Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Jim Blasingame

Sustained small business success requires two kinds of passion

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Over the years, when I’ve counseled budding entrepreneurs about their startup plans, the exuding passion would often seem to override the imperative of knowing how to operate and sustain their baby. Indeed, they often act as if they must get their business started right now or they would just pop.

Of course, that kind of impatience and lack of discipline is dangerous, and I would do my best to talk these starry-eyed startups down off the ledge. The trick is to walk the fine line between slowing them down to the speed of prudence without dousing the fire of their entrepreneurial passion with a bucket of tough love.

Yes, passion is important.

When would-be small business owners get that far away look in their eyes at the impetuous startup stage, they have plenty of what I call market passion: passion for what the business does. They can’t wait to sell suits, manufacture motors, bake bagels, or (your dream here). But without full devotion to what I call “operating passion” – aka, business fundamentals – market passion will find itself with a dangerous critical mass deficit. Or as they say in Texas, “All hat and no cattle.”

This will be on the test: Success as a small business owner requires evidence and application of both market and operating passion.

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A father’s tough love is the harder job

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As the father of an adult daughter and son, plus the grandfather of four knucklehead boys (Hurricane, Tornado, Crash and Train Wreck), I’ve learned some things about love.

All the hours logged as Dad and Poppy have often caused me to contemplate how different are the roles of mother and father, especially in the overt demonstration of parental love. It’s fascinating how the manifestation of this love differs between mother and father – biologically, emotionally and experientially.

A mother’s love, at once sweet and fierce, is observed in almost all animals, not just humans. No doubt you’ve heard this metaphor: “… as sweet as a mother’s love,” and this warning: “Don’t get between a momma bear and her cub.” I’ve witnessed and been the happy recipient of this kind of love, and there truly is no other force in nature like it.

A human father’s love, on the other hand, is more often associated with words that are unfortunate, like “tough” and “discipline.” Here’s a warning no one has ever heard: “Just wait ’til your mother gets home!” As a teenager, my dad once – and only once – apologized to me when he thought his demonstration of paternal love might have seemed “hard-boiled.” It did.

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Entrepreneurial intangibles are essential to tangible success

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Now in my fourth decade as a business owner, this Baby Boomer has been reflecting on what’s been learned that would benefit the next generation of entrepreneurs.

It’s understandable to focus most of our attention on the many hard fundamentals of how to sustain a successful small business operation. But after logging many hours in that tangible mode, you’ll discover that it’s just as critical to respect the softer entrepreneurial intangibles that tend to the human being behind the venture. And those who recognize and incorporate these in their approach to ownership are more likely to achieve that elusive holy grail of human intangibles: happiness.

In that spirit, allow me to offer two intangibles that are just as essential to business success as cash flow and profitability:

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Thirty years of living by my wits

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It was a Monday morning – 8:30 to be exact – when the phone rang. I was the national sales manager for a publishing company, working out of my home office.

As a high school senior, I was the only member of my class to have what was essentially a full-time job. For the next 20 years, from flipping burgers to the C-Suite, I was never unemployed, even during the recessions of 1969, 1974, 1981 and 1983. But that all changed when, in 1988, I lost my VP job as my employer downsized itself, eventually to nothing. So, the irony wasn’t lost on me when I attended my 20-year high school reunion unemployed.

Back to that phone call. It was May 22, 1989, and my boss on the other end explained that the company had a new plan, but I wasn’t part of it. So, if you’re scoring at home, that was me getting fired, sacked, canned, downsized, (your unemployment idiom here) twice – in 1988 and 1989.

After hanging up the phone at 8:35, for about three seconds my first thought was to dust off my resume and hit the bricks. Two teenagers and two mortgages are strong motivators. But then, thinking out loud, said: “I don’t need any help screwing up my life, I can do that by myself.” So, I addressed the keyboard and gave birth to my new business, “Jim Blasingame and Associates, Business Consultants.” My “Associates” at that moment were a Macintosh Plus and a laser printer.

Thirty years later, a period that included a second entrepreneurial reinvention, I think I can declare myself a successful business owner. A professor friend of mine describes me this way: “My friend Jim is a small business owner; he lives by his wits.” No doubt you know how accurate that is.

What’s the big takeaway as I celebrate my business’s 30th anniversary?

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Remembering America’s Militia on Memorial Day

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Reasonable people disagree on the exact origins of what is now called Memorial Day. But most accept that the practice of decorating the graves of Americans who died defending their country began in earnest by women of the South during and following the Civil War.

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, National Commander of the Army of the Republic, was the first to make Memorial Day official. With General Order No. 11, he stated in part that, “the 30th day of May 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country.”

Since then, other than Congress making it a national holiday and changing the date to the last Monday in May, America has honored its fallen heroes from all conflicts in pretty much the manner that General Logan anticipated in the language of his order, whereby “posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.”

When America issued its first call to arms – before it was a country, before there was a standing professional army – the call went to the militia, which was identified as “all able-bodied men.” Calling themselves the “Minutemen,” because they could be ready to fight on a minute’s notice, they were primarily shopkeepers, craftsmen, farmers, etc. Today, we call them small business owners.

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Patience is not standard equipment on entrepreneurs

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One of the markers of American culture is the “sticker” on the window of a new car. This document reveals to shoppers a listing of standard equipment and options, plus, of course, the manufacturer’s suggested retail price or MSRP.

But what if someone is shopping for an entrepreneur to work for? That may sound silly, but prospective employees do it all the time out here on Main Street. And yes, the money comes into play, but these days, increasingly, it’s the list of “equipment.”

A prospective team member would be justified in expecting the list of entrepreneurial standard equipment to include characteristics like courage, creativity, perseverance and adaptability. Innovative, creative, and visionary are other important line-items. One of the newer expectations increasingly prominent here on the threshold of the third decade of the 21st century is values. What are the values of this prospective entrepreneur/founder/employer? What do this business and its founder stand for?

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