1st Surefire Way to Sink Your Start-Up
It amazes me every time I see it, but it should not. There is a story on the front page of the B section of today’s Wall Street Journal “Writing the Book on Self-Help: A Publisher’s Cautionary Tale.” It’s an interesting article on its own because it goes into the do’s and don’t’s of self-publishing. However, the thing that really grabs me is the attitude of the guy involved.
The intrepid entrepreneur in the article reminds me of my grandfather. My mother’s father was an immigrant also. Many times when he would try something new to save money he would make some pretty basic mistakes. When he would hire people to do work for him he was constantly second guessing them on the work he hired them to do.
The man in the WSJ article seems to be a well educated and reasonably well off. For some unknown reason he felt that he could successfully self-publish a book by his wife. Not an unreasonable expectation in today’s world. There are lots of self-publishing resources around. Unfortunately, he chose to ignore all of them and any advice others in the publishing business gave to him.
Okay, first rule of risking your own money on your own business: Don’t get involved in any business you don’t understand. Second rule: If you ignore the first rule then find people who know the business and listen to what they have to say. We call it learning.
Investing in any business is risky. The risk goes up exponentially in relation to your ignorance of that business. Think of your own experience. There are many “tricks of the trade” that you know that nobody has ever documented. Having been in a field for a length of time gives you an intuitive sense of what is happening before you can think. This allows for quicker action than any rookie can have. Think of an Irish plumber who buys a Thai restaurant. If you don’t think that is a recipe for disaster you need to watch all the episodes of “The Honeymooners.”
Fortunately, the fellow in the WSJ story is wealthy enough to withstand and recover from his mistakes. He appears to have actually learned something, but he could have done it cheaper and easier if he had listened.
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