Aviation of Business

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on May 5

An airplane is an amazing piece of machinery.  During some portions of a flight, it is required that the pilot make large changes and major corrections to the path of the aircraft.  Takeoff and landing are obvious places where this comes to mind.  This is called “hand flying” the airplane.

At other times, however, it is unnecessary to “hand fly” the plane - during straight and level “cruise” flight for instance.  During this phase of a flight, the pilot will use what’s called “trim” to make very slight corrections to the flight path of the airplane.  If the plane is descending slightly, the pilot will use “nose up trim” to stop the descent.  If climbing slightly, “nose down trim” may be used.  Some aircraft have trim for rolling (aileron trim) and turning (rudder trim) as well.  Keep in mind here that I am not talking about any kind of “auto-pilot;” this is just a way to more carefully and precisely control the plane once it is in “cruise” flight and flying at a single altitude and in one direction for a length of time.

This can be likened to a business (as always!).  At some points in the life of a business, like during the startup and initial growth, it is necessary to “hand fly” the business - you as an entrepreneur (pilot) must “control” the business more directly and make larger changes to its direction.  In an airplane this is during takeoff and climbout and only lasts a few minutes.  In business, it may last a few years. 

Additionally, if you plan on selling or in some other way “exiting” the business, you will, again, need to “hand fly” for awhile.  You may not be “hand flying” the business directly, but you will be directly and significantly involved in the process of finding a buyer and negotiating a fair price for both of you.  This roughly coincides with the approach and landing of an airplane - again a time when the pilot must be significantly involved in the aircraft’s control. 

Most other times during a business’s “flight,” small corrections and tweaks are all that is necessary to keep the company moving in the direction you want it to go.  This is, of course, assuming you have a good business plan (flight plan) and a good team (crew).  You also must be in a well-designed company (stable aircraft).  See my post on Tradeoffs for more on business design and aircraft design.

There ARE times during cruise flight when a business (or an airplane) DOES need to be hand flown - any time a change of direction is necessary.  In aviation, it is all about navigation or avoidance of other aircraft (which are subjects for other posts), and in business it is during times of change, when a new direction is needed to grow to the next level or to outmaneuver competition.

Times to hand fly an airplane / business:

• Takeoff / Startup
• Climbout / Initial growth phase (combination of trim and hand flying)
• Change in direction / New business opportunity
• Traffic avoidance / Response to competition (can be proactive or reactive)
• Initial descent / Considering exiting (combination of trim and hand flying)
• Approach to landing / Decision to exit made (combination of trim and hand flying)
• Landing / Exit of business (sale or other exit strategy)

The reason it is important to understand this is that is is possible to “hand fly” an aircraft (and a business) when it should be “trimmed.”  It is very easy to “overcorrect” when you hand fly an aircraft during cruise flight… this will cause large changes in altitude and direction because the pilot feels the need to directly control everything the aircraft does with relatively large control movements.  But in a stable aircraft, small adjustments with trim allow the plane to “fly itself” - and that is exactly what aircraft (and businesses) should be designed to do.

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Apr 27

Have you ever noticed the paths that are worn into the grass from where people walk when they don’t use the sidewalks? Why does that happen? It could be argued that sidewalks are a way to keep people in line and conforming to what someone else wants them to do, and that the fact that there ARE paths worn into the grass means that the entrepreneur mentality is widespread in the human population - this is why people don’t follow the path laid out for them by the sidewalks.  Walking in the grass is a way to buck conformity and “blaze your own path.”  We’ve all read the following poem a million times:

The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowthThen took the other as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same

However, once everyone starts taking “the road less traveled by,” it becomes more like a path cut in a field by cattle… follow the leader.  Humans are just as likely to fall into the “herd mentality” as any other animal. 

Sidewalks are just convenient borders, not necessarily useful paths.  So the fact is that paths get cut into the grass by human nature, which is to take the path of least resistance.  The only real “trailblazing” entrepreneur was the first person who walked the path - before it was even a path - and most likely it was done more out of laziness than out of “risky,” trailblazing, entrepreneurial moxie. 

So what is one to do?  Beyond the obvious environmental and aesthetic reasons to avoid the “beaten” path, I believe that the simple act of walking off the path beaten by so many cattle-minded folks will begin to train your mind to be different than others - which, we all know, is step number one to becoming an entrepreneur.

So do you want to be like the rest of the herd, killing the grass and making lazy trails across your corporate or campus lawns?  Or do you want to think about what you do and why you do it, taking care not to destroy something to get where you’re going? Leave a comment telling us how you train yourself to think and act differently than others so you can get what others don’t have!

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Apr 21

Here’s something interesting: Small Business Week coincides with Earth Day.  I don’t know if that is the case every year, but in 2007, here we are. 

President Bush has praised small business owners in the days preceding Small Business Week, but he has not latched on to the opportunity these shared celebrations present.  If you would like to read the full text of the President’s proclamation, click here (HTML) or here (PDF). 

Here’s the thing: we all know that the environment is in dire straights.  We’ve heard the hullabaloo about Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (both a book [aff] and a movie [aff]) and have seen the many recent reports on Global Warming (or Climate Change - choose your poison), a topic which has finally hit the mainstream as it deserves.

So what is to be done?  Bush missed a BEAUTIFUL opportunity to link Earth Day with Small Business Week.  According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), small business represents 50% of the United States’ private, non-farm gross domestic product (GDP).  In fact, small business ranged from 18 to 85 percent of each sector of the US economy!

Imagine what could happen if there was a strong call for small business to usher in a “green revolution!”  What if all small businesses began to run in an environmentally-friendly (even an environmentally-enhancing) way!  How great would it be if the ideas laid out in books like Green to Gold [aff] and Natural Capitalism [aff] were truly brought to fruition by the ingenuity and creativity of entrepreneurs and small-business owners!

Now think about what WILL happen if no small businesses think about the environment.  Nothing will change.  We’ll continue on exactly the same path we are already on - and, as we entrepreneurs know, avoiding change is not an option.  The status quo is a death knell for business.  In this case, the death knell would only warn us of the impending doom from climate change.  It may not end things, but it would DRASTICALLY change life as we know it.

So if President Bush won’t do it, I will.  I (and Aviation of Business) challenge all small business to try to think “outside their box” and “think globally while acting locally.”  And putting the clichés aside, I truly do believe that small business is up to the challenge of redefining what business can be.  I believe that small business, with its ability to change quickly and with its creativity and ability to mitigate risk (even though it can never be completely eliminated) is more likely to cause the environmental revolution than big, bumbling, slow conglomorates that slog through committees and make tiny, incremental changes so as not to misstep and (god forbid) make a mistake! </rant> Small business entrepreneurs know that mistakes are lessons, and that “incremental” actually means “slow and scared.”

So take the challenge, please!  Find any and every way you can make your business “green.”  Then let ‘er rip!  Leave a comment telling us how you currently “green” your business, and come back and add to the list if you hear about or think of a new, creative way to increase the “greenness” of your company!

Fair Winds,
Andrew

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Apr 19

There’s a saying in aviation: “Keep the shiny side up!”  Usually, it is said jokingly - often to a new student pilot or freshly minted private pilot. I imagine the saying may have started in early aviation when aircraft were not built to be as stable and trustworthy as they are today - when it was entirely possible that an inexperienced pilot could end up upside-down or in some other “interesting” attitude that would take a decent amount of skill to recover from.  The belly of an airplane tends to get dirty more quickly than the “top” of the plane - hence the saying.

Here again, the metaphor to business is uncanny.  Marketing is all about “keeping the shiny side up.”  It’s about showing the benefits (NOT the features) of your product.  I can talk all day about the higher powered engines and the fuel capacity increase on my newly designed model of aircraft, but that doesn’t mean you’ll understand that my new design will get you to your destination faster and without stopping for fuel. 

Of course depending on how you market, speed and endurance could also be considered benefits.  Benefits are different to different people.  So the “shiny side” of your product can only be “kept up” if you know your customer (or potential customer) and if you use words that make the “shiny side” of your product valuable to them. If I am talking to a pilot, useful load, endurance, range, climb speed, etc. are benefits.  If I am speaking to a small business owner looking for transportation, those are features.  The coinciding benefits are “carrying more passengers” (useful load), “non-stop flights coast-to-coast” (endurance & range), and “spending less time in traffic at low altitudes and lower fuel burn” (climb speed).  If you’ve been in an industry for a long time, it is hard to remember that not everyone speaks your language, so be careful!

As an example, a couple weeks ago, I bought some bottled water at the grocery store.  It was the same bottle as any other water.  The same size.  The same water, essentially.  But this company did something just a little different: they wrapped the caps with a plastic seal that matched the color of the bottle and prevented tampering.  This is an example of a simple, inexpensive way to stand out from the crowd and add class to a commodity product.  Talk about “keeping the shiny side up!”

How do you “keep the shiny side up” in your marketing?  Leave a comment and let us know!

Fair Winds,
Andrew

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Mar 17

My wife and her father often play Dr. Mario, an old eight-bit Nintendo game.  In this game, each player starts with a number of “germs,” each one of three colors: blue, red, or yellow.  The goal of the game is to eliminate all of the germs from the screen.  To do so, you must either stack up (vertically) or line up (horizontally) four blocks of the same color.  The blocks are actually pills; some are all one color - most are half one color and half another.  They come in any combination of two of the colors above.  Players can move and flip the “pills” to get them lined up or stacked properly to eliminate the colored germs with same color pill (or half-pill).  The pill’s and germs disappear when four or more of one color are lined (or stacked) up.

What is interesting about this is that when playing in competition, it is possible to “plop” on the other player by arranging your pills so as to make more than one line disappear with one move.  The other player will have two (or three, or four!) “half-pills” drop down at random on his/her side of the screen.  These plops generally land in inconvenient places and are inconvenient colors.

Why the hell am I giving you a crash course in Dr. Mario, you ask?  For this reason:  The competitive style of playing the game is uncanny in its parallel to entrepreneurship and business.  Stay with me here…

 Business is competitive by its very nature.  So the competition aspect of Dr. Mario draws an obvious similarity; however, there is much more!  Due to competition in business, there are constant “plops” in your business from your competitors… these “plops” are neither convenient nor avoidable - they happen no matter what you do.  They are totally in the control of your competition.

Now it gets truly interesting.  What you do and how you react to these “plops” often determins your success in the game… just like in business and entrepreneurship.  If the “plops” distract you from your ultimate goal of eliminating germs, your competition will beat you in short order.  On the same token, if you ignore the plops and play as if they aren’t happening, you’ll also get beaten.  To win the game, you have to change your actions to take the plops into account while always keeping the germs in mind.  If you can eliminate the germs while dealing with the plops, you have a good chance of winning.  By the way - sometimes the plops are actually beneficial.  Just like in life, luck plays a role.

My wife consistently wins at the game… often she wins three rounds straight - “skunking” her opponent.  She also regularly comes from behind after being ruthlessly “plopped” upon.  She is a master of adjusting her actions and strategy based on the reality of the game - always focusing on the end goal of eliminating the germs.

We need to do the same in business - focus on our goal, but always see the reality of our situation.  Only a combination of the two will lead us to success so we can “skunk” our competition.

Fair Winds,
Andrew

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Mar 11

Let’s start the aviation/business metaphor at the beginning - design.

I was recently in Memphis to facilitate some software training, and my flights back home were VERY delayed due to weather.  I was supposed to depart Memphis at 3:50 in the afternoon, but didn’t actually depart until about 7:30 in the evening.  That’s nothing compared to the JetBlue delays several weeks ago (and I was, fortunately, in the terminal and not on the plane for those few hours!), but it is still draining to sit around in uncomfortable airport seats while waiting for your aircraft to arrive. 

Luckily for me, my crew (two pilots and a flight attendant) were ALSO waiting for the plane to arrive, so I used the time to speak with them about flight schools (I’m considering going back to school and flying professionally while I build my businesses) and aviation in general.  See my Intro to Networking post for my take on meeting new people and networking in general.  I was also quite fortunate that my crew from Memphis to Chicago was ALSO the crew flying me from Chicago home - as long as I didn’t let them out of my sight, there was no way for me to miss my connection!  Mada, my flight attendant, also moved me from my cramped little seat to a leg-roomy exit row seat (another example of why you should network every chance you get)!

Once on the ground in Chicago, there were more than 60 people waiting to get on a 40-seat airplane (an Embraer Regional Jet, if you’re interested).  The weather was still ugly, but we boarded the airplane and pushed back with several empty seats.  A few of the other passengers grumbled in anger about leaving people behind when there was obviously room on the airplane - so I tried to explain to those in earshot about how aircraft are not designed to carry both full passengers AND full fuel… every kind of aircraft has weight limitations - and passengers add weight.  Fuel adds weight, too.  And if the plane is too heavy, it won’t fly.  So when you’re flying through (or into, or around) bad weather, it is necessary to carry more fuel (not only for safety but also to meet certain regulatory requirements) in case Air Traffic Control makes you hold or if you have to go to an alternate airport because of the conditions at the planned destination.  To carry this fuel, the airline may have to leave some seats empty. 

Now, it is possible (theoretically) to design an airplane that creates enough lift at a slow enough speed to fly with full fuel and full passengers - but it would most likely burn fuel at a faster rate and/or have to fly at a slower speed, meaning its range would be unacceptable for use as an airliner or the flight would take longer than acceptable to us as passengers.  So the designers of the plane have to trade utility for efficiency and efficacy. 

All of the above leads me to what really struck me about the similarities of tradeoffs between the design of an airplane and the design of a new business:  in both airplane design and business design, you can’t be everything to everyone… you need to find a niche.  Many, many business and entrepreneurial bloggers have already spoken about this from a business perspective, including (but obviously not limited to) Derek Gehl, of The Candid Internet Marketer; Sterling and Jay of Internet Business Mastery; and Tyler Cruz, of An Internet Entrepreneur’s Journey, who doesn’t actually say anything at all about how to find one or really even what one is, but waxes eloquently about how, exactly, one pronounces it. 

In business, because an entrepreneur wants a business to be low-cost and bring in enough money to make a profit, s/he cannot make everyone happy.  Choices have to be made about what products to sell and at what price, and where to locate.  An entrepreneur who designs a business so they can “fill all the seats and still put in full fuel” to try to please everyone will find themselves not pleasing anyone. 

So in business, you must find a niche, then create a product around it - even though there are many stories of entrepreneurs creating a product, then creating a niche for it after the fact (this is lovingly known as “an answer in search of a problem”), this is by far the exception rather than the rule.  The airplane, actually, is a good example of this; Orville and Wilbur Wright designed the first airplane - The Wright Flyer - for the sheer challenge, not because there was demand for flying machines.  They then set out to build demand for the product.

An airplane’s design allows its pilots to understand what they can make it safely do.  In a similar manner, every successful business is designed with a focus, allowing its “pilots” to sacrifice less important things (according to the business’s design) to meet the goals that it has set for itself.  A business’s mission, vision, and values state its purpose - as well as what it is willing to “trade” to achieve its goals.

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Mar 3

Okay, so the more I read blogs, the more I am amazed at the similarities between people. 

Verna Wilder, for instance, consistently impresses me with the similarities between what she does (or wants to do) and what I do (or want to do).  Recently, Verna posted about wanting to learn to play the harmonica.  In her usual manner, she wrote beautifully about the lesson that particular interest was currently teaching her: to really learn something, you must first learn to have a Beginner’s mind.  I’ve long wanted to learn to play piano, guitar, etc., but I have trouble starting something that I don’t already understand or basically know how to do already.  It’s silly, but difficult for many people, I imagine.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that as soon as you start something, the universe provides to make it work (as long as you really want it)!  Within a month of starting this blog, another blogger posts about flying!  Ben Casnocha, a blogger, entrepreneur, and passionate player of table tennis, recently took his first flight in a small aircraft.  Apparently, a friend of his owns what appears from the picture to be a Cirrus airplane and he was taken on a flight over Colorado.  I’d accuse him of trying to elbow into my metaphor, but I’m sure he doesn’t know who I am, nor does he need my traffic. :)  I have two questions for him, though:

1. Did you think about the similarities between flying that plane and starting/running a business?
2. Where have you heard about the “unusually high rate of small aircraft accidents?”

So it’s a small world; people separated by hundreds, even thousands of miles - people who have never even met each other - are connected in strange, interesting ways.  Verna has reminded me that to learn and do something new, you have to start by accepting that you aren’t going to be good at it at first, and that’s okay.  And Ben has reminded me that one of the main goals of this blog is to build a metaphor connecting aviation and business-building - and I have yet to truly post on that topic.  Watch for that post soon!

Thanks, Verna.

Thanks, Ben.

Thanks, readers - for your comments!  Keep ‘em coming… have you noticed the connections between strangers and essentially disparate people?  How did the connections become obvious to you?

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Feb 25

We’ve all been told how important a network is to our success.  Once we’ve decided to “do something,” whether it be starting a new business or finding a new job or new career, having a good network becomes crucial to the ultimate success of that endeavor.

If you are starting a business, knowing people from many disciplines can be nothing but helpful to you; looking for advice on what business structure to use for your entrepreneurial idea?  Perhaps you know (or know someone who knows) a good business lawyer.  Looking to start an online business?  Maybe you have a good friend who is a web-designer.  Did you invent a better mousetrap?  Who better to introduce it to the world than your brother-in-law who is a professional in sales.

If you’re looking for a new career/job, it’s good to know people who work in the industry you’re looking to enter.  It’s good to know Human Resources professionals from your current job (or previous jobs) – they generally have connections in other HR departments at other companies or even general search firms.  Maybe your old college roommate is a head-hunter now (or can give you the name and number of the headhunter who found her the great job she started a few months ago!)… the possibilities are endless.

But what is a network?  What is social capital?  Is your network your friends from high-school and college?  Is it your professional acquaintances from work?  Is it your social acquaintances from the dive bar where you sing karaoke on Wednesday nights?  Or is it only the people you know who can actually help you in some way – people who have something you need and are willing to give it to you?

First of all, understand that everyone you know or have met is your network.  Having said that, also understand that a network is absolutely not a one-way street.  Once you have met someone, it is up to you to cultivate the relationship to ensure that your network continues to grow and does not begin to dry up and shrink.  Because - let’s be honest here - your functional network is much smaller than your network as a whole. When you need something from your network, it’s your active contacts who are going to be willing and able to help you, not necessarily the guy who gave you his business card at that “How to deal with difficult people” seminar at the Mariott two years ago. Unless that guy happens to know or be related to someone you know well and talk to regularly.

Which brings me to my main point - maintaining an active, open, entrepreneurial network.  Networking is not just meeting new people (although to keep a network growing you must meet new people once in awhile); it is also reconnecting with people you already know on a regular basis.  For example:  Marcie and Jamie work with you at your current job, and they used to eat lunch with you and others - sometimes one-on-one, sometimes as a larger group.  But over time, they have begun to eat lunch by themselves, in their cubicles.  Not so they can get more work done (which is no excuse anyway - if you can’t get your work done without skipping your lunch break, you either have too much work or a time-management issue), just alone.  While one should never take no time for themselves, one should also not avoid cultivating the relationships built over time.  Marcie and Jamie’s “social-capital” network is shrinking right before their eyes.  Their former lunch partners are now wondering, “What did I do?  Why is Marcie avoiding me?” They may even be saying, “If she always works through lunch, why doesn’t she get more done?  Why do I still have to pick up the same slack I’ve always picked up?”  Oops.  This person certainly isn’t going to get the help they want and may need in the future from their network.

There’s a book called Never Eat Alone, by Keith Ferrazzi, which discusses the exact issue above.  I’ve heard that it’s very good, and that Mr. Ferrazzi is considered one of the most connected people in the world.  While I haven’t read the book, I bet I already know one of it’s main themes - take lunch with people in your network, and add more people to your network when you meet them at business dinners, office parties, etc.  I plan on picking up this book from the library soon and getting everything I can out of it.

As a last thought before ending this (admittedly long) post, keep in mind that a network is not there only for you to get something from.  It’s there for you to give as well.  There is a long-known but not well-understood law of business and the universe - you get what you give.  It seems nonsensical, but if you want to attract more money into your life, you should give more money away (not spend more money, but donate and tithe more money).  If you want someone to help you, you must first help others (not necessarily the person whose help you want).  It’s the pay-it-forward phenomenon, even more like karma, whether or not you want to believe it.  When was the last time you gave someone a smile and didn’t get one back?  A network is the same thing.  You have to be willing to give before you can get - and you have be willing to not keep track of who owes you because you’ve done something for them.  Let the cards fall where they may - ultimately, the universe provides and balances.  Let it do what it does while you do what you can.

How do you tender your network? How has your network assisted you?  Leave a comment and tell us!

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Feb 21

Where does one find business wisdom? Provided the right mindset, it can be found nearly anywhere - music, fiction books, everyday conversations with family and friends, etc.  The trick is to make the business mindset a habit.  The more you consciously think about business and entrepreneurship, the more you will subconsciously think about business and entrepreneurship.  The more you are subconsciously thinking about it, the more these nuggets of wisdom will appear to you - all around you.

 There are hundreds, thousands, even more business books out there.  Each one is packed full of business wisdom, written in a business-y way.  Some of these books are very good - Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad is credited by many entrepreneurs as THE book that got them started.  A classic that is also cited by many is Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.  There are many more books that are recommended highly by entrepreneurs and others.  Check out Ben Casnocha’s Book List (he’s one of the most prolific readers I’ve ever seen); Guy Kawasaki’s Ten Favorite Books; or see Joyful Jubilant Learning’s A Love Affair with Books 2007 in March.

Business books are important.  They have lots of useful knowledge packed into them.  These books are written in perfect business fashion - efficient!  Lots of information in a small space can be good, but it is hard to remember everything - it’s hard to put all of it into practice and make it useful.

Most importantly, however, if you focus on business books to the exclusion of all the other business wisdom that surrounds you, you’re actually missing out on the best learning and the most important lessons. 

As an example of this, I recently read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy.  In the final book of the trilogy, one of the main characters, Will, is told by an angel, Xaphania, that he has important things to do with his life.  His answer, and Xaphania’s response, is below:

“What work have I got to do then?” said Will, but went on at once, “No, on second thought, don’t tell me. I shall decide what I do.  If you say my work is fighting, or healing, or exploring, or whatever you might say, I’ll always be thinking about it. And if I do end up doing that, I’ll be resentful because it’ll feel as if I didn’t have a choice, and if I don’t do it, I’ll feel guilty because I should. Whatever I do, I will choose it, no one else.”

            “Then you have already taken the first steps towards wisdom,” said Xaphania.

I love this passage for several reasons.  I like the reference to personal choice, which is obvious in the passage.  But I also like the underlying message, which is that even though you have the ability to choose anything you want to do, you STILL have to choose, and you still have to DO!  Sitting still, or analysis paralysis, does not count as a choice.  Knowing that you have important things to do is only beneficial if you make a choice and do something, even if you aren’t sure it is the “right” thing - the thing you are “supposed” to do.  Do something, anything.  Whatever you think might be that “right” thing.

Like Will Rodgers said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”  Get up and get out there. Do something.

Make it your habit to recognize these nuggets of wisdom… then share them by leaving us a comment telling us what you’ve learned!

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Feb 3

One of the most important things to do when considering becoming an entrepreneur is to know your “whys.”  Why do you want to own your own business?

This seems like the most obvious thing that anyone could say - that it would be easy to explain why someone would want to become an entrepreneur.  Some common answers to “why” include:

• Be my own boss
• Set my own schedule
• Make more money
• Enjoy my work
• Etc. etc.

Having said that, I feel that most of the above reasons are cop-outs.  Everyone wants to set their own schedule, make more money, and enjoy his/her work.  But why do only a few decide to become entrepreneurs?  It’s possible to make more money and enjoy your work in a “traditional” career-path… so what’s the REAL reason you want to start a business?

This takes some more thinking and soul-searching, because in reality starting your own business takes time and commitment - so “making your own schedule,” at least at first, means scheduling yourself 12-16 hour days and “burning the midnight oil” more often than you have since undergraduate school (only then it was more fun and you didn’t remember it the next day!).

So I have come to the conclusion that to make the decision to become an entrepreneur, you must be a very self-aware person; often you know, deep-down, that you want to start and run your own business, but you don’t truly know why.  So you fall back to one or more of the cop-out answers above.  And then, if you’re lucky, you have an epiphany as to REALLY why you want to be an entrepreneur.

I had that epiphany just the other day, and I think it will help me get off my ass and actually start moving more quickly to the goals I’ve set for my businesses and my life.

So here it is:

My father died when I was about twelve or thirteen years old.  I take a lot of his traits and interests - in fact, I’m sure the main reason I went into aviation is because of Dad.  He was a private pilot and a mechanic for a major airline, and I thought he was the coolest person in the world.  Thinking back, I may be kind of lucky - in a way - that he died while I was so young, because now he will always be coolest person in the world to me.

But this isn’t specifically about Dad - it’s actually about Mom.  After Dad died, it was just Mom, my brother, and me.  Mom had been working part-time for the county.  Though we’ve never really talked about it, I’m sure the plan was ultimately to retire on Dad’s pension and some savings - a good plan, had it worked out.  But it didn’t.  Dad died, and Mom and we two kids had to make do.  And we did - well.  My brother and I wanted for just about nothing, and mom worked very hard and long hours to provide everything that we needed - all of us.

But now, Mom is still working long hours and is “buying back” retirement years (she works in public education) so she can actually retire at a reasonable age.  Fortunately, Mom works in a field that she is passionate about, and she makes it about the kids, not just about making a living - so it is bearable for her.

I, however, have not found a job that makes me want to put in twelve-hour days (or more) - not one where I am making someone else rich.  My time is my time, and if I’m getting paid for eight hours, I’m rarely going to work beyond that if I can help it.  But if I start and run my own business - if I become an entrepreneur - each and every hour I work directly benefits me.  My pay does not become diluted if I spend more time working. 

Most importantly, if something were to happen to me, my wife wouldn’t be left holding the bags, so to speak!  My mom had to sacrifice too much to ensure that my brother and I had everything we needed because the plans that she and Dad made were dashed when he died unexpectedly.  I don’t want that to happen to my wife should I go down in flames someday.