Moonshine – The Ultimate Bootstrapped Biz

I am becoming a fan of this website – The Art of Manliness – because it is entertaining and a good source of manly content. This post about a bootstrapped moonshine business for is a great story of business success.

Popcorn Sutton

This article posted there chronicling the one year business journey from idea to product launch is truly inspirational.

I’m not talking about illicit liquor, but a new cologne by three guys that challenged each other and brought their idea to market.  It takes chutzpah to follow your ideas.  And, it takes more to become a success.  The story got me thinking right away about all of my hair brained ideas.  Most of my entrepreneurial success has really been as an intrepreneur (entrepreneurial activities within an organization) = Less risk and less reward.  But, I have other ideas simmering that may one day allow me to test the more dangerous entrepreneurial waters.

 

7 Surprising Reasons The West Won

Niall Ferguson lists 6 reasons western societies with 19% of global population controlled 75% of the world’s resources.  I think he missed one of the reasons the west won.

Niall’s 6

  1. Competition – Many corporations, similar to the City of London Corporation in the 12th Century, along other governments were competing with one another.  Think about the number of western European languages spoken around the world today due to colonization.
  2. The Scientific Revolution – while we all know gun powder came to Europe from China, it was the Europeans that continued to experiment with it and mash together multiple scientific disciplines in order to improve it.  Niall’s example is a German using Newtonian physics to improve the accuracy of bombs.
  3. Property Rights – I think this is probably one of the most fundamental rights in American history that contributed to stability and growth of the middle class.  Even the poorest could own property which might remain for generations.  Though, many injustices occurred over property disputes, those legal protections help the poorest prevail against the richest.
  4. Modern Medicine – ensuring people lived longer, healthier, and productive lives.  Imagine the additional productivity of one person by nearly doubling their life expectancy.  Just the simple act of surgeons washing their hands before getting elbow deep into another person’s abdomen probably saved a few million lives.
  5. The Consumer Society – Henry Ford paid much higher wages than other manufacturers at the time.  He wanted Ford employees to afford Model Ts which in turn kept demand high for his product.  For all the benefits of consumerism, there lurk many dangers as 2008 proved.  The rising middle class in China and India creates demand for high-end western luxuries, but desires in the west for those goods at ever cheaper prices led to the decline of manufacturing in the west.
  6. Work Ethic – Western society’s work ethic turned virgin soil into vast acres of corn, cotton, tobacco and grazing land.  Now the Native Americans that provided the seeds for tobacco and corn to the newcomers were equally (if not more) successful than Europeans at growing these crops.  The difference was profit versus subsistence.  It was the European demand for tobacco that encouraged a strong work ethic.  Niall uses the examples of North and South Korea along with East and West Germany.  The communist state produces markedly less quantity and quality than do non-communist states.

The One He Missed

  1. Why? – I suppose you could lump this into the scientific revolution above, but really this is the ability to question authority, as well as, the desire to understand the reason an apple feels compelled to hurl itself toward earth.  The inalienable rights of mankind to desire freedom and reject tyranny led to asking why.  I think some of the basic tenets of Christianity contributed to this enlightened thought.  Even though Catholicism suppressed western society for centuries, once peasants demanded the right to read and interpret the bible for themselves, The Church’s strangle hold loosened forever.

Niall fears (as do I) that the rest of the world will quickly catch up and overtake western society, but it is not too late.  While governments are slow to react and bogged down in squabbles over Keynesian economics, we must act now to prepare our kids for challenges of the 21st century.  Mark Twain said, he never let his education get in the way of his learning.  Join me in teaching our children to be creative problem solvers that bravely seek answers to WHY.

Teach Them To Fish

Thom Rhue (aka @thomatkauffman)  is Making a List about the entrepreneurial teaching endeavors of the Kauffman Foundation and it’s partners.  I am intrigued with everything they are doing including the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW).  I aspire to contribute to this effort in the future.

Teach them to fish!

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Confident Women Built Here

I am thinking about how confident women are built just days before my little girl joins our family. How do I ensure she becomes a future leader?  I just read Marshall Goldsmith’s blog post interviewing Girl Scouts former CEO Kathy Cloninger.

Marshall asks Kathy about the results of a study on the leadership aspirations of girls.  Most were ambivalent about the current command and control leadership most prevalent in our society.  A fact that most enlightened leaders already understand. Interestingly, most of the female business executives and business owners in the US (80%) are former Girl Scouts; as are more than 65% of the female members of the US Congress and Senate.  Clearly Girl Scouts are developing valuable leadership skills in young women.

What else can we do to help our young girls become confident strong leaders?

“Indie” Capitalism or Back to Basics

Terrific Article by Bruce Nussbaum and exactly the trend I see. I want to capitalize on this for my kids.  Entrepreneurs or Makers are on the rise.  People don’t want to be employees.  While that is nothing new and the whole point of enlightened leadership is to empower teams to take ownership.  This is nonetheless a rewarding path that frees our kids from the tyranny of crony capitalism and mass consumerism.

Kids Want To Be Entrepreneurs

Image via Ivestopedia

Kid Entrepreneurs

A report by the Kauffman Foundation confirms 40% of 8-24 year old youth would like to be kid entrepreneurs or adult entrepreneurs instead of employees. The 2010 study shows a slight increase over the 2007 survey.

It could be that today’s wannabe entrepreneurs have more high-profile Internet kid entrepreneurs to encourage them.  Perhaps, they also recognize that the knowledge and tools to create wealth are more readily available than at any other time in human history.

Whatever the reason this is a great trend for the USA, as well as the globe.  Maybe one day we’ll all be working for our kids.

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