Looking back over 35 years, The Successful Entrepreneur awakens at night as he reminisces over his struggling years. He wonders how he had the nerve to take out a huge mortgage on the home he had struggled so hard to own. He wonders how he ever persuaded his friends and relations to invest a lot of their savings in what easily could have been a failure.
He had been involved in engineering management for a large corporation that manufactured Precision Widgets. He knew the business well and even was considered a candidate for top management. He also knew their problems and visualized an opportunity. The machinery used to make some intricate parts was slow and unreliable. With his background, he knew he could build more dependable machines. It was risky, but he had confidence in his ability, and his investors had confidence in him.
The first year, with higher start-up costs than anticipated, was a loss. The next three years were barely break even, but The Successful Entrepreneur was able to obtain sufficient credit in order to expand for two reasons: First, his reputation for ability, sound judgment and integrity was A-1. Second, his product had developed a reputation for reliability, was faster than the competition's and still competitive in price. By obtaining additional capital to expand, he was able to satisfy market demand, spread his fixed costs over a larger income base and become profitable. He employed a lot of people, but he didn't create jobs for the sake of creating jobs. His employees were the result of his creation of a successful business that utilized their skills
Would he do it again in today's anti-business climate? No. He would likely stay with a large, established corporation and let someone else sweat those 12- to 15-hour days. Let them struggle with unnecessary, time-consuming, expensive government regulations.
Sadly, however, instead of the satisfaction of enjoying his success, he has been told that it wasn't his vision, his inventiveness or his ability to solve problems that built his business. No. Someone else did that.
How ironic! How depressing! How un-American!
Ed Nye,
Upper Sandusky
