How to Protect Yourself From Obamacare

[nathanm]

Sometimes I wonder how people managed to find themselves in a position where they own a business when even simple logic and reason seem to escape them.

[AquaMan]

Sometimes I wonder how people managed to find themselves in a position where they own a business when even simple logic and reason seem to escape them.

I used to call on a lot of businessmen when I sold Yellow Pages ads. The few things all the salespeople agreed on was:
    
     -There was absolutely no relationship between the success of a business and the knowledge/ability of the business owner.

     -There was a distinct relationship between naked ambition, aggressive lack of ethics, visible excess and the success of a business.

     -Family businesses have a better chance than most even with the constant bickering.

     -The final element was that even when successful, few businesses last very long.

When I watched Arrow Trucking's demise it seemed normal to me. I know that will upset a lot of those who buy into  the latest "made it myself" mantra. Just speaking from experience.

[Gaspar]

I used to call on a lot of businessmen when I sold Yellow Pages ads. The few things all the salespeople agreed on was:
    
     -There was absolutely no relationship between the success of a business and the knowledge/ability of the business owner.

     -There was a distinct relationship between naked ambition, aggressive lack of ethics, visible excess and the success of a business.

     -Family businesses have a better chance than most even with the constant bickering.

     -The final element was that even when successful, few businesses last very long.

When I watched Arrow Trucking's demise it seemed normal to me. I know that will upset a lot of those who buy into  the latest "made it myself" mantra. Just speaking from experience.

Never met any of those people.

Everyone i've ever worked for has been a 7am to 10pm owner.  The businesses my wife and I have owned have nearly destroyed us. 
 
Your hatred of hard work and success colors . . .well, everything.

The sacrifice of time, energy, and sanity that my current employers endure is unimaginable. 

Your post is insulting.

[AquaMan]

Never met any of those people.

Everyone i've ever worked for has been a 7am to 10pm owner.  The businesses my wife and I have owned have nearly destroyed us.  
  
Your hatred of hard work and success colors . . .well, everything.

The sacrifice of time, energy, and sanity that my current employers endure is unimaginable.  

Your post is insulting.

That's a compliment coming from you.  "You ain't been around much, have ya boy?" Anyone involved with starting or running a business knows that time spent on a business is not as important as spending time well. Often, long hours are spent as a refuge from the rest of your life.

You think I should just ignore my hard earned experience in dealing with moron's like you because it doesn't comport with your view? Not going to happen. Express your experience if it differs from mine, but to impugn my work ethic because of your politics is infantile.

note: I have started or been a part of starting, three different businesses. I worked another job while starting one of them which meant 12 hour days and 7day committments. The one I spent the least time operating was the most successful because it involved new technology and came at a time that I had perspective and lots of ambition. The one I loved the most, and which bankrupted me, I spent so much time on that I was close to divorce and suicide. It took a decade to recover. I would still go back and do it again. Had it not been for many kindly old bankers, former business associates and failed businessmen who shared with me their wisdom, I wouldn't be posting anywhere.

[Gaspar]

That's a compliment coming from you.  "You ain't been around much, have ya boy?" Anyone involved with starting or running a business knows that time spent on a business is not as important as spending time well. Often, long hours are spent as a refuge from the rest of your life.

You think I should just ignore my hard earned experience in dealing with moron's like you because it doesn't comport with your view? Not going to happen. Express your experience if it differs from mine, but to impugn my work ethic because of your politics is infantile.

note: I have started or been a part of starting, three different businesses. I worked another job while starting one of them which meant 12 hour days and 7day committments. The one I spent the least time operating was the most successful because it involved new technology and came at a time that I had perspective and lots of ambition. The one I loved the most, and which bankrupted me, I spent so much time on that I was close to divorce and suicide. It took a decade to recover. I would still go back and do it again. Had it not been for many kindly old bankers, former business associates and failed businessmen who shared with me their wisdom, I wouldn't be posting anywhere.

You are correct.  I count myself as young and I thank God that I have not been put in the circumstances that you have.  They have obviously colored your view of the world.  Whether that is good or bad is a matter of opinion.

I've also started several businesses and many have failed.  I work for a wonderful group of people and am currently partner in another business as well as being an investor in two start-ups.

I admire hard work and see it as the vehicle to success.  I also admire risk, and the willingness to sacrifice now for what could be tomorrow.  To generalize successful business people as lacking ethics is what I am offended by. 

[AquaMan]

You are correct.  I count myself as young and I thank God that I have not been put in the circumstances that you have.  They have obviously colored your view of the world.  Whether that is good or bad is a matter of opinion.

I've also started several businesses and many have failed.  I work for a wonderful group of people and am currently partner in another business as well as being an investor in two start-ups.

I admire hard work and see it as the vehicle to success.  I also admire risk, and the willingness to sacrifice now for what could be tomorrow.  To generalize successful business people as lacking ethics is what I am offended by. 

I put myself in those circumstances. They educated me more than any masters degree program would have. FWIW, I think you're wise to go the investor route.

It is not generalizing to make note that there is no particular relationship between knowing what you're doing, hard work, sacrifice, ethical behavior and success. I have found that there are those who possess all those characteristics and succeed. There are those who possess all those and fail. So, there must be other criteria in play.

We did find more success among those who had little reason to be successful. Lazy, indulgent, socially boorish but successful.  Real money makers. Like my second business, they had found a particular niche, a particular time, a particularly important relationship and acted upon their basest desires. Experience was helpful but not critical and not as important as insider status.

Those are the keys for most small businesses imo. Timing, creativity, relationships and action (and a good lawyer and CPA of course). Once established they had no qualms about doing whatever necessary to retain that success. But what brought them to success rarely kept them that way. We watched as egos, divorce, philandering, drug and alcohol use, gambling and tax evasion winnowed the field so that more legitimate businessmen could step in, like the guys you work with and for.

I'm sorry the real world of small business is offensive to you. I am just a messenger conveying a reality that I experienced. I could be colored crazy by it but if so I have found plenty of comrades similarly colored. When you have called on hundreds of businesses in a variety of fields and come up with a different reality, feel free to share.

[Gaspar]

Obamacare = slavery?
http://blog.beaumontenterprise.com/bayou/2012/07/31/beaumont-biz-owner-obamacare-slavery/

Hmmm.  If Obamacare = slavery, shouldn't there be a plantation somewhere.... oh, wait... here we go...


Location: Stonegate Road, Louisville, KY
Square Feet: 40,000

This 40,000 square foot mega-mansion is owned by John Schnatter. Schnatter is the founder, chairman, and CEO of the Papa John's pizza chain. The castle-like mansion was designed by Don Evans, an Orlando architect. It also has a multilevel subterranean garage with 22 parking spaces, an office for valet parking, a built-in car wash and a giant motorized turntable to help move limousines. It is divided into 14 parking spaces for the family on one level and eight spaces for guests on another, with an elevator between the two floors. John had a net worth of $402.6 million back in 2006, a figure that has definitely risen over recent years.
 

I can only admire this man.  He is an example for me, for my children and perhaps for their children.  This is the American dream.

In 1983, at the age of 22, Schnatter started delivering pizza out of his father's co-owned tavern in Jeffersonville, Indiana. In the same year, he sold his 1971 Camaro Z28 to purchase the other half of the tavern in what became his family's first "pizza place."

John Schnatter is a resident and owns about 6% of the land in Anchorage, Kentucky, including much of the city center. He restored an interurban rail station, three historic buildings and built a fourth in a similar style in the city's center, with plans to build a bank, an upscale restaurant, and a hiking trail, which opened as the Anchorage Trail in June 2008.

On August 26, 2009, Schnatter purchased his Camaro back for $250,000. In celebration, Papa John's offered a free pizza to anyone who owned a Camaro. The actual Camaro is on display in the Company's headquarter's in Louisville, Kentucky. The company owns several replicas that are used on tours and for public and TV appearances.

He currently employs 16,000 people.

Property is the fruit of labor. Property is desirable, is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently to build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence. – Abraham Lincoln

[Townsend]

The Blaze's story that the pools are filled with the tears of his victims is disturbing.

[Gaspar]

The Blaze's story that the pools are filled with the tears of his victims is disturbing.

Garlic dipping sauce.

[Townsend]

Garlic dipping sauce.

You don't want to know...

[erfalf]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdnY8r7_fLw[/youtube]

Whatever the "facts" are about ACA, this is still funny (and true).

[nathanm]

You have a bizarre sense of humor. That's OK, though, most people don't even realize I have one.

[erfalf]

You have a bizarre sense of humor. That's OK, though, most people don't even realize I have one.

It reminded me of something Reagan would say. I know that's cheesy, but he had a knack for pointing out the obvious. Traits that normal "folks" would understand if it were done in the real world, not in bizarro world/D.C.

[nathanm]

Reagan would have been more likely to use actual facts rather than Fox News talking points, however.

[erfalf]

Reagan would have been more likely to use actual facts rather than Fox News talking points, however.

What exactly are the talking points? Everything she mentioned was common knowledge. It's just that when you put it all together, it sounds ludicrous.