“When the Mayflower hit the beach somebody had to jump off first.” Karl Vesper Our learned folk over the past century have managed to box small business owners into a compartment labeled ” greedy, non-intellectual, with shallow tastes, mundane interests, and are boring souls” What a shame! Our literary giants, such as, Sinclair Lewis, Arthur Miller, F. Scott Fitzgerald, to list a few, have portrayed business owners as characters with wasted lives chasing dollars and deals but nothing intellectually worthwhile or socially redeeming. This below the surface anti-business agenda, by these not impartial thinkers, has spilled into the college and university classroom –even into our business schools. Unlike many of the other professions such as law or medicine, where teaching and practicing are the norm, the subject of business is most often taught by professors who have not spent a day in the business world. And certainly not a day in the frustrating task of launching a new business. Even among the business faculty that populate our universities, the boring details of running a small business is looked upon as vocational training anyone can master and even questionable as a subject to be worthy of a college classroom- intellectual snobbery at its best. Well let me tell those who think as such- how wrong you are. Starting and owning a small business is a challenging undertaking – one in which most fail, yes fail. And they do so as it has been fictionalized as a task anyone with a few dollars to invest and a salesperson’s touch can pull off. Oh, if they only knew about the worry, the frustration, the days of daily problems, the fear of failing, the lack of time to smell the roses, and the odds of making it, they might treat the creation of a business with the same respect as the person who hits the keyboard to write the next “Da Vinci Code.” Somehow, the buying and selling of goods along with hiring people to do their bidding borders on “dumb work,” nothing worthwhile or intellectually stimulating. Have you heard of "Walden’s Pond" by Henry David Thoreau? Take a course in American Literature and you will. The profs will rave about his casting all material comforts aside and living in the woods in a small cabin in a simple manner to find the meaning of live. What they will not tell you is that this young man went home everyday for lunch and took his laundry to his mother. So much for finding the meaning of live through self-denial. It is a mistake to view the small business owner or entrepreneur in your neighborhood as a bland person wasting his or her life chasing dollars-omitting self-sacrifice and not leaving anything for the good of mankind. Every business giant started out as a small business. Some became giants creating wealth, employing thousands, while donating millions to the arts to enrich the cultural lives of all of us. How many public libraries did Andrew Carnegie pay for? Yes, I know, the Enrons somehow slip in and do their damage, but think about this, they do not last, and eventually file for bankruptcy. The management of these greedy and dishonest corporations, did not respect the “profession” of business and once in power treated the money and human resources as a game of chance. Any small business owner that intends to be around for many a year, must be a talented soul. He or she must understand money, people, and their own limitations. They must have the ability to focus on their goals, the ability to withstand the emotional challenges, the strength to withstand disappointment, the foresight to sense the next generation of opportunities. They must understand and master the details of accounting, the ability to manage others, the stamina to sell their wares with ongoing enthusiasm. And the ability to master these tasks, meet all these demands, while saving a few hours and emotions to smell the roses with their families. Small business owners do not punch a time card. And if they don’t like what they do, they cannot abruptly quit. Yes, our entrepreneurs are a brave lot and the only reward possible is staying in business and you stay in business only if you make a profit. That is not greed but talent! With our technology and the ongoing globalization, business is a complex and progressive profession. Those who teach and promote entrepreneurship should stop the snake oil presentations and prepare those who want to be true entrepreneurs to meet the challenges and offer warnings to those who think success is assured and requires a partime effort for full time winnings. If life were only that simple and success that easy for all of us. Dr. Paul E Adams, Professor Emeritus Business Administration Ramapo College of New Jersey Author “ Fail Proof Your Business: Beat the Odds and be Successful.” Available at Amazon.Com If you have questions about your business- contact me: drfailproof@earthlink.net