> The concept of entrepreneurism as a small-time life-style has evaporated from the culture, and now entrepreneur and start-up means “get big fast.”
No. Get yourself out of the filter bubble, because it is seriously warping your understanding of the world.
There are still orders of magnitude more "small-time" start-up businesses in the world than "get big fast" start-up businesses. Your town probably has dozens of them: they're restaurants, roofing companies, independent tradesman, etc. Those people are all doing exactly what you're talking about.
When you tell people you are doing a start-up it is deeply implied you're doing something with the hopes of hitting it big. Because if it wasn't you would just tell them you "run a roofing company" or are "an electrician" or "sell stationary on the internet"
A start-up, even to non-technicals, connotes an attempt to hit it big.
Careful. Your valid point is one KK is making too by recommending this book. He's just setting the stage by contrasting this approach with how 'start-up' has come to be associated with "get big fast" in our tech world.
I spent the better part of high school with a copy of Lancaster's TTL Cookbook in hand (still have my dog-eared copy). Then as an undergrad in 78 I re-read this primer for success. While I was more inclined towards the 'enterprise' track, this book nonetheless helped shape my attitude about money, time, and purpose. I can't recall another book that combined (good) advice regarding cashflow, always giving customers something extra, working with your body's natural cycles of energy, retirement funding, and "modifying a television set for a better money machine" (by cutting the cord and throwing it away). Still a worthwhile read, IMO.
Oh! The book is by Don Lancaster! I missed that. His electronics books were a key part of my self-education in the early 80s, as I'm sure they were for a lot of computery types my age. Guy is a hacker in the most hackerist sense possible.
I remember reading his Hardware Hacker column in Radio-Electronics magazine. I recall an article from 1989 where he described how to build a 3D printer using a UV-sensitive resin. 1989!
Wow, now that's an old book by a real guy who could breadboard TTL chips into the equivalent of a graphics card at that time. Sort of another Wozniak, though that kind of bare metal knowledge was expected of all EE's.
What he has to say is not compatible with the current pop culture "startup" hype but it's still valid.
One thing also mentioned is correct: when you're in business, sometimes you get more than you expected, just for showing up. That very rarely happens in a regular "job."
"""Employees are a hassle, a waste of time and ploney and a psychic
energy sink. You should avoid them at all costs.
Your incredible secret money machine should have 0.834 employees-that
is 83.4 percent of you, nothing more,no less. The remaining
16.6 percent of you should go for fun and rewind time"""
For most businesses, this idea is a little too hippy/artisan from my experience.
If the product is mostly YOU, you're going to burn out if you refuse to hire anyone to do those repetitive tasks that many, many other people can do for a modest wage.
For example only: you ship something physical, do you really want to spend 1/3 of your day, every day, forever, boxing up product and taking it to the post office?
If you've ever offered phone support, you know what I'm talking about too.
Over the years, I have seen hundreds of examples of money machine people being severely done in by the patent system. Even murdered by it in several heart-attack-during-litigation cases. And not once did I see anyone approaching the patent system on a small scale basis and profiting from it. Ever. Once again: Unless you are well within a Fortune 500 context, any and all involvement in the patent system in any, shape, or form is absolutely certain to cause you the net loss of time, energy, money, and sanity. Besides ending up a totally useless and utterly unnecessary psychic energy sink.
Maybe the pdf has more information about building machines that either singularly or at least collectively are resilient to patent attacks.
The PDF is free. Kevin Kelly wrote "If I had to sum up this book in my own words it would be: If you are willing to build your business on expertise, you can make a living instead of making a fortune--and occasionally the fortune comes anyway."
This is a great read, it talks to me, I've run my computer business like this and it's certainly worked as well as some friends who have taken great jobs, and had them taken. At least my way I create my own failures, there is something satisfying in that even if it does not always result in a lavish lifestyle.
I've read the book (and TTL Cookbook, of course) and met Don Lancaster a couple of times at social gatherings.
I think the biggest message of this book is how to bootstrap yourself in making money doing something you love to do. This book is important because it shows how Lancaster (and many people who have read this book) went from a "you can't get there from here" position to doing what they love. You don't have to be a hippy or limit yourself to a lifestyle business to make use of the knowledge in this book.
Reading through the intro, he managed to get some things right and some things horribly wrong. Predictions from 1992 of technologies that would fail : solid state cooling, QWERTY alternatives, touch screens, NeXT computers, UNIX, TrueType, DVI video & Teletext.
The concept of entrepreneurism as a small-time life-style has evaporated from the culture, and now entrepreneur and start-up means “get big fast.”
I dunno... I guess it depends on what filter bubble you live in and what echo chamber you participate in, and any number of other factors, but my feeling has been that, yes, "startup" - as opposed to "small busines" - does mean a business that's intended to grow very big (not necessarily fast though) and is more in the mold of your typical Silicon Valley "startup". OTOH, I've always perceived that people use the term "entrepreneur" to refer to anyone from a one man plumbing company, to a startup that's aiming to be the next Facebook. "Entrepreneur" to me includes mom and pop restaurants, tradesmen of various kinds, small consulting companies, whatever.
But, in either case, regardless of how the terminology has been changed over time, the idea of "entrepreneurship as a small-time life-style" clearly still exists. Maybe now people use the term "lifestyle business" but who really cares about the label?
Every entrepreneur needs to make a decision before setting out - what is your goal? Is it to get rich or is it a better lifestyle through a job you love to do every day? Sometimes, rarely, these two meet. But there is a big difference between a lifestyle business and a growth business. Paul Hawken wrote a book about this particular subject and focused on the the lifestyle business - ones that grow slowly and are more about the lifestyle of the owner than reaping massive profits. These tend to be smaller businesses with one1
I fall on the growth side right now. My lifestyle suffers greatly because I'm working so much. Hopefully that will change one day when I make my riches (LOL). But one day I will "retire" into a lifestyle business of some sort. I was thinking renting jet skis at the beach would be cool.
Growing a Business [1] is the book you're talking about it. I picked it up on a whim from a book sale a couple years ago and it was an interesting read. Like this one, some things are fairly outdated (talks a fair bit about catalog sales), but overall pretty sound advice for building a sustainable business.
I have read the book (paper copy) and recommend it. It is a relatively quick read, you can knock it out over three cups of coffee at a coffee shop on a Saturday afternoon or on a medium length plane flight, and I think most people would benefit from it and feel inspired.
Yes, I read Lancaster's book back when it was published. It's crushingly out of date in today's world, however. No sane person in 2013 will subject him/herself and family to the risks of operating any business as a sole proprietorship or even a partnership. Get a freaking lawyer and accountant and buy business insurance. Do it right or don't do it!
[+] [-] ef4|13 years ago|reply
No. Get yourself out of the filter bubble, because it is seriously warping your understanding of the world.
There are still orders of magnitude more "small-time" start-up businesses in the world than "get big fast" start-up businesses. Your town probably has dozens of them: they're restaurants, roofing companies, independent tradesman, etc. Those people are all doing exactly what you're talking about.
[+] [-] hemancuso|13 years ago|reply
When you tell people you are doing a start-up it is deeply implied you're doing something with the hopes of hitting it big. Because if it wasn't you would just tell them you "run a roofing company" or are "an electrician" or "sell stationary on the internet"
A start-up, even to non-technicals, connotes an attempt to hit it big.
[+] [-] kjhughes|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pardner|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] waterlesscloud|13 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Lancaster
[+] [-] softbuilder|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kjhughes|13 years ago|reply
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...
And the direct link to the "Incredible Secret Money Making Machine" by Don Lancaster:
http://www.tinaja.com/ebooks/ismm.pdf
I'm considering whether this might be a good business read for middle/high schoolers.
[+] [-] bkeating|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] OldSchool|13 years ago|reply
What he has to say is not compatible with the current pop culture "startup" hype but it's still valid.
One thing also mentioned is correct: when you're in business, sometimes you get more than you expected, just for showing up. That very rarely happens in a regular "job."
[+] [-] CamperBob2|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] metaperl|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] OldSchool|13 years ago|reply
If the product is mostly YOU, you're going to burn out if you refuse to hire anyone to do those repetitive tasks that many, many other people can do for a modest wage.
For example only: you ship something physical, do you really want to spend 1/3 of your day, every day, forever, boxing up product and taking it to the post office?
If you've ever offered phone support, you know what I'm talking about too.
[+] [-] noonespecial|13 years ago|reply
http://www.tinaja.com/pasamp1.shtml
[+] [-] adolph|13 years ago|reply
Over the years, I have seen hundreds of examples of money machine people being severely done in by the patent system. Even murdered by it in several heart-attack-during-litigation cases. And not once did I see anyone approaching the patent system on a small scale basis and profiting from it. Ever. Once again: Unless you are well within a Fortune 500 context, any and all involvement in the patent system in any, shape, or form is absolutely certain to cause you the net loss of time, energy, money, and sanity. Besides ending up a totally useless and utterly unnecessary psychic energy sink.
Maybe the pdf has more information about building machines that either singularly or at least collectively are resilient to patent attacks.
[+] [-] andrewl|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tudorw|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dwc|13 years ago|reply
I think the biggest message of this book is how to bootstrap yourself in making money doing something you love to do. This book is important because it shows how Lancaster (and many people who have read this book) went from a "you can't get there from here" position to doing what they love. You don't have to be a hippy or limit yourself to a lifestyle business to make use of the knowledge in this book.
[+] [-] juan_juarez|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mindcrime|13 years ago|reply
I dunno... I guess it depends on what filter bubble you live in and what echo chamber you participate in, and any number of other factors, but my feeling has been that, yes, "startup" - as opposed to "small busines" - does mean a business that's intended to grow very big (not necessarily fast though) and is more in the mold of your typical Silicon Valley "startup". OTOH, I've always perceived that people use the term "entrepreneur" to refer to anyone from a one man plumbing company, to a startup that's aiming to be the next Facebook. "Entrepreneur" to me includes mom and pop restaurants, tradesmen of various kinds, small consulting companies, whatever.
But, in either case, regardless of how the terminology has been changed over time, the idea of "entrepreneurship as a small-time life-style" clearly still exists. Maybe now people use the term "lifestyle business" but who really cares about the label?
[+] [-] ianstallings|13 years ago|reply
I fall on the growth side right now. My lifestyle suffers greatly because I'm working so much. Hopefully that will change one day when I make my riches (LOL). But one day I will "retire" into a lifestyle business of some sort. I was thinking renting jet skis at the beach would be cool.
[+] [-] retroafroman|13 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Business-Paul-Hawken/dp/067167...
[+] [-] RobGR|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
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