internal game. As well as those aspects not normally taught in business school. I have attempted to give you tips and processes that I have used successfully several times. I have made it my process to build and sell businesses because I do not consider myself a great manager. I, like many of you, am what I would consider an internal personality. I love the intellectual challenges
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Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

Introduction

but have difficulty relating to people at the superficial level that is so often required. I am not a great salesman, nor was I blessed with the consistency of huge capital that allowed me to make mistakes. I am probably like many of you. I struggle to take the steps and I work very hard through the process. I have learned to really enjoy certain aspects of the game and I would highly recommend that you do the same. Learn to enjoy the process and you will be 80% there. The other 20% is what I hope to offer you. Just for the record, I do not believe that being an entrepreneur means creating lots of businesses that I turn over to other people to run. I myself have never been able to do this. To be honest I have never seen anyone do it. The issue of entitlement too often creeps into the minds of those you have trusted, and before long they believe they are responsible for all the success and you no longer deserve to own it. It doesnt take a genius to figure out what happens next.
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As a wise man once said to me there is no such thing as absentee ownership. This is so true. To own a business is in some ways to be a slave to the business. Not in a bad way like a servant, but in a good way like a parent. Parents have the responsibility of training their children up in the way they should go. Business owners have the same burden for their business. If you turn over the responsibility of raising your children to someone else you are likely to end up with very confused children. If you turn over the raising of your business to a third party, your business model will in all likelihood end up in the same condition. If you are convinced of starting out in this world alone, I support you. I offer you the following as my view on the important issues you need to be aware of, and to employ in your activities. It is my sincere wish that you prosper in your efforts and that what I have written here can help you along the way. Good luck and happy hunting.

Build a Credible Bridge

Let everyman praise the bridge that carries him over troubled waters English Proverb

About 15 years ago I sold a business I had developed and found myself with a lot of time on my hands. Of course I was bored, so I spent a lot of time at lunch. One of the people I spent a lot of time with was a very well known speaker with an international clientele. Occasionally, he would meet a speaker overseas he really liked and would agree to promote them to the local market. On one such occasion, he asked if, because I had so much time, I would be willing to act as host to this overseas speaker that was coming to town. I agreed. The speaker in question was actually not very remarkable.
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Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

Build a Credible Bridge

In fact today I cant even recall his name, but he did show me one thing that changed my life. One night at one of his shows, he asked a young man sitting in the front row onto the stage. While on the stage he asked the young man what his goals were. Of course the pressure of standing in front of several hundred people must have had something to do with his answer, but nonetheless, his answer was as follows: Within five years I want to have a plane, a yacht, a Rolls Royce and a seven figure annual salary. With great courtesy the speaker wrote each of the goals on the right side of the overhead projector. After a few minutes he asked the young man to describe where he was in his life. Was he working now? Did he have any savings? Did he have an education or special training? Was there anything that separated him from the crowd? The answers were pretty predictable. The young man wasnt working, had no savings, education or other special skill. In fact nothing to set him apart from the crowd.
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Once again the speaker recorded the current situation on the overhead projector, this time on the left. When he had finished writing, calmly and gently he asked the young man to draw him a credible bridge from where he was to where he wanted to be. Needless to say he couldnt. Of course my purpose for telling this story is not to discourage anyone, or put up false barriers to success such as educational or capital savings requirements. My purpose is to point out one of the most important things you can learn when starting a business. If you cannot build a credible bridge between where you are and where you want to be; in other words if you cant see a clear path to the money, DONT START. This probably sounds like common sense to most of you, but I assure you the streets of entrepreneur hell are paved with the bodies of people who couldnt do this simple thing. And I dont mean just theoretically see it either. I mean a real business plan with detailed analysis of what you need to get done. How the business will roll out and be managed. How the sales
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Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

Build a Credible Bridge

team will be organised, how many sales calls they are going to have to make and what your expected closing rate is. Real detail. Down to the smallest cost and the simplest activity. It is not uncommon when I write a business plan to have over 100 pages of numbers that represent my three year plan. There are lots of reasons for doing this, not the least of which, is making sure you have thought it through and can build a credible bridge. If you have built the bridge, everything else comes easier. Including the investors you will need. When I was in my twenties I made my way to New York City, to pitch the listing of a company I had helped develop. I had never been to Wall Street before and I must admit I was a little intimidated. I had an appointment on Broad Street (next to Wall Street) to meet an investment banker and try and convince him that he should underwrite this listing I was proposing. At precisely 2:30 I was ushered into the offices of this powerful financial god. I noticed as I entered he kept an egg timer on his desk.
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No sooner had he dropped my hand from the limp and half hearted hand shake, that he turned the egg timer to five minutes and told me I had five minutes to prove to him that I belonged there. Needless to say I was a bit overwhelmed, but I jumped in nonetheless. After listening to my pitch for about 35 minutes, he looked over at me and said I like you. You came prepared and you didnt waste my time. Now I am going to give you the greatest advice of your life. Whenever you find yourself in the offices of someone from whom you are seeking money. MAKE SURE THAT THE ONLY THING YOU NEED IS THE MONEY. At then he bid me good day and told me I would hear from him. The next day I received a call telling me that my numbers and my information had checked out and they would do the underwriting. The company was listed 9 months later, but not with that underwriter. New York was just too expensive. I found someone in California to do it. The point of the story is that a credible bridge makes it easy for you to prove that you only need
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Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

the money. And, I can absolutely guarantee you. Every time you look for money, if all you need is money, you will get it. There is far more money around than well thought out deals.

Create Value
The great personal fortunes in this country werent built of a portfolio of fifty companies. They were built by someone who identified on wonderful business Warren Buffet

I love Warren Buffet. His light-hearted approach to such a difficult business is awe inspiring. I began studying the works of Warren Buffet, and those who wrote about him, around five years ago. His approach to value fascinated me. Not only was I fascinated, I was challenged. Much like the bible, the Warren Buffet books I read only hinted of what was underneath it all. The idea of value investing was much deeper than simply finding a brand monopoly and putting the money down. I became
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Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

Create Value

obsessed with trying to discover a scientific view of value creation; one that laid out the parameters of value and made it possible for me to replicate. After lots of false starts, I found a work that pretty much answered the questions I had (I wish someone could do the same with the bible for me). The book was called the Origin Of Wealth by Eric Beinhocker. I highly recommend this book to any of you who like scientific backup to basic economic questions like, what is wealth and how is it created? There is a great deal within the book that I need not cover. What was important to me was his definition of value. According to Beinhocker, for something to have value it must: 1. Be the result of an irreversible process- The example given in the book is great. One of the reasons why paper has value is because as much as it cost you to make the tree into paper, imagine what it would cost to turn the paper into a tree.
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2.

Have fitness of purpose- The end result must fit the purpose for which it was made. Using the above example, paper is fit for the purpose it was created. It must involve moving something from a disorganised state to an organised one (entropy)- I must admit this was a very hard concept to grasp. I am not really sure I do now. However I have personal experience that I think will help. If you want to make money, do something that results in the concentration of a fragmented market. I have always believed this and have used that maxim successfully many times.

3.

Let me give you an example. I have always been amazed at how easy it seems to get a power plant financed. It seems as though anyone with a location and a license can get financing. Just for fun I decided to apply the above formula to electricity, which is the end product produced by a power plant.
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Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

Create Value

1.

It must be the result of an irreversible processThe process of converting the movement of water into electricity is not very complicated. A turbine is placed in the way of flowing water which turns the blades of the turbine thus transferring energy from the flowing water to the turbine. The overall energy of the flowing water is reduced by this activity, if only a small amount. So is the process reversible? Could the reduction of flow of the water resulting from the conversion be reversed? The answer is a theoretical yes, but it would cost much more to do so than it did to create the conversion in the first place. Thus the process is irreversible. It must have fitness of purposeNot much to say here. Electricity is a perfect fit for the purpose it was intended.

3.

It must involve moving something from a disorganised state to an organised oneThis is a little harder to see but still present. The currents that result in the electricity are certainly in a disorganised state. The potential to generate electricity is there but must be directed, organised and captured before it can have value. The process therefore of directing the flow onto the blades can be seen as organising the disorganised state in order to perform work. Again we meet the criteria.

2.

Now I am sure that there are those of you out there that may want to challenge the above premise. Perhaps Mr. Beinhocker himself, who right now must be wondering how I came to those conclusions from what he wrote. Scientifically correct or not, agree or disagree, there is some good stuff there. Throughout the years that I have done business development, there has always been the niggling fear of what if it doesnt work.
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Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

Create Value

I mean, I know I have built a credible bridge and all my research says it should work, but life has a way of beating you. Some things just cant be predicted. That is where value comes in. If, in the process of building a business, you are focusing on the creation of value, and not making money,; if it does fail, your money should still be in the value you created. It doesnt mean you can never lose money. It just means that if you plan well and dont go too far out on a limb, you should never lose the value. This point was driven home to me by a great man by the name of Cornelius Swart. Mr. Swart was a very successful business developer that I had the pleasure of travelling the world with. A man of many talents, his greatest talent was being able to create value, and to see it where others did not. Back in the 1990s Mr. Swart and I were involved in the development of a gym group that looked to expand into England. One day while looking for locations we found ourselves at the Canary Wharf complex in London. At the time Olympia and York
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(the Canary Wharf developers) had just filed for bankruptcy. The Canary Wharf was a ghost town. You couldnt give space away. Anyway, Mr. Swart had me looking at condominiums in the area to buy as an investment, he was talking about taking head leases on empty buildings. I thought he had lost his mind. One day I challenged him. Had he not noticed that Olympia and York were bankrupt, that the area was a ghost town. How could he believe there was ever going to be money made there. A kind man, but not one to suffer fools, he walked me over to the main Canary Wharf building. The tallest (and most expensive) building in England. He told me to look up and tell him what I saw. Not wanting to look stupid I began to describe the building. Well I said I see glass and metal. No he said youve missed it. What I see is over a billion US dollars invested. This complex will never fail. There is too much value created. In the end he was right. The property slump passed and Canary Wharf became a huge success. I dont know if he ever bought the
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Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

condos or not. But I can tell you one thing I know for sure. If he did, he made a fortune on them. As long as you focus on the creation of value, you cant go wrong. Not only are you spending your money wisely, you are aligning yourself with a universal principal. The value of money goes up and down, but value lasts forever.

Choose the Right Market

Good execution isnt enough. A bad idea executed perfectly is the very definition of disaster Office of the President of Botswana

That saying was spoken to me by a senior staff member of the President of Botswana while visiting the Botswana equivalent of the White House. His purpose was to describe the culture of DO THE RIGHT THINGS that the new president had hoped to instil in his cabinet. Spoken in the words of business development this converts to, CHOOSE THE RIGHT MARKET. The right market can go a long way to overcoming a bad business plan or even poor execution. In fact choose the perfect market and there isnt much you can do to stop success. Far be it
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Choose the Right Market

for me to try and pass judgement on one of the most successful companies ever, and the progenitor of the richest man in the world (well maybe not this year), but Microsoft did and still does a lot of things wrong. Bill Gates said so in his book. What Bill Gates did right was choose the right market. A market ignored by many computer giants such as IBM. No matter what Microsoft did wrong, the market was still going to grow at a phenomenal rate. All they had to do was keep up and the market would do the rest. I am sure that if I really tried I could try and sound very intelligent and technical when offering advice on what constitutes a good market, but I wont. What I am going to offer is examples of markets that worked for me. Fragmented markets- I like this one the best. If you can find a market that has a lot of little players selling every day, that offers advantages from consolidation and hasnt been fully absorbed, then youre really in business.

This type of play offers a lot of advantages. To begin with, you are not creating anything new. It is much easier to take over someone elses market space (assuming they are weak and the market in not cohesive) than it is to create a new space. Just make sure there are no big dogs ruling the market, and that the market will benefit from a big dog being created. Generally customers in this type of market are already buyers and dont have any real preference. There is no strong brand ruling the territory. I used this strategy in the early 1990s to create an international gym business. At the time in South Africa, the gym business was made up of one fairly large player and lots of small players. I took over as chairman in a young and dynamic group that had 3 gyms. Although small, we built good systems (see later chapter) that enabled us to scale the operation and went about buying up all the individual players. Because the group had better operating dynamics and sales synergies, the purchases became self funding. In three years we went from 3
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Choose the Right Market

gyms to 36 and were expanding into Europe when I exited. Fast growing markets- If you cant find a market to consolidate, look for one that is growing off the hook. Demand in excess of supply in the market is a good way to look like a genius. Almost anything you do wrong will be overlooked as long as your customers need more of what you supply than they can find. Just be cautioned that what goes up must come down. These types of markets often collapse without warning. In 1984 I was a partner in a company that was building components that went into what was then called floppy disk drives. IBM had just entered the PC market and demand for peripheral devices like floppy disk was huge. Our little factory was running 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. I thought it would never end. Our big customer at the time was Tandon Magnetics. Juggy Tandon was the creator and patent holder to a double-sided floppy disk (in other words high density storage), and virtually owned the periphery storage industry. Every day it seemed as though
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Tandon opened a new factory to pump out these drives. Then one day I remember being at one of the Tandon warehouses and seeing mountains of unsold inventory. It didnt take long for that to translate into catastrophic reductions of our sales. The law of economics won out. When big money starts being made in a market, competition enters. Not only competing on a product level, but also introducing new technology to compete with. As quick as the market expanded, it contracted. I sold the business to a Chinese manufacturer that intended to make floppy drives for the Chinese market. China was still in the Stone Age back then. I was lucky to get out with my shirt. A Market You Love- I do really believe that the very best type of business development is one in which you are able to combine your hobby or passion with making money. When, in my life I have found people working at what they love, I am always envious. The drive to succeed seems so much stronger because they really love the process and dont want to lose the
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Choose the Right Market

day to day experience. This type of market may not have any of the fundamentals, but I would not tell anyone not to go for it. There is more to a business than just creating monetary value, sometimes the value you create can be in other peoples lives.

However having said that, Coca Cola was a start up once and so was IBM. If you are lucky enough to identify an unexploited potential consumer monopoly and are looking for a partner, please do not hesitate to contact me.

A COMMENT
I would be remiss at this time if I didnt at least address the published ideas of Warren Buffet towards markets. Mr Buffet has written often that he looks for stable growth in some sort of consumer monopoly. And I have to agree that the best market to have is a 100 year old stable growth market that consistently produces a 25% Return on Capital Employed. The problem is that for entrepreneurs these types of market rarely exist. As business developers we are forced to enter markets where we have the resources to do so. Unfortunately that is rarely stable.

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Build a System
Differentiate-Select- Amplify The Origin of Wealth

I mentioned earlier the Eric Beinhocker book The Origin of Wealth. Well here again Mr. Beinhocker has something to add to our growth. The formula above is given in his book as the way to create wealth. Differentiate- Make sure people dont confuse you with others in the marketplace. In other words, make sure they have a definable choice to make. Select- This goes back to choosing the right market in the first place. Select the path of least resistance.

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Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

Build a System

Amplify- To amplify you have to have systems. Systems make a business scalable and able to grow without coming apart at the seams. Lots of entrepreneurs like to wing it. Wing it and you die. You will never survive growth and it is doubtful if you are creating value without systems. In fact a lot of the value you create should revolve around systems. I am pretty sure that most of you have heard this before. Anyone who has read Rich Dad Poor Dad has read about the need for systems. Maybe it was just me but I found two things missing from Mr. Kiyosakis books relating to systems. The first was why, and the second was how. The why I think is obvious now. One of the best things you can do to create value in a business is to codify the processes of doing your business. This gives the business sustainability and scalability. It allows you to take what you have and repeat it. Did you
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know that in ancient Rome they didnt allow their prefects to stay away from Rome for more than a couple of years. After being outside of Rome for a while, they made them come back for a few years. They didnt want them to forget what being a Roman meant. Rome took its systems very seriously. The proof of the pudding in Romes case, was the fact that they were one of the largest and certainly longest lasting empires of all time. Britain was pretty much the same under Victoria. Being British in those days had a very certain meaning. It helped them conquer and control three quarters of the world. Today we tend to call this Branding, but it is pretty much the same thing. A system of delivery giving the customer a consistent product. Now, as to how. Well this can be very problematic. To be honest, I really struggled with this over the years. I knew I had to do it, but I wasnt very sure how. Well, I still struggle, but I have settled on a methodology. In every instance, I try and find an applicable
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Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

Build a System

ISO (international standards association) standard that I can implement. For those of you who dont know about ISO, let me help you out. According to the ISO website, the ISO standards are established to help a company manage their processes or activities , so that its products or services meet the objectives they have set for themselves In short ISO provides a framework for setting standards, measuring activity, reporting information and improving. If you have nowhere else to turn, or dont know where to start, find an ISO standard that will apply to your business. Since ISO standards are intended to be generic , like ISO 90002000, I guarantee you will find something that works for you. Trust me, it is a great place to start when building a system. I do want to issue a warning however. Make sure that you implement a system you intend to use. Lots of companies I have come across implement an ISO standard because it helps them get business. People doing business with you, like to know you have the
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structure and the processes to do what you say. ISO helps you prove that. Just dont do what so many do, download a system from the internet that means nothing to you. In the end you will not use it and the value will be lost. Having a framework to build on can be helpful, but make sure the heart of the system is yours and that it reflects the culture and objectives of your organisation.

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Cash Management
From birth to age 18, a girl needs good parents, from 18 to 35 she needs good looks, from 35 to 55 she needs a good personality, and from 55 on she needs cash. Sophie Tucker

At least a woman can rely on good parents, good looks and good personality. Businesses dont have those things. THEY NEED CASH FROM DAY ONE. To ensure success you will have to manage your cash as diligently as you do the heartbeat of a dying patient. Make a mistake with the cash and you will die. Just as an example, consider a seller of materials who has a 20% mark up on her product. A mistake that cost the company $100 requires the capital and effort to affect
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Cash Management

$500 in additional sales just to get even. That is a lot of effort. I will tell you the same thing I tell my son about his soccer, preventing the other team from making a goal is as good as making one yourself. You never want to work from a deficit. Long ago I was sitting in the board room of a very successful international businessman. I had been working on a development with three brothers and was looking to put the growing business into a larger structure where it would have the capital and support necessary to reach its potential. All of the individuals on my side of the table were young and aggressive. The businessman was older, very wealthy and a little nervous of getting into business with us. As a way of testing our metal he posed a question to everyone at the table. Its payday he begins you dont have the money for payroll. What do you do?. Each person is called on in turn to give an answer. Starting with the youngest member in his early twenties. Borrow on my house he replies. The next person says borrow from
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the bank, the third person says I tell the employees they have to wait. Looking a bit uncomfortable, the business man turned to me. What do you have to say?. My answer was I never let it happen. This was the answer he was looking for. Now I dont tell the story to show how smart I am. I tell the story to illustrate a truth. Payroll isnt just missed. If you miss any payment it means you did not plan well enough. Especially bills you know are coming, like payroll. You have to plan ahead. I make it a policy to set up a spread sheet predicting daily cash in the bank six months ahead of time. I update it with every event that is likely to change it. Sales that werent made for example, or extra cost. It is amazing how accurate this can be and how it helps you to avoid trouble. Creditors will wait a few days to be paid if you absolutely positively pay them on the day you promise. They are in business after all. However, tell a creditor they will be paid Friday, and Friday comes and goes without payment and
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Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

you have trouble on your hands. You have to plan for profit just like everything else. If sales arent what you planned, you have to cut cost. Either that or grab the salesperson and instruct them on what needs to be done. Adjustments to the sales mix, pricing and sales promotions are all there to help you over the hurdle. Just dont let it sneak up on you. This attention to the detail as to what actually makes up the profit and loss statement is what makes the difference between success and failure. Neither success nor failure just happen. It takes time and effort to fail, just like it takes time and effort to succeed. Take my advice, pay attention to the money. In the end it is the only measurement of success or failure that matters. right market in the first place. Select the path of least resistance.

Dont Trust the Bookkeeper

You cannot delegate responsibility, only authority. In the end the buck stops with you One of my business school professors

At the risk of sounding like a traditionalist, I strongly recommend that anyone who hopes to make it as an entrepreneur take a bookkeeping class. Not accounting, bookkeeping. Why you may ask, I hate the numbers. Because as I said earlier, the numbers are what determines your future. I have a relative of mine who built up a thriving business over 30 years of his life. Everything was great. He had big sales, showed a big profit and had a woman he trusted with his life doing the books.
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Dont Trust the Bookkeeper

The one thing he couldnt understand was where was all the cash going. I mean he showed a profit, but the cash never seemed to be there in the amounts he figured should be there. Every month he looked at the financials and saw a profit. What could be wrong, he figured, there was a profit. Sooner or later the cash had to show up. WRONG !!! His trusted bookkeeper of 20 years had been forging his signature to cover the gambling problem he never knew she had. Over one million dollars had disappeared. He never saw it coming. In the end it cost him his business and over 30 years of his life. Had he understood the ins and outs of bookkeeping hell, he would have understood that debits and credits just need to balance for the accounting equation to work. They dont have to be in the right place. Let me give you an example. In accounting you increase expenses by way of a debit. You also increase assets. You also decrease cash by way of credit. So if I am a clever bookkeeper and I want to steal some cash and hide it from my not
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bookkeeping savvy boss, I credit cash and debit assets. When the boss looks at the Profit and Loss statements he will still see a profit, even though the hard earned money has been stolen. Why? Because instead of debiting an expense which would have shown as money spent, I debit an asset. Everything still balances. No harm no foul. Who will know? Well eventually the bankruptcy court. And dont assume that your auditor will pick it up. Auditors are there to verify your accounts. If you put the numbers down in the wrong way, they are likely to verify the error, not find it. I dont mean this as a slight to auditors, but fixing entry mistakes is not how most of them view their job. As long as the balance sheet balances their job is done. In the end it is YOUR money. You must know how it is accounted for and be able to pick up problems. In my relatives case, his fear of not knowing how to keep the books caused him to delegate the guarding of the chickens to the fox. She ate him alive.

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You Must Own or Control

There are no such things as comrades, only rivals Alexander the Great

Let me take this opportunity to recommend a great book to you. Its called How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis. This is one of those few get rich books written by someone who was rich BEFORE he wrote the book. It is full of wisdom and practical advice. One of the things he talks about in this book is making sure you keep as much of your business as you can. I agree whole heartedly. But I would like to add one point. Make SURE you own or control. If you dont, youre in for a battle. Owning or controlling means that the final say as to how and when money gets spent is yours. It means that there will
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You Must Own or Control

be only one marketing strategy. It means engineers that never want to finish a project will finish or lose their jobs. I am sure there are millions of people who will argue that this type of leadership style is archaic. That in order to succeed it takes a team of people all leading together. BULLOCKS. The Roman empire was not built by teams of people leading together. Napoleon was not known for his democratic ilk. Oh I am sure there are those among you who will say, sure but where are they now. We all know where they are. That is the point. EVERYONE knows who Napoleon was, but I am pretty sure only a few can tell me the name of his chief of staff or three of his staff generals names. Democracy in business does not work. I will agree that an enlightened and ingenious despot is better than a Hitler, but Hitler still conquered all of Europe. While we are at it, lets talk a little about partnerships. In short, they dont work. Lets face it, it takes a certain amount of ego to break from the crowd and start your
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own business, even if it is with someone else. No one ever started a business to be in someone elses shadow. Think about it. All the things that make you successful will tear you apart. One or more of you is going to get tired of looking in the mirror and seeing someone elses face. Or worse, worry that the girlfriend thinks all this success is due to another person. Dont think it wont happen. You could be the best of friends or even blood relatives, put enough success on the table and knives will be drawn. Divorce is always messy. Better not to start. Having said that if you are bound and determined to get into partnership let me offer some advice. 1. Make sure each of you knows what you expect from the other party. I am convinced that most relationships, including marriages, end because the parties were not clear on what they were exchanging. Put another way you thought you were marrying Cinderella and she thought
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Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

You Must Own or Control

she was marrying Prince Charming. When she turns out to be more like the wicked step mother and he more like the mouse, things turn ugly. Every failed business partnership I have had has been the result of not taking enough time to discuss what is really expected from me, or me from them. If your part of the bargain is to bring money, make sure you state exactly how much that is. Most importantly, make sure you have it. Sure as we are sitting here if you fail to make clear what you and they are bringing to the table there will be a dispute. Someone is always bound to be disappointed. Especially when there is money on the table. 2. Determine the end state that represents completion. It is very important that you begin by knowing where you are going and what the end looks like. This helps you focus your attention and relieves the relationship of pressure. Everyone
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knows what needs to happen and has a measuring stick to see how effective the partnership is. In addition to all this, it alleviates a lot of the jealousy that will arise. The end is known before you get there so everyone can keep their eye on the ball. 3. Put a time limit on the relationship. Although it may not seem logical to limit something in the beginning, especially when all the hope in the world is present, but believe me this is mission critical. If you limit the relationship upfront you give it a chance to take form. You can always move or even remove the time limits later, but upfront it is important that everyone know there is only so much time to get things done.

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Stick with what You Know

Be sure the business you buy can be run by an idiot, because sure enough one day it will be Warren Buffet

If you havent noticed I am a big Warren Buffet fan. Who wouldnt be. Warren always talks about staying within your circle of competency. I read it but I didnt understand it. That is until I got into a development that was heavily dependent on software engineers. Now I knew from past experience that most engineers are like arists. They never see the painting as finished. Their superior intelligence and creativity keeps seeing more and more to improve. This may be true, but enough has to be enough sometime. The problem is that if you are not an expert, or
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able to finish what they started, you could be in for a long hard ride. I was involved in a software banking solution company once. Among the many mistakes I made (like not owning or controlling) was not being able to finish what someone else started. Software engineers are very expensive and they are highly intelligent and creative. So creative sometimes, that they cannot give a straight answer or an accurate timeline. And because I did not have a clue as to what needed to be done or how, I just had to take it. The end result was an overdue and way over budget development. Not to mention a few new holes in my stomach. At least I can say I now understand what old Warren was saying. You only can afford to delegate duties that you are able to perform yourself, otherwise you are not delegating you are abdicating. And when you abdicate you lose.

A Word on Negotiation
Kid, there is no such thing as a good deal, its a good deal or its no deal. Tony Sannucci

Starting from when I was 12 years old my father used to insist that during the summer holidays I spend time working for some of his friends. He did this to expose me to other successful people who might be able to teach me a thing or two. One of the greatest was a man by the name of Tony Sannucci. Tony was a Sicilian ( like me) who had grown up in a poor part of Buffalo New York. A genius when it came to business, he was one of the best negotiators I ever met. One day while sitting in his office I listened to him negotiate a movie distribution deal for one of his friends. I was amazed to see him in
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A Word on Negotiation

action. He spoke so loud that he had to hold the mouth piece of the phone about eight inches from his head. When everything was done I asked him Did you get a good deal Tony. He looked at me kind of confused with his coal black eyes and told me Kid, there is no such thing as a good deal, its a good deal or its no deal. Words to live by. The cold fact is that in every transaction you are acting for yourself. You are not there for the guy across the table. Let him or her negotiate for themselves. Most of all make sure the end result improves your position. Understand fully upfront what you get and what it will cost . Now dont misunderstand me. I firmly believe that a good deal is one that will be implemented. If you squeeze a guy too hard he will do anything to get free, including chewing his leg off. The problem is that in chewing his own leg off, he often takes yours with him. A good deal, is one where everyone is equally unhappy and equally enriched. I would be remiss in talking about negotiation if I didnt mention attention to
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detail. One of the big mistakes I see people make in negotiation is that they never get down to detail. Now it could take a whole book on its own to discuss the timing of negotiations, the strategy of location etc. I am not suggesting that everything take place at one time. There is a negotiating strategy called nibbling, that makes a point of leaving some details for later discussion, with the hopes that the other side will develop an emotional attachment to the deal that will force them to give up little concessions later in the detail phase. What I am suggesting is that whatever you do, make sure you cover the details. The little foxes spoil the garden and untied details ruin otherwise good deals. Do whatever you think will help you, but make sure you do it with intent, dont leave things out because you forgot, or were worried the other side might object. Whatever you leave undecided on a table, is likely to be picked up by the other side, whether you wanted them to have it or not. Make sure the table is clean before you get up from it.

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Begin with an Exit

Affairs are easier of entrance than of exit; and it is but common prudence to see our way out before we venture in. Aesop

Intelligent business people always plan their exit. Not only does it give you a very precise goal it helps motivate you. The other day I was visiting a very wealthy friend of mine at his offices. As we sat talking, he called my attention to a program he had recently had created for him. The program told him the day he could afford to die based on his current investment portfolio, insurance and wealth attainment goals. I was amazed. This little program allowed him to put in various interest rate scenarios, stock and property market
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Begin with an Exit

assumptions etc. and literally print out a date at which he could die having achieved all of his goals. He obviously made light of it, but the principal was deadly serious. He had planned his exit. Now for most business people planning your exit may not be quite so detailed. This particular man is particularly bright and focused. However lets not lose the lesson. In any business it is best to understand that things will change. Even Bill Gates in his book Business @ the Speed of Thought indicates that he does not expect Microsoft to last forever. It is prudent then to plan for an exit. What this means in practical terms, is that building a business cannot be only about more sales and higher profits. If you really want to get the most from your business you will have to spend time and effort positioning it. Position is always relative to some fixed point. In this case, the fixed point is that vehicle you have chosen to exit on. Whether that vehicle is a company to sell to, or a market to list on, your business
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will have to fit the profile and be sitting in the proper position to motivate action. To do this effectively you need to apply your strategic mind. You need to understand the market you are in, to understand what makes for value, and most importantly understand what makes you valuable to the leaders in the market. Try to understand what the big guys would want to do, but cant for some reason. Then do it. A great example of this is Pixar and Disney. Now it is no secret that Disney is a world leader in animation and has been producing successful animation films for a very long time. So why on earth would Disney pay $7.4 billion for an animation studio? This is the question a lot of people asked, not the least I am sure Disneys board. The answer lies in the way Pixar was positioned relative to Disney. Disney had many years as a classic animation studio. Beginning in a time when cartoons where drawn one frame at a time.

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Pixar grew up in an era of computer animation and was quite frankly way ahead of Disney in this area. Pixar learned to piggy back on the strengths of Disney by using the Disney distribution system and genius in character product marketing to build its own brand. Disney in the end realised that they were earning a lot of money off of characters that could only be created with the expertise of Pixar and acted to exploit that situation as well as guarantee that Pixar couldnt go anywhere else. Did Pixar plan from the beginning to be bought out by Disney. Only a few people could know that for sure. What I do know is that Pixar was co-founded and driven by a business genius by the name of Steven Jobs. It would take a particular type of genius, like Steven Jobs, to arrange that a giant like Disney become dependent on Pixar. Steven Jobs, by the way, is now the single largest shareholder in Disney. Did he plan it that way? You be the judge.

Dont Risk it All

In a fight between you and the world, back the world Paul Dirn

I know that doesnt sound very positive. Society is permeated with heroic stories of Generals who ordered the boats they arrived in burned so that the army would be motivated to fight and having nowhere else to go, bravely defeat the enemy. Bulldust I say. Life is a long term game. The most important thing you need to do to be able to win at life, is to first survive. If you watch predators in the wild they always go for the weakest animal and they always back off when counter attacked. Why is that? Because a lion with a three inch hole in its stomach from an angry buffalo isnt likely to win the battle of survival. Predators
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Dont Risk it All

cant afford to get hurt and neither can entrepreneurs. Too many people do not understand the difference between risk and uncertainty. You see risk is the probability of a specific rate of return where uncertainty is the probability of an event at all. You can measure risk and you can hedge against it. There is almost nothing you can do to ensure against uncertainty. Business development is often not only risky but uncertain. That is why it is important not to risk it all. Look at your business as any investment. Forget what you have already spent, and instead focus on what the return is, on each investment you make within your business. I really want to express this strongly. Business is at best risky. Dont go so far in that there is no coming back. In my travels I have seen dozens of broken families and suicidal entrepreneurs because they risked everything on the toss of a dice. If you only lose what you can afford to lose, you always have the chance to fight another day.
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This is the best, really the only, reason to share your business with others. To provide capital to hedge your bets, so that if it goes bad you are not wiped out. It is said that no plan survives contact with the enemy. In business I would say that no plan survives contact with the competition. No matter how perfect your planning, no matter how good your market, stuff happens and businesses fail. Just be sure you dont fail with it.

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Opportunity Search
Just take the order Joseph P. Bruno

My father was a great entrepreneur. Over his lifetime he made and lost more money than some small countries. I always wanted to be like him so I spent a lot of time watching. My father had one major rule that dictated the starting of a business; take the order. What that meant was that the only criteria he had to spend the energy and the money to start a business, was whether or not he knew someone who wanted to buy what the business produced. It really didnt matter what industry or product it was. If someone he knew was buying a lot of something, he was going to supply it. I know that may not sound very much like the industry analysis you would expect
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to hear from an MBA, but I can assure you that it makes for a much smoother take off. Having a buyer in the pocket allows you to define your product, work out the logistics of delivery and set the limits of production cost all in one go. It also guarantees market penetration. And of course if one person is buying it is much easier to sell to other people. Now dont take this to mean that this is the only way to decide what to develop. There are lots of good ways to look for a business to develop. If you have accumulated capital and have made a science of the activity the world is your oyster. At that point development becomes a matter of trends in the economy and identification of unexploited markets. It is only that I have assumed that most people reading this book would not consider themselves expert entrepreneurs. For those people it is best to take the easiest and surest route so as to have the opportunity to accumulate capital and expertise. If you are one of these people, take my advice; start with an order.
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Networking
Play Golf Donald Trump

I myself do not play golf and I have found this to be a great handicap (pardon the pun). I tried. My father was a great golfer. He had a company that manufactured clubs and even started his own tournament. I took golf lessons for a little while. After a week the pro called my father and suggested I take up tennis. That is the last time I had a club in my hand. If you dont play golf you need to find another method of arranging social interaction with other business people. This interaction is key to being able to get where you want to go. No matter how smart you are or how great your idea, at some point it is a human being who says yes or no to your
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Networking

funding or your contract. It is always much easier for people to say yes to someone they know. Now I recognise that there are people reading this who consider themselves as antisocial, or shy, or a maverick that doesnt fit it. I understand this, in fact I am one of you. Nonetheless, no matter how hard you find it to network, it is critical to your success. If you find it hard to make contact yourself, or to develop the characteristics of a networker, befriend one. I said befriend, not make a partner of them. I have a couple of really good friends who are excellent networkers. I find it much more sincere and a lot easier to put my energy into them. They in exchange, connect me across a wide range of personalities and power bases. You dont have to be a used car salesman to connect. Be yourself. Find people you relate to and put energy into them. If you exert the effort, over time you will find others you connect with and your network will grow. It doesnt have to be some sort of singles bar manic drive to meet and connect. Be sincere
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and let it happen. Just understand that all relationships demand energy. If you hope to get anything out of them you are going to have to invest in them.

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Know Yourself
Know yourself, know your enemy; 100 battles, 100 victories Sun Tsu

Military strategist like Clauswitz like to call it Morale. Alexander Leighton defines morale as the capacity of a group of people to pull together persistently and consistently in pursuit of a common purpose. Morale is what defines how quick and how far an army can travel and still maintain the will to win. Morale defines at what point in the battle the desire to be done with all the pain is greater than the will to live. Morale determines who will win and who will lose. In business we fight a battle every day. None more than the entrepreneur who
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Know Yourself

depends on the accomplishment of his or her goals for a paycheck. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses, your passions, your failings and limits, helps you to shape yourself in the midst of a battle. For those of you who are not military people, shaping is a battle concept. Military planners use things such as bombardment, strategic withdrawal and propaganda to move (or shape) the enemy into a weaker position. In an individuals case we must constantly be shaping ourselves into a winning posture. Some people call it a winning attitude. Some call it positive thinking. I call it war. The enemy, who may be my competitors, a jealous brother-in-law, or just the randomness of life, is constantly trying to shape my position. To combat this I must actively shape my own attitude. How you achieve this is a personal choice. There are literally thousands of good books on how to stay positive etc.

I just want to say that just keeping a winning attitude or staying positive isnt enough. Just like simply moving the enemy isnt enough. A good warrior shapes the enemy into a configuration they know they can defeat. A good business person shapes his or her own personality to fit the end state that represents victory in the environment they are in. An old friend used to say the right horse for the right course. It doesnt do any good to become Napoleon if victory is represented by an end state that Napoleon could never achieve. I have made this mistake many, many times. I spent so many years shaping my personality to fit an American, confrontational style of business, that when I started to do business in much more subtle environments, I was considered a thug. This process taught me to prepare for each situation. Much like a method actor preparing for a part. Dont ever give up your unique identity, but you must shape your strengths to survive in the environment you are in.

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Know yourself, know your enemy (your environment or market), 100 battles, 100 victories.

Know Your Enemy

No battle can take place in the absence of an enemy Unknown

As important as it is to understand yourself and your limits, it is just as important to understand the enemy and their limits. The above war maxim highlights that business like war, does not take place in a vacuum. Business is competitive. Companies vie with all their might and strength to ensure that the battle is theirs. It is the foolishness of high thinkers to try and convince the average person that life and business is not about competition. Never forget that every action has a re-action. Every action you take to please the customer will be matched and exceeded by your competitor. Your responsibility is to understand the competitor
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Know Your Enemy

and position yourself relative to them and the customer. If you can use your knowledge of the competitor to shape them into a weaker position, you will have a better chance of winning. Winning ensures survival, survival is your goal. You will never sell a business that does not survive to be sold. To do this you will have to commit the time and resources into getting to know your competition. By knowing, I do not mean from a distance. I mean up close and personal. This may entail getting to know the CEO or the Head of Marketing personally. Whatever you need to do, I suggest you do it. It will serve you to know what the competition is planning, or having a personal understanding of how they will react to your moves. Remember what I said, you cannot AFFORD to lose money. Before you start that new sales push or promotion, figure out how the competition will react and prepare. How they react is as important as how the customer reacts. Business is a battle for the mind of the customer. A well prepared battle plan always includes an analysis of the
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enemys strengths and weaknesses, as well as some scenario planning as to how the enemy will act in battle. The battle is yours to win or lose. Remember what Sun Tsu said, Know yourself and know your enemy; 100 battles, 100 victories.

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Focus
A laser beam without focus is just a really expensive flashlight Mark Bruno

Laser is an acronym for light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation. Although not scientifically the same thing as a flashlight, without focus the end result is pretty much the same thing. The ability of a laser to cut flesh in surgery or steel in a factory, is the result of the ability to focus the energy of the beam on a minute space. This focused energy then exerts a tremendous amount of light energy onto a small space, resulting in the cutting we are all so familiar with. Life is very much like a piece of steel; a flat sub-straight waiting for someone to apply energy to it so as to give it form.
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Focus

As a young man I was strongly influenced by a book written in 1938 by Napoleon Hill. That famous book is called Think and Grow Rich. I studied that book for years. I even took passages from it and pasted them to the walls of my room. The bad news for me was that the book could not penetrate me. I constantly repeated the words of the book. Visualised the concepts and told myself to believe. It didnt seem to work. It was only much later that I decided to look at Napoleon Hills work from a different perspective. What if I took every chapter in the book and put the word Focused in front of it. The chapters would now read something like this: Focused Desire Focused Faith Focused Auto-Suggestion And so on and so forth. This proved to be a key for me understanding a universal truth. In order for all that faith, desire and suggestion to have meaning, it has to be
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focused. I cannot and will not have the energy in this lifetime to accomplish everything I want. I have to focus. A wise man once said you can have ANYTHING you want, you just cant have EVERYTHING you want. This I believe is one of the major failures of entrepreneurs. Especially really smart ones. God in his wisdom has created some people to have the vision to see what others dont. Perhaps it is his way of advancing society. The problem is that gift always comes with responsibility. Just being able to visualise something does not mean you will have the time or the resources to build it. You need to learn to choose. I find this my single biggest weakness and one I have struggled to control. Unless I limit the options of my life I exhaust myself running between them. The bible says that a wise man considers whether or not he has the materials to complete the building before he begins (paraphrased from proverbs). This is very sound wisdom. Make sure you finish what
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you start. More importantly, make sure you stay focused on what you started or else you will turn a very expensive laser into a flashlight.

A Word on Mindset
Mindset- A fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a persons responses to and interpretations of situations. Wikipedia

I am often asked by young entrepreneurs what the proper mindset is to ensure their success. This is obviously a difficult question to answer. By definition, a mindset is a fixed mental attitude or disposition. I think that this mindset changes according to circumstances and thus cannot really be defined. When asked this question, if I find myself, as I am now, not discussing mindset but Will. Napoleon Hill said anything you can conceive and believe you can achieve. I
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A Word on Mindset

believe this. Every great structure, business or institution began as an illusion in the mind of its creator. Even this world in which we live began as a thought form in the mind of God. Credendo Vides- Believing is seeing. All creation is an act of will. No matter what other aspects you bring to the creative process, if you do not bring a dedicated will, you will not complete it. But what is this thing we call will. Well we all think we know what will power is, and we talk about having free will and the will to live, but what is will really? I have always been challenged by the concept of will. To believe that my life is really just an act of my own will puts me under a lot of pressure. To think that willpower is some sort of power that allows me to reach my goals by way of, out powering my adversaries and my own failings, is just exhausting. Some time ago I came across a book entitled The Act Of Will by Roberto Assagioli M.D.
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Unlike a lot of other books of this nature, this book seemed to take both a scientific and practical approach to the concept of will. To me, one of the most important things pointed out in the book, is the true function of will in our lives. I quote, The true function of the will is not to act against the personality to force the accomplishments of ones purpose. The will has a directive and regulatory function; it balances and constructively utilizes all the other activities and energies of the human being without repressing any of them. This was freeing to me. As I said earlier, I always struggled with the concept of will, or willpower. The use of will to accomplish goals just seemed to take too much energy. I always saw will as the energy that moved the car. Not as the energy that steered it. If I take this example a little further, imagine how much energy you would expect to exert pushing a car up a hill. Now imagine how little energy you would have to spend steering it.

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A Word on Mindset

Will and willpower is really a matter of staying on course. Consistently making decisions in the same direction. This is a very important concept to understand. To consistently make decisions in the same direction, you have to limit yourself. You cannot do everything you want. The more options you allow yourself, the more WILL you will have to apply to stay on course. Maybe you are smart enough and wilful enough for that, but I am not. All aspects of creation are a function of limitation. Take the book you are reading. That book is there as a result of limitations. The pages and print are constrained to a certain size that allows them to have function for you. If they were not constrained in their current form you would not be able to read them. I am not trying to limit your vision, or to stop you from going where you want to go. I am merely pointing out to you that to create is an act of will. An act of will is by itself is an act of constraint. You cannot steer a
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car in two directions at once. You have to choose the highest and best choice for you at the time. Choose to steer the path that is most consistent with your chosen destination. A path that gets you there in one piece and ready to compete. If you always maintain the mindset that you are the captain of your ship and make choices that use the least amount of energy (will), you will get where you are going. A latin proverb says a drop of water makes a hole in the stone, not by its force, but by its constant falling. The key to overall success is consistency, this requires the will to stay on course. The best mindset to have in any venture is the one that gets you to the exit.

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Energy
It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan. Eleanor Roosevelt

While we were on the subject of WILL, I thought that I should mention another of my favourite topics, ENERGY. I am not what you might consider an extremely energetic person. My wife can work circles around me and so can many others. I have always felt a bit guilty about this. After all arent entrepreneurs supposed to be these highly energetic, workaholic types that never stop achieving. If that is so, I am in big trouble because, to tell you the truth, it doesnt take much to wear me out. So how do I find the energy to do what I need to do. Read on.

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Energy

When I was a kid, I remember my math book had a picture in it that looked something like this:

>>

X+3

The idea of this picture was to show the attributes of the box and how the output changed as you changed the input. For example if I put a 3 as the input for the above box, the attributes of the box converts the output to a 6. If I put a 4 as the input, the output is 7. So on and so forth. Life is also pretty much like this. Our will is made up of several attributes that fit into the box. I would put the following into the attribute box of my will.

>>

Focus Drive Purpose

Direction Resolve

What we put into the box as an input is energy. The attributes of our will then direct
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the energy in such a way as to give us the desired output. If you think about this practically you have plenty of examples of this in your own life. What you apply your energy to you will succeed. Now if that is true why do we not have what we think we want? Well the answer is easy. We have come to believe in our modern world that energy is a free and ever increasing resource. This is just not true. Not even for your body and mind. Each individual is born with a certain capacity for energy, much like a generator that is built. The generator has a certain capacity for output that will not change. If you push the generator for more power or run it for too long without a rest, it burns out. And so will you. The secret lies not in finding ways to increase your energy, the secret lies in learning to allocate the energy you have correctly. If we look again at the above attributes box and think about the energy, output
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Energy

equation, we will see a truth that may have been missed. Neither you nor I lack energy to accomplish our goals. Our energy is just misused. Take the above attributes box and put different inputs into the front. Instead of applying the energy with the goal of making money, apply the energy with the goal of attracting the opposite sex. The box still works, however your generator has used a portion of its allocation toward attracting the opposite sex and so has less for making money. This may not be a bad thing, I mean all work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy. But the truth exists nonetheless. How many people have you known that were horrible sales people, but excellent pick up artist. There is not defect in the attributes of their will, nor is there a lack of energy. The problem is a misuse of energy. If those individuals put more energy into sales than picking up women, they would be rich as well as good looking and it would take a lot less effort to achieve their original goal. If you are going to succeed in building your business make sure you take the time to
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do an energy audit before you begin. Figure out how much of your finite energy capacity is allocated to things that can change and how much is allocated to things that cant change. Then and only then will you have a clear view of whether you can finish what you start. If you make the mistake of thinking you will just generate more energy, you are headed for a breakdown. Remember the use of focus, will and energy are all choices. Choices you will have to make. Rather make them up front, so as not to fall down just as you reach the goal line.

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Putting it All Together

Thats my story and Im sticking to it Collin Quinn, Saturday Night Live

What makes a great entrepreneur has been a hotly contested question for as long as they have existed. All of us have a vision of perfection and are driven by the existence of men like Steven Jobs or Bill Gates. These men, like shining beacons, show us what is possible when an individual combines timing, talent and dedication toward a focused goal. The search for what made them what they are, can be a long one. Entrepreneurs are complex individuals that come from all walks of life. Not all of them fit into the Steven Jobs mould. Some are not what we would call attractive, or articulate, or even powerful. Some entrepreneurs are
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Putting it All Together

very simple people, adding value along the way and working diligently to fill the role they have been given. The road of an entrepreneur can be tough. Much like a missionary, we strive to convince the unbelieving and to convert the hostile. Just like missionaries, some entrepreneurs fall along the way, losing all in the pursuit of the inner belief in their concept. My purpose in writing this book was to aid you along the path. To put on paper the lessons I have learned along the way. Lessons taught to me by great people and horrible circumstance. If I have done well, I will have kept some of you from making the same mistakes myself, and others like me have made. Others I will have encouraged to keep going. Perhaps I have even convinced some not to begin. I hope so. To begin means to commit, to commit means to give up something. Better not to begin, then to start and not finish, thus giving something up for nothing.
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My greatest gift in life is to know and have known some amazing entrepreneurs. Some of them scaled the heights to become billionaires; others have had much less success. All of them learned a lot along the way and were kind enough to pass it on to me. It is my greatest desire that the path I have laid out here is of benefit to the reader. That the experiences I have highlighted add value to your life and that the wisdom of my teachers is passed on to you.

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Acknowledgements
There are many people who deserve to be acknowledged in my life and in their contribution to this work. First and foremost I have two beautiful children named Nicollo (yes after Machiavelli) and Daniella. Thanks to them for their love and motivation. I also have what I consider the perfect wife, beautiful, smart, aggressive and supportive. Thanks to her for allowing me the down time to actually write something. To my mother whose grandmother was a Clemens and has passed on to me, the genes of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). I long to be as witty as he was. To Duane for your insightful critiques. To Amanda Forrow for insisting I write this. To Anita for all your support and help.

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To Kim for adding her editing expertise. To Mike and Adonnlee Milligan for all their support and help and for showing all of us the true purpose of wealth. To all the individuals who have contributed so much to my life. To anyone who reads this. Youre the reason it was created. Should you have any comments or questions you can reach me at mark@veladev.com. Good luck to all of you.

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