What I Learned About Entrepreneurs from the Founder of Monster.com
Brilliant sunsets and stopped up toilets...
As I said, McKelvey kept his yacht in Fort Lauderdale. However, he really liked to spend time on the vessel in the Bahamas, and he took her over whenever he had the time. Besides being a high powered businessman, he was a long-time, dyed-in-the-wool yachtsman. Frequently, he'd ask to have the yacht delivered by her captain to a a port or an anchorage in the Bahamas, and left there for him and his party to use in privacy, with the captain flying back for the interim to Florida.
One long weekend, in just these circumstances, the onboard toilet system became stopped up. (A pretty common occurrence on yachts, whose toilets do not tolerate foreign objects and other kinds of abuse commonly perpetrated on shoreside plumbing with impunity.) In this case, it became a pretty significant problem which, without a captain or paid crew onboard, McKelvey ended up handling by himself.
When Andy returned to NY after the weekend, I was talking to him by telephone. He asked me to have the captain look over the toilet system and have any indicated repair or maintenance performed as soon as practical. I was chagrined that he had dealt with such an unpleasant problem on his own, and I said to him, "Andy, why didn't you call me. Cap'n Rick was on call all weekend, and I could have had him fly out and be onboard in a matter of a few hours. You didn't have to mess with this yourself."
To which he replied, "Phil, that's what yachting is all about, self-reliance. You get the marvelous sunsets and sunrises out there on the ocean...and sometimes you get the stopped up toilets. But it's all part of the package."
Entrepreneurial spirit is bound up with dogged self-reliance...
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Image Credits: Google Images and Phil Friedman
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Comments
Phil Friedman
5 years ago #18
Thanks, Wayne Yoshida, for reading and, as always, for your kind words and support. Cheers, my friend!
Wayne Yoshida
5 years ago #17
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #16
Thanks, Don, for reading and the kind words. Cheers!
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #15
Thank you, Harley, for shaing this piece. Cheers!
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #14
Thank you, Harley, for reading and taking the time to say so. One of the things I tried to show in this piece is that one doesn't become an "entrepreneur" simply by self-designating on social media or by virtue of being unemployed and intending to start a business at some indeterminate time in the future. Cheers!
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #13
Yes, Dennis, there are many entrepreneurs other than Richard Branson. He, however, has one of the best public relations operations around. Cheers!
Phil Friedman
7 years ago #12
Thank you, Candice Galek, for reading and commenting, and for the kind words. I have always felt that this is a piece that is best appreciated by true entrepreneurs and those who have worked with such people. Cheers!
Candice 🐝 Galek
7 years ago #11
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
7 years ago #10
Phil Friedman
8 years ago #9
Thank you, Bali Kamalendu, for reading and commenting, and for the kind words. Cheers!
Phil Friedman
8 years ago #8
Thank you, Andrew Books, from an honorary Cheese Head to a native one. :-) My time in Sturgeon Bay over some six years gave me an appreciated for, among other things, brats, sauer kraut, and Blatz. Cheers!
Phil Friedman
8 years ago #7
Got me there, Paul Croubalian. Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment. Not to mention the very kind words. Cheers!
Phil Friedman
8 years ago #6
Thank you, Julie Hickman, for reading and commenting. I understand what you're saying, and guess that you are a glass-hald-full type of person. As for me, my life and been marked by both my good and my bad bosses -- a few of each variety I shall never forget. Cheers!
Phil Friedman
8 years ago #5
Arnie McKinnis, is that not what beBee is currently doing in developing its "affinity networking" platform, where members can tailor what they are presented with and want actively to see and read, according to their respective individual preferences?
Phil Friedman
8 years ago #4
I agree Julie Hickman, but not just bosses, sometimes employees as well, not to mention teachers, and peers. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Phil Friedman
8 years ago #3
Thank you, Arnie McKinnis, for the kind words. This piece is, indeed, dear to my heart. It is also surrounded by an interesting story, which tells us something (although I am not exactly sure what) about social media and LinkedIn. I first published this article about 18 months ago on LI, where it languished for a while with only a few hundred views. I believe that the piece has something significant to say about entrepreneurs, and I was so disappointed that I complained out loud in a converation in, I think, in the Writing on LinkedIn group. Sometime after that, without my even noticing (because I don't always received notices of comments on even my own articles) it was picked up by the Entrepreneurship feature channel on Pulese. After which, it slowly climbed to over 2k views and a couple hundred like and comments. Today, I polished it up a bit, and re-published it here on beBee, where it is getting a fair amount of play. And ironically, since I shared it back from beBee to LinkedIn, it is now being noticed on LI at a higher rate than originally,. I have two takeaways from all of this. 1) Organic distribution on LI is hampered by its algorithm, which apparently doesn't choke down outside pieces as much as homegrown ones. 2) The relatively low level of interest shown on LI confirms for me my suspicion that most of the members on LI who claim to be entrepreneurs are not really, and have no interest in reading about a real entrepreneur -- but would rather read insipid pieces on how to be a leader. thought disruptor, and social visionary.
Phil Friedman
8 years ago #2
Thanks for the kind words, Jim Murray. I first published this a while back, after having submitted it to a couple of "business oriented" online blog sites, but with no takers. I inferred they didn't want to hear from anyone who actually had direct experience with a major entrepreneur. But I think I'll have another go at it.
Jim Murray
8 years ago #1