I was at the gym last night riding a spinning bike and rocking out to music on my IPod when the shuffle brought up Janis Joplin and her version of “Me and Bobby Magee”. As I listened to the song with Janis belting out each line, “Freedom is just another word for nothing else to lose”, struck a chord with me. I had two thoughts actually, the first was that if the government continues along its current path we will all be broke but free; and, the second was that when you don’t have to worry about losing personal possession you do have more freedom to choose.
As a kid I learned this lesson the hard way when on my eighteen birthday I came home to find all my personal possessions out on the street curb. I went into my home to find out what was going on and was told by my mother that I was an adult and must now find my own way in the world. Confused, I gathered my things and set up my new home, a tent, along the banks of the Wapsi River. The next few months were tough, with cold nights and long days. I made it through that time of my life and always held a grudge against my parents for having done that to me. They never explained and never apologized until last year when my mother final spoke about it. She said that her and my father felt that if I learned at an early age that I could survive having lost everything I would be more likely to take risks in life. They were right, I took risks both in my business and personal life and achieved things I never thought imaginable.
While I don’t believe in all the politics of the United States I do appreciate the freedom we have in this country to take an idea and make it a reality. This concept is really the backbone of the US economy with entrepreneurs creating a majority of the job producing businesses. Entrepreneurs are people who are willing to lose it all while taking a risk on an idea. While most of these ideas are destine to failure there are always a few that survive, slowly grow and become the miracle written about in the pages of Inc. Magazine.
Today’s slowly recovering economy is an invitation to all the entrepreneurs out there. You’ve may have lost it all in the last few years, your house to foreclosure, your retirement nest egg in the collapse of the stock market and your job to outsourcing. You now have the freedom to take an idea and try to make it a reality because you do have nothing left to lose. Today could be the day that stronger economic growth will occur, one start-up business at a time. Fortunately there are more resources today then ever to help entrepreneurs be successful. By utilizing the services of attorneys, accountants and consultants they can overcome the pitfalls blocking the path to success. Entrepreneurs, I encourage you to make use of those services as the cost of not using them exceeds the cost of using them and are the difference between failure and success.
Edward Boyle
CEO, Employing Broker
Katchen Company
Katchen Company, founded in 1962, is an integrated real estate company with its corporate headquarters in Lakewood, Colorado. The company offers real estate development, redevelopment, property management, brokerage, consulting services, construction oversight and maintenance services to individual and institutional real estate investors throughout the greater Denver metropolitan area in Denver with satellite offices in Chicago, Las Vegas and Miami market areas.
