The Reluctant Entrepreneur: Turning Dreams into Profits

DO YOU NEED THE MINDSET OF A CHAMPION TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS?

Do you have the mindset of a champion?

Are you able to look at your business challenges and feel certain you can overcome them? Do you feel, like Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan must have felt, that you have greatness in your soul?

If your answer is “no,” don’t worry. I don’t have that mindset either.

I never did. I never felt like a natural-born winner. I never had the confidence that the people I admired seemed to have.

I doubted I could ever fully understand anything about business when I started writing about it in 1976. Just back from a two-year stint in the Peace Corps, teaching literature to students in Chad, I got a job with a newsletter called African Business & Trade. I remember looking at that title on the door my first day and thinking, “What is the difference between business and trade?” I learned fast.

My next business-related position was as editorial director for a small publisher in Florida. I had half a dozen freelance writers reporting to me. My job was to edit and polish their work. But I could barely understand what they were talking about––subjects like robotics and professional practice management and agribusiness. How could I presume to tell them what to do? Again, I learned fast.

When I set out to create and market my own investment newsletter, I was nearly paralyzed with fear. I was not just worried about failing. I was sure I would. But my doubtfulness was proven wrong once again. That publication ...