Counter Intuition

It's July 1935. Two of ten men and women are jobless. Breadlines and shanty-towns are common. Businesses have cut capital spending, deeper even than the year before.

In Massachusetts, two teenage brothers borrow $547 from their parents to open an ice cream shop they name "Friendly." They offer double-dip cones of store-made ice cream for a nickel―half the price charged by drug-store soda fountains―and stay open 'til midnight.

You know the rest: 40 years later, the brothers―after adding an apostrophe S to the name―own 500 shops.

Furloughed friends of mine ask if it's time to polish the resume or "go 1099." 

I answer, though it's counter-intuitive, "There's no time like the present to hang up your shingle."

It isn't easy to run a business, much less earn enough to support yourself―especially during a recession.

I know from experience.

But examples of businesses begun in recessions are bountiful: GE, GM, Marriott, Disney, HP, Trader Joe’s, FedEx, IBM, Microsoft, Instagram, Uber, Pinterest and Square, to name just a few.

The secret to success? 

It isn't capital or a "big idea.

It's hunger.

Recessions are distinct not only because they cause unemployment, but spawn survivalists, "spunky" entrepreneurs who launch businesses with low start-up costs and ready customers―like the ones hankering for a late-evening ice cream in 1935 Massachusetts.

But whatever you do, don't ask me for sound business advice.

I'm like the retailer who buys $3 shirts and sells them for $2. 

"How do you get away with that?" my competitor asks. 

“I make it up in volume.”

Let Them Eat Crêpes

Daniel Giusti, once head chef of the world's best restaurant, now runs all the public-school cafeterias in New London, Connecticut, reports The Washington Post.

His goal: to provide the city's 3,300 children the same meals one-percenters enjoy, at a cost to the government of $1.35 per student.

Instead of limp burgers and fries, the cafeteria menus now feature items like fresh-roasted chicken tacos with pickled vegetables; turkey sandwiches; whole-grain cheese ravioli; corn chowder; and a Mediterranean bowl with greens, chickpeas, cucumbers, olives, feta and a house-made balsamic vinaigrette.

All meals are served on porcelain dishes, instead of paper plates.

Giusti is one of many social entrepreneurs who've rejected toiling for the rich in favor of "a life's work."

“The whole point of this is that we’re taking care of these kids,” he says. “We can never lose sight of that. It can’t be about anything else.”

HAT TIP: Thanks to Bob Hughes for pointing me to this story.

Smile While You're Making It

Fiction's where I go when I've OD'ed on reality.

"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures," Emerson said.

And it's often "the best way to capture reality," Jack Grebski says in Entrepreneur. 

Grebski lists his must-see films for entrepreneurs, and the lesson each one teaches:

• Catch Me If You Can (a lesson in "the good ol’ hustle to reach success")

• Lord of War (a lesson in "ambition, tenacity, and ability to tolerate risk)

• Wall Street (a lesson in "how easy it is to get carried away with the glamorous lifestyle that accompanies wealth")

• Rogue Trader (a lesson in "how money drives all sorts of maniacal behavior")

• Twelve Angry Men (a lesson in "the psychology of group behavior")

• Office Space (a lesson in "leadership, team-building techniques, and career development")

• The Godfather (a lesson in "why understanding competition is non-negotiable")

• The Usual Suspects (a lesson in "leadership consolidation, power and influence, and long-term business strategy")

• How To Get Ahead In Advertising (a lesson in "creative problem solving")

• The Devil Wears Prada (a lesson in "how to work your way up the corporate ladder")

• Thank You For Smoking (a lesson in "how to sell just about any product")

• Glengarry Glen Ross (a lesson in "competition and manipulation")

• The Merchant of Venice (a lesson in "business partnerships, risk assessment and mercantile law")

• Dr. Strangelove (a lesson in "leadership and loyalty")

• Erin Brockovich (a lesson in "the importance of sticking to one’s scruples even in the face of obstacles")

• The Rainmaker (a lesson in "the power of determination and social responsibility")

I'm sure you can add to Grebski's list, if you think about it.

My must-watch film for entrepreneurs is Oh, Lucky Man!, a rompish retelling of Voltaire's Candide set in the UK in 1973, and a lesson in the vagaries and hypocrisies of the climb to riches.

Oh, Lucky Man! is worth the watch just to spot a 28-year-old Dame Helen Mirren.

What's your fav?

On-Demand Undermines Even Investors

In the 19th century, an enterprising forebear of mine owned a block of houses in the mining town of Franklin, New Jersey, that he leased to workers.

Unbeknownst to the workers, he also leased his mineral rights to the local mining company, which promptly dug a shaft beneath the houses.

According to family lore, my forbear had to skedaddle one dark night, when all the houses and their occupants vanished in a mine-shaft collapse.

Lesson learned.

When investors undermine workers, everyone gets the shaft.

The halo's fast falling from the Uberization of work, Caroline Fairchild writes on LinkedIn.

Millennial entrepreneurs are shifting workers from 1099 to W-2 status, because they're learning that, to succeed, they have to do things like train people and ask them to show up at 9.

You know, 19th century stuff.

As Fairchild shows, on-demand startups that want to appify black markets in everything from home delivery to hospitality face harsh critics.

"As these venture capital darlings walk the fine line between saving on labor costs and breaking the law, regulators and politicians are watching, and critiquing, their every move," she writes.

"The lines being drawn here raise critical questions: Should workers embrace the freedom the digital world offers? Or should they try to hold onto the rights that their predecessors fought over 100 years to win? Is this new economy moving us forward or backward?"

Forward or backward? What do you think?

Code Eats Content for Breakfast

Lamenting developers' complicity in content piracy, marketing guru Mark Schaefer recently wrote, "Coding is cheap and fast and plentiful and we seem to be in a media world dominated by cleaning up unintended consequences."

Developers know they're killing creatives, the geese that lay the golden eggs. But, wantonly, they continue to pump out code that rewards content pirates.

There's no real news here, alas. Just old-fashioned avarice.

While encouraged by investors to "disrupt" moribund industries, developers continue to fleece creatives, as they have since the days of Napster.

The injustices they perpetuate make literal the economist's term creative destruction.

Market-oriented, Schaefer recommends a return to patronage, the "Renaissance monetization model," to support content creators.

Raised by parents who worshipped FDR, I recommend revival of the WPA (funded by taxing companies like Facebook.)

What's your idea?

Harvest Time

Salesman Ray Kroc was 52 when he asked the McDonald brothers to let him franchise their drive-in burger joint.

Composer Ludwig van Beethoven was 54 when he wrote Symphony No. 9.

Pharmacist John Pemberton was 55 when he started to sell his invention, Coca-Cola.

Actor Ronald Reagan was 55 when he first ran for public office in California.

Former slave Nancy Green was 56 when she was selected to portray the trade character "Aunt Jemima" by the Pearl Milling Company.

Philosopher John Locke was 57 when he penned An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Two Treatises of Government, his magnum opuses.

Pamphleteer Daniel Defoe was 58 when he penned Robinson Crusoe.

Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was 59 when he directed Vertigo. 

Actor Sidney Greenstreet was 61 when he began his film career.

Gas station operator Harland Sanders was 65 when he opened his first fried chicken restaurant.

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright was 70 when he designed Fallingwater. 

Artist Grandma Moses was 78 when she first picked up a paint brush.

Even though I've worn out two dozen erasers in my Saturday afternoon drawing classes, I feel a thrill every time the marks resemble the thing in front of me.

Any gardener will tell you, patience and blind faith are the keys to an autumn harvest.

"Here's to the late bloomers, holding on 'til our time arrives," says songwriter and storyteller Korby Lenker.

Learn more about later bloomers from Dan Pink and Malcolm Gladwell.

"Autumn Leaf" by Robert Francis James. Charcoal on paper.

Lost in a Daydream

One hundred years ago this month, Einstein stood before the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin and read his paper describing the General Theory of Relativity, "the most beautiful theory in the history of science," according to biographer Walter Isaacson.

Isaacson wants to use the centennial to celebrate daydreaming, as he says in a recent op-ed in The New York Times.

Einstein concocted the theory not by recasting formulas, but by daydreaming about light beams and billiard balls.

Isaacson argues we should goad kids to accomplish more than memory-work. "We should stimulate their minds’ eyes as well."

"Everything of value in our world started at some point with an idle daydream," writes marketer Mark Schaefer in Born to Blog. "Dreaming helps us connect the dots. Dreaming is mandatory for seeing the world as it should be, rather than how it is."

Take a few minutes today, grab a coffee or chocolate bar, and celebrate Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

But, please, don't interrupt your daydream.

Wheel of Fortune

My maternal grandfather, a watchmaker, survived the Great Depression by operating a carnival wheel in an amusement park in Newark, New Jersey.

Today, the wheel hangs on a wall in my home, a gaudy artifact symbolizing weird work and small wagers, and the legacy of a man whose real trade was time.

Most of my grandfather's biographical details are lost, but at least one is clear: despite the Depression, he stayed in the game.

Fortunate are the people who—as he did—show up, learn new skills, take risks, think weird.

They don't surrender to the feeling they're hostages or has-beens. They choose instead to be bootstrappers.

Right now, two generations, Millennials and Boomers, are joined at the hip by the prospect of near-poverty.

They're placing bets on the next spin of the wheel.

The bootstrappers are mastering new, adaptive skills. 

The rest are at home, consuming games and gameshows.

Which are you doing?

Too Much Information. Not.

E-com exec Hiroshi Mikitani says you can't get too much info.

“If anything, to be successful, one must embrace all kinds of information, all the time.”

Mikitani cites a passage from the 16th-century Book of Five Rings, by samurai-author Miyamoto Musashi.

Observing a carpenter at work, Musashi sees ways for readers to sharpen their skills:

The carpenter will make it a habit of maintaining his tools sharp so they will cut well. Using these sharp tools masterfully, he can make miniature shrines, writing shelves, tables, paper lanterns, chopping boards and pot-lids. These are the specialties of the carpenter. Things are similar for the soldier. You ought to think deeply about this.

"Answers and ideas are often hidden within completely unrelated things," Mikitani says. 

To spot them, you must approach the world with curiosity.

"There is nothing in the world unrelated to your life. That fire hose of information that douses you constantly is a blessing, not a curse."

The point? 

Stay open for inspiration.

The Secrets of Teamwork

Thomas Edison's great grandniece has penned Midnight Lunch, a 300-page book that reveals the inventor's four-faceted approach to teamwork.

• Edison built teams from diverse disciplines. The team that invented the lightbulb included chemists, mathmeticians and glassblowers.
  
  
• The inventorlearned from his mistakes. After state and local governments rejected his electronic vote recorder, Edison decided to focus exclusively on consumer products.
  
  
• Edison's vision kept the teams on track. When team members floundered or disagreed, the boss quickly intervened, deciding the course.
  
  
• Edison changed direction with the market. Other inventors of the day ignored the fact that consumers wanted products powered by electricity—and they failed.

Burned Out?

Too busy to perform your job well?

Join the crowd.

New research by Towers Watson reveals that, thanks to workforce cutbacks during the past five years, "employees feel overwhelmed by seemingly impossible workloads and endless demands on their time."

That stress is driving four in every ten employees to "disengage" from their jobs.

Towers Watson suggests that employers need to stop trying to squeeze more out of people and start concentrating on their fundamental need for down-time.

What should employers do?

Towers Watson says they should allow flexible work-schedules, encourage telecommuting, and permit workers to curtail the length of meetings and the hours during which they'll answer emails.

Ironically, while many employers promote wellness programs that offer incentives to employees who exercise, diet or manage chronic illnesses, the same employers are harming their employees with overwork, Towers Watson says.

Want to Be More Productive? Sit Around.

Meditation makes you more productive, says consultant Peter Bregman in Harvard Business Review.

Meditation increases your ability to resist counterproductive urges, such as the urge to interrupt other speakers; to procrastinate; or to play office politics.

"If you can resist your urges, you can make better, more thoughtful decisions," Bregman says. "You can be more intentional about what you say and how you say it. You can think about the outcome of your actions before following through on them."

While not every urge is counterproductive, many are. Meditation helps you distinguish valuable urges from futile ones.

"Urges hold useful information," Bregman writes. "If you're hungry, it may be a good indication that you need to eat. But it also may be an indication that you're bored or struggling with a difficult piece of work. Meditation gives you practice having power over your urges so you can make intentional choices about which to follow and which to let pass."

There's No Place Like Om

Meditation can make you a better business leader, says Harvard Business School professor and former CEO Bill George.

Meditation "teaches you to pay attention to the present moment, recognizing your feelings and emotions and keeping them under control, especially when faced with highly stressful situations," George writes in Harvard Business Review.

Pressures and the pursuit of profits turn too many managers into monsters, George observes.

"The key is to stay grounded and authentic, face new challenges with humility, and balance professional success with more important but less easily quantified measures of personal success."

If meditation feels too woo-woo, other mind-calming tools are available.

"The important thing is to have a set time each day to pull back from the intense pressures of leadership to reflect on what is happening. In addition to meditation, I know leaders who take time for daily journaling, prayer, and reflecting while walking, hiking or jogging," George says.

If You Had Only a Dollar, What Would You Spend It On?

Bill Gates once said, "If I was down to my last dollar, I'd spend it on public relations."

Were I in his shoes, I'd spend it on content.

"Content is the new black," says marketing maven Janine Popick in Inc.

Content helps you generate leads, elevate search engine rankings and close more deals, Popick says.

Content works because it positions you as an expert.

"Because you're writing (or talking) about what you know, in time, you become an industry thought leader. And people prefer doing business with those they believe are experts in their category," Popick says.

Entrepreneurial ADD

Bonus tip from P.T. Barnum's 1880 playbook Art of Getting Money.

Management consultants and business writers love to quote young CEOs who insist they're about to disrupt the universe.

But, for every 30 year-old billionaire, there are a million visionaries who chase barmy ideas. Worse, they chase too many.

I think they all suffer from a bad case of entrepreneurial ADD, complicated by an impulse to become the next Mark Zuckerberg.

Without doubt, success derives from a good idea. But much more than that, it demands focus.

P.T. Barnum asked business people to think big, but stick to the knitting. Barnum wrote:

"Let hope predominate, but be not too visionary. Many persons are always kept poor, because they are too visionary. Every project looks to them like certain success, and therefore they keep changing from one business to another, always in hot water, always 'under the harrow.' The plan of 'counting the chickens before they are hatched' is an error of ancient date, but it does not seem to improve by age."

Tip #5 for Getting Money

Use the Best Tools
Part 5 of of a 5-part series on the Golden Rules for Making Money, as set forth in P.T. Barnum's 1880 guidebook Art of Getting Money

The "tools" P.T. Barnum means are the ones who leave each night in the elevator.

"You cannot have too good tools to work with, and there is no tool you should be so particular about as living tools," he writes.

Which employees make the best tools?

The ones who are curious.

The curious employee is the best because "he learns something every day, and you are benefited by the experience he acquires," Barnum says.
"He is worth more to you this year than last, and he is the last man you should part with."

Tip #4 for Getting Money

Don't Get above Your Business
Part 4 of a 5-part series on the Golden Rules for Making Money, as set forth in P.T. Barnum's 1880 guidebook Art of Getting Money

You can strive to be excellent. Or you can strive to make money.

You cannot do both.

"The great ambition should be to excel all others engaged in the same occupation," says P.T. Barnum.

Focusing on a fat bottom line is getting above your business. It guarantees you'll occupy a place below competitors.

Focusing on excellence is sticking to your business. It guarantees you'll attract a lot of customers.

"Americans are too superficial," Barnum writes. "They are striving to get rich quickly, and do not generally do their business as substantially and thoroughly as they should. But whoever excels all others in his own line, if his habits are good and his integrity undoubted, cannot fail to secure abundant patronage, and the wealth that naturally follows. Let your motto then always be 'Excelsior,' for by living up to it there is no such word as fail."

Tip #3 for Getting Money

Read the Newspapers
Part 3 of a 5-part series on the Golden Rules for Making Money, as set forth in P.T. Barnum's 1880 guidebook Art of Getting Money

"Always take a trustworthy newspaper, and thus keep thoroughly posted in regard to the transactions of the world," says P.T. Barnum in Art of Money Getting.

The businessperson who doesn't read every day "is cut off from his species."

"In these days of telegraphs and steam," Barnum writes, "many important inventions and improvements in every branch of trade are being made, and he who don't consult the newspapers will soon find himself and his business left out in the cold."

Tip #2 for Getting Money

Be Polite and Kind to Your Customers
Part 2 of a 5-part series on the Golden Rules for Making Money, as set forth in P.T. Barnum's 1880 guidebook Art of Getting Money

"Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in a business," writes P.T. Barnum in Art of Money Getting. "Large stores, gilt signs, flaming advertisements will all prove unavailing if you or your employees treat your patrons abruptly."

Politeness begins with fair pricing, Barnum says.

"Men who drive sharp bargains with their customers, acting as if they never expected to see them again, will not be mistaken. They will never see them again as customers. People don't like to pay and get kicked also."

Civility shows in how a business treats not just friendly customers, but the customers from hell.

Barnum tells of an employee who wanted to punch a rude customer.

"He is the man who pays, while we receive," Barnum told the employee. "You must, therefore, put up with his bad manners."

The employee agreed—and asked for a raise.

Tip #1 for Getting Money

Advertise Your Business
Part 1 of a 5-part series on the Golden Rules for Making Money

Showman P.T. Barnum published a little book in 1880 titled Art of Money Getting.

In it, he shared his "Golden Rules for Making Money," including this one, "Advertise Your Business."

If you want to get rich, "Be careful to advertise," Barnum says.

"If a man has got goods for sale and he don't advertise them in some way, the chances are that some day the sheriff will do it for him," Barnum warns.

But advertising alone isn't enough.

You have to advertise a lot, Barnum insists. Like knowledge, a little advertising is "a dangerous thing."

"Your object in advertising is to make the public understand what you have got to sell, and if you have not the pluck to keep advertising until you have imparted that information, all the money you have spent is lost."