Interview With an Entrepreneur

A. My parents were both entrepreneurs, and the bug bit me when I was 12, and I opened up a popcorn wagon in Wichita, Kansas, at the corner of Kellogg and Bluff. I rented the wagon for $2 and made $16 my first day. (12 hours). From then on, I knew that making money was fun.

Q. Did you ever work for other people?

A. Lots of times. My past is what you could call "checkered." At various times, in between attending college, I worked for a circus, a newspaper in Europe, and as a nurse in Rome.

Q. Did you go to school for entrepreneurship?

A. No. I did go to college and got the requisite degrees. BA. MA. PhD. That segment of my life led to teaching at a college. I taught business communication.

Q. How did you start ASAP Research?

A. The root beginning of the company began in 1980, when I was made editor of Entrepreneur Magazine that specialized in helping people go into business. At that time, the word wasn't as popular, and most newsstands didn't know where to place it [the magazine]. We had a simple editorial concept of "copy success." We would interview companies that had a new or unique business, and write about how they did it. Our advice was very basic, very bottom line. We told people how to hire people. How to fire them. How to market. How to write ads.

Q. So you investigated the businesses and then told others what to do?

A. Yes. And I did that for about eight year

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happy. Q. Do you believe in business plans? A. How can you not? The business plan is the single most important document you can have in your business. That's the biggest mistake that I see young entrepreneurs making. And a business plan is tough. It takes a lot of thinking. A lot of analyzing. Q. What are the best businesses to go into? A. Whenever a student would ask me that, I would always answer "Do what makes you happy." You have to like your business. If you don't, you're dead. And it doesn't have to be a glamour business. You have to love it because you will be there a lot. Q. How did being an entrepreneur affect your life? A. Well, four ex-wives, I smoke too much, I'm overweight, and I've retired 11 times. That says it I think. Q. Are there any attributes necessary to becoming an entrepreneur? A. I would say that you have to be strong-willed. You have to believe in yourself and your idea 1000 percent. Back when I was editor of Entrepreneur, we commissioned a test to see if the entrepreneur traits could be studied and categorized. That was a waste of money. I would say that reading Ayn Rand would help. And Earl Nightingale. And Bob Stone. And Shakespeare. That's because you have to mak
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1844
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)