I'm breaking my promise not to post in this thread...I'll do this just this once...so I apologize beforehand.
I've known several successful entrepreneur's in my lifetime, and they all have a couple traits in common, and one of the most prominent amongst them is the incredible desire to succeed...at all cost. That includes everything, whether it's business, sports, music etc...even a "friendly" game of poker. I grew up relatively poor (although I didn't know it at the time), but always wanted to be the the very best at what ever I decided to do. I came to Hawaii in the 70's to visit my mom before going to college. Within the first week of my visit, I did my first free dive off the cliffs of the south shore of Oahu, which dramatically altered my life's trajectory. I decided to defer going to college for a year; then became involved with some locals and started as a commercial diver spearfisherman., and never went to college...I thought to myself at the time, "what could possibly be a better job than diving and spearing fish for a living"...and I was real good at it. I could spear $400 cash worth of fish in a day, which was good coin back then. After a couple years doing this, I realized this was not sustainable...and having been bit several times by large moray eels, fending off sharks trying to eat your stringer before you can get back to the boat, pulling urchin spines out of my forehead trying to grab lobsters from their holes in the surge, not to mention having to go out in 6-8 foot seas because you needed the money to pay the rent and buy food...I began to think I should do something else.
Long story short...started my own business servicing scuba equipment...expanded to include employees...started consultation biz in the same industry...branched out by writing and teaching service education programs for scuba manufacturers. My industry went through an incredible growth period, followed by a massive contraction. Fortunately I was in a position to invest outside of the industry, and was convinced by my wife to retire early. I offered to sell my business to my lead tech who was with me for 10 years...the offer was very reasonable, and offered an interest free note for 3 years, and would stay on for two years as a consultant at no charge. He turned me down. He told me he didn't want to turn into me...working 70 hours a week, worrying how to make payroll, pay vendors, collect money from delinquent accounts, etc...he knew that I always paid my employees first, vendors second, lease and utilities third...and always myself last. So I found employment for all my employees at their current wage or better, sold off the hard assets of the biz...and closed the doors. Even a decade later, I still pay the registration fees for all the various business entities that I owned just so no one else can claim my business names. I've turned down lucrative offers over the years for just the name of my main business. I still occasionally attend my industry's trade shows to say hi to old friends...and in the back of my mind, I have always regretted closing the doors, and have schemed to get back in, because I miss the game...but then my wife slaps me in the head and says "don't even think about it...
Being an entrepreneur can be very rewarding...but it's not for everyone.
