“This Highway is for gamblers, better use your sense. Take what you have gathered from coincidence.”
Bob Dylan
One of the great American dreams is to be an entrepreneurial success. In our society being a successful business owner makes a statement about an individual’s work ethic, creativity, leadership and willingness to take risk. Successful business owners make a positive contribution to their community, and a lasting impact on the lives of many.
Perhaps part of their allure is successful entrepreneurs defy the odds. The vast majority of businesses are not successful. Despite all that has been written about how to start and operate a business, business failure is much like history — it is sure to be repeated. However, entrepreneurial success is also repeatable. Many entrepreneurs move from success to success with a recognizable pattern. At the root, there are business community mentors and sponsors, and capital raised and risked. Successful enterprises are planned, and then progressively built on a repeating loop of opportunities met with effective action. Successful entrepreneurs finish well with a managed exit strategy.
“Sometimes the Bull Wins” will be a collection of short posts and essays exploring the evolution of our business sensibilities and the underpinnings of our business efforts. The blog is intended for anyone operating a small or medium-sized IT professional services business, or thinking about starting one someday. Franchisors and channel management firms may also want to read it very carefully. Our commitment is to pack it with great ideas, and inspire conversations that produce ideas — any one of which could make a material difference at critical junctures in the start-up, development, and sale of an enterprise.
Tim – What a great story. I also had a few meetings with Mike Blumenthal. I used to take him on a call once a year to Fritz Companies in downtown San Francisco. On one trip I was asked to stop by his hotel to pick him up as we could walk to the account. I of course got there early and when he came out of the elevator I approached him and he asked me to go to breakfast with him. I damn near passed out. We sat down and discussed the account, business, etc. He told me that on the way out to SF he took a commercial flight and sat next to a seismologist and asked me what I thought he, an economist, and a seismologist had in common. Just like you I sat in silence for what seemed to be an hour and I finally said that you both deal in unpredictable vocations. He said ” you are right – we are both highly educated and have years of experience but neither of us can accurately predict what is going to happen in the future with any degree of confidence.”